Transfer Your Counseling License to South Carolina: Reciprocity & Endorsement (2026)

South Carolina 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 South Carolina a non-compact state in practice: no privilege lets you see a client located here, in person or by telehealth, and a South Carolina license cannot yet anchor privileges elsewhere. Plan on a South Carolina license by endorsement, and check the commission's announcements, because states have been switching on every few weeks.

South Carolina's independent tier is the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC); the LPCA is the associate tier. Reg. 36-14 (amended 2022) makes endorsement available to anyone holding a current, active, unrestricted license in good standing in another state with no pending investigation, at an equivalent credential level, and the 2025 endorsement application requests only a license verification, ID, lawful-presence affidavit and the fee. There is no years-in-practice minimum and no re-review of education, exam or supervised hours, which makes this one of the lightest endorsement routes in the country. It is still coded as endorsement, not full reciprocity (verifier 2026-09-27): Reg. 36-14 adds conditions beyond a license in good standing (no current or pending investigation in the licensing state, licensure only at an equivalent credential level, and 'other documentation, as required by the Board' under 36-14(A)(4)), and S.C. Code 40-75-260(B)(1) makes licensure discretionary ('may license'). S.C. Code 40-75-260(A) also allows reciprocal agreements, and the Board now publishes one: a 'Professional Counselor by Reciprocity' route for holders of a current, active and unrestricted North Carolina LCMHC license, applied for online as 'LPC Licensure by North Carolina Reciprocity'. The North Carolina board lists the matching route for South Carolina LPCs, so north-carolina is recorded as a reciprocity partner. Separately, S.C. Code 40-75-800 lets an out-of-state licensee register to provide behavioral telehealth to SC clients without a full license. A search-engine summary claimed a $150 endorsement fee; the Board's own form says $130. South Carolina has enacted the Counseling Compact (S.C. Code 40-75-910 et seq.) but is not yet issuing or accepting privileges; compact_member and compact_status are assembler-provided. The Board's home page links a notice titled 'SC Board of Professional Counselors is Now an Active Member of the Counseling Compact'. That notice (April 2026 capture) describes the 2024 enactment and says the compact 'is not operational at this time', and the commission's fee table (2026-10-29) does not list South Carolina as live, so the assigned pending value stands. The home page also posts an alert titled 'Criminal Background Check for Initial Professional Counselor Licensure' (the PDF could not be opened and has no Internet Archive copy). The requirement itself is statutory: S.C. Code 40-75-220(B), as amended by 2024 Act No. 189 (effective 2024-05-21), says a person applying to be a licensed professional counselor 'must undergo a state criminal records check, supported by fingerprints, by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and a national criminal records check, supported by fingerprints, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation', at the applicant's cost, so it is listed as a requirement; how and when the Board collects the prints is not stated here. Live llr.sc.gov refused connections on 2026-09-27 and 2026-10-29, so the Board's pages were read from Internet Archive captures of the official URLs (endorsement form 2026-03-07; Board pages 2026-10-02 and 2026-10-10). The endorsement application is now filed online; the Board page no longer links the PDF package, whose details here rest on the 2026-09-27 reading.