Transfer Your Counseling License to District of Columbia: Reciprocity & Endorsement (2026)

District of Columbia has passed the Counseling Compact into law, and its board may describe the state as having joined, but as of 2026-10-29 it was not issuing or accepting privileges. That makes District of Columbia a non-compact state in practice: no privilege lets you see a client located here, in person or by telehealth, and a District of Columbia license cannot yet anchor privileges elsewhere. Plan on a District of Columbia license by endorsement, and check the commission's announcements, because states have been switching on every few weeks.

DC's independent counselor license is the LPC; the LGPC (Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor) is the pre-independent graduate tier and has its own endorsement checklist. D.C. Code 3-1207.10(c), amended by the Health Occupations Revision General Amendment Act of 2024 (D.C. Law 25-191), lets the Board license by endorsement a counselor currently licensed in good standing elsewhere who has either practiced independent clinical counseling for at least 5 years under that license or held an independent license for at least 3 years and holds NBCC's National Certified Counselor credential. Applicants in neither group follow the full checklist, including the 3,500-hour post-graduate supervision record (3,300 general + 200 immediate, at least 100 of those under an LPC). The Board reviews each application individually and may ask for hours practiced, so this is endorsement, not full reciprocity. Board Policy 26-01 (2025-12-08), adopted until regulations implement the endorsement pathway, says applicants on either route must document a master's degree in counseling or a related field from an accredited institution and are not required to provide supervised-experience forms or evidence of a 700-hour internship or practicum. The checklist also requires a vaccination attestation entry and an NPDB self-query. No general universal-licensure-recognition statute is referenced on the Board's pages. DC has enacted the Counseling Compact but is not yet issuing or accepting privileges (commission table shows DC not live); relocating counselors need this license. compact_member and compact_status are assembler-provided.