Bay Path Adds School Adjustment Counselor Licensing Option to their Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program

Longmeadow, MA— Although The American School Counselor Association recommends a student to counselor ration of 250 to 1, in the 2018 – 2019 school year the state of Massachusetts averaged a ratio of 396 with 2,430 counselors serving 962,297 students. Recognizing the need in their community, Bay Path University is pleased to announce that graduate students in their Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (MS CMHC) program can now specialize their studies to earn their School Adjustment Counselor (SAC) license in Massachusetts.

Previously, Bay Path students working towards Licensed Mental Health Counselor eligibility and who were interested in this professional route had to take additional classes outside of their degree requirements at other institutions to meet School Adjustment Counselor license requirements. “It became clear to us that we could make the path to this licensure easier and more direct for our students by offering this fully within the MS CMHC program,” shared Bay Path’s Director of Psychology Programs and Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Mark Bernander. “Serving our youth in the public schools is a common aspiration for students in the mental health field, and our new program is perfectly suited to help those students meet their career goals.”

Bay Path presented to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in the fall of 2019 for program approval, and beginning with the Fall 2020 semester students are being accepted into the MS CMHC program with the SAC concentration. Upon graduation, these students will have met educational eligibility requirements for both the LMHC and the SAC licenses.

For more information on the School Adjustment Counselor concentration or on Bay Path’s psychology programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, please visit https://www.baypath.edu/cmhc.  

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 About Bay Path University

Bay Path University was founded in 1897. With locations in Longmeadow (main), East Longmeadow (Philip H. Ryan Health Science Center), Springfield (MA), Sturbridge (MA), and Concord (MA), Bay Path’s innovative program offerings include traditional undergraduate degrees for women, The American Women's College on-ground and online, the first all-women, all-online accredited bachelor’s degree programs in the country; over 30 graduate programs for women and men, including doctoral degrees; and Strategic Alliances, offering professional development courses for individuals and organizations.  Bay Path’s goal is to give students confidence in the fundamentals of their chosen field, the curiosity to question the ordinary, the leadership to show initiative, and the desire to make a difference.