This bill amends an existing licensing statute (RCW 18.225.090) to set detailed education, examination, supervised experience, supervision type, and continuing education requirements for four behavioral health license types: licensed advanced social worker, licensed independent clinical social worker, licensed mental health counselor, and licensed marriage and family therapist. It directs the secretary to issue a license to any applicant who demonstrates the specified requirements and directs the department to adopt rules defining adequate proof that an applicant meets those criteria. It also requires the committee to be consulted for continuing education rulemaking. The changes are procedural and substantive licensing requirements rather than criminal penalties. They specify minimum total supervised experience hours, minimum direct client contact hours, breakdowns of one-to-one and group supervision hours, qualifications for approved supervisors, required examinations (with an option for enhanced supervision in lieu of an examination for the licensed independent clinical social worker), and minimum continuing education including professional ethics. The law also provides that only the rules in effect on the date a completed application by an associate is submitted may be applied to that application, and applicants remain subject to existing grounds for denial or conditional licenses under chapter 18.130 RCW. The amendment also references the counseling compact under chapter 18.17 RCW. The extracted text does not identify which specific office is meant by "secretary" or which "department" is referenced, does not define the term "associate," and contains an apparent edit marker around an examination requirement that is not explained. Other sections of the bill or additional definitions and implementation details, if any, are not included in the provided material.

If enacted, the law creates clear, specific training and supervision requirements for four mental health license types (advanced social worker, independent clinical social worker, mental health counselor, and marriage and family therapist) — each requires roughly 3,000 hours of supervised experience, minimum amounts of direct client contact, designated amounts and types of supervision, educational coursework or degree thresholds, passing approved exams in most cases (with a supervised alternative available instead of the LICSW exam), and continuing education including ethics. Practically, applicants will have to plan for and document substantial supervised hours with supervisors who meet license-and-experience tests, while the licensing office must adopt rules about what counts as proof and must apply the rules in effect when a completed application is submitted, giving applicants stability if rules change during processing. The people most affected are license candidates and the licensed practitioners who supervise them: candidates will face time and likely cost burdens to complete the specified hours and coursework and to take required exams (or secure enhanced supervision and an attestation instead of the LICSW exam), and supervisors must meet experience requirements and provide documented supervision. The department or secretary will need to write proof and continuing-education rules and manage administrative workload; the text does not identify which office that is, how fees or enforcement will be handled, or other implementation details, so some practical costs and timelines remain uncertain.