The License Exam Prep Program (LEPP)

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The License Exam Prep Program (LEPP) is an exciting collaboration between the Departments of Behavioral Health (DBH) and Workforce Development (WDD). It is helping pre-licensed clinical staff become licensed by providing them with study materials. LEPP participants began receiving their study materials in late July 2009. 80% of those taking their licensing exam passed it on the first try after using the LEPP material. Some had taken the test before and weren’t able to pass. In fact, the Board of Behavioral sciences (BBS) statistics show that that only 63% of MFT and 65% of LCSW examinees pass the licensing exam. At DBH, 92% of the pre-license clinical staff that became licensed did so using the LEPP program. This has resulted and will continue to result in many benefits, such as: increased staff time for consumers—since each pre-licensed clinical staff person that becomes licensed no longer requires two to four hours of mandated clinical supervision, that time can be spent seeing consumers; a pay raise for each successful participant—pre-licensed clinical staff that become licensed promote to a Clinical Therapist I; and a likely increase in clinical employee retention, which is especially important as DBH currently has a hiring freeze.