Pick a behavioral-health license at random and there's a very good chance it requires ethics CE. Of all the topic mandates boards have layered on over the years — implicit bias, human trafficking, suicide — ethics is the oldest and the most widespread. It's the closest thing the field has to a universal requirement. The number of hours varies, and a few states fuse ethics with law or jurisprudence, but the requirement itself is nearly everywhere.
Here's how it actually breaks down across professions, with real hour counts.
Psychologists: usually 3 to 4 hours
California psychologists owe a minimum of 4 hours in laws and ethics each biennial period, inside their 36-hour total. New Mexico requires 4 ethics hours every two years. Arizona requires 4 ethics hours plus a separate jurisprudence tool. DC psychologists owe 3 hours in ethics or risk/liability. The throughline: psychology boards treat ethics as a fixed, recurring slice — typically 3 or 4 hours every renewal. The fuller psychologist picture is in the psychologist CE overview.
Social workers: 3 to 6 hours
Texas LCSWs owe 6 ethics hours per cycle — among the higher requirements. Massachusetts LICSWs owe 3 ethics hours, on the lighter end. That two-to-one spread between neighboring-tier states is exactly why you can't assume a number; the survey is in LCSW ethics CE by state. The Massachusetts breakdown sits in the Massachusetts LICSW guide.
Counselors: 3 to 6 hours, sometimes live-only
Illinois LPCs owe 3 ethics hours per cycle. Texas LPCs owe 6, and passing the state jurisprudence exam can count as 1 of them. Connecticut counselors owe at least 3 contact hours of ethics each annual period. Georgia adds a delivery rule — its 5 ethics hours must be earned live or synchronously, not self-paced. That live-delivery wrinkle is covered in the Georgia counselor guide, and the Illinois version in Illinois counselor CE.
Marriage and family therapists: law and ethics, fused
California LMFTs owe 6 hours of law and ethics every two-year renewal — the two topics combined into one bucket. That fusion is common in MFT licensing and trips people up because a pure-ethics course may not satisfy a "law and ethics" requirement. We dig into it in law & ethics hours for MFTs and the California LMFT guide.
Ethics isn't only behavioral health
Physicians and dentists get pulled in too. Texas physicians owe at least 2 hours of medical ethics or professional responsibility per renewal. Michigan physicians owe 1 ethics hour each triennial cycle. Arizona dentists can satisfy a 3-hour block with ethics or jurisprudence. So while ethics is densest in behavioral health, it reaches across the whole licensing landscape. The dentist version often blends into jurisprudence requirements.
The two things that trip people up
First, the law-or-jurisprudence fusion. When a board says "law and ethics" or "ethics or jurisprudence," a course covering only one half may fall short. Read the exact phrasing. Second, delivery rules — Georgia's live-only ethics requirement is a reminder that how you take the course can matter as much as the topic. The general live-vs-recorded distinction is in live vs enduring CME credit.
Because ethics is so common, it's tempting to assume one ethics course covers all your licenses. It doesn't — each license has its own ethics bucket, and the hour counts differ. The principle is in a plan for each license.
For official wording, the California Board of Psychology CE page shows how a board frames a laws-and-ethics requirement. Find your specifics on psychologist CE by state, social worker CE by state, or counselor CE by state.
White Glove CME confirms your exact ethics hours, whether they're fused with law or jurisprudence, and whether delivery rules apply — for $99 per license renewal. We plan; we don't grant credit. Tell us your license and we'll size the ethics bucket correctly.
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