Post-pandemic, telehealth became the default for millions of therapy clients. Licensing boards took notice. Since 2021, more than a dozen states have added formal telehealth CE requirements — and most therapists haven't updated their renewal planning to account for them. The confusion runs deep. Some states require telehealth CE as a standalone mandate. Others allow telehealth courses to satisfy ethics requirements. A few consider telehealth competency implied and require no specific training. And in several states, the rules differ by license type — an LPC and LCSW in the same state might have completely different telehealth CE obligations. This guide cuts through the ambiguity.
The Core Confusion
The biggest source of confusion around telehealth CE is the difference between states that require it and states that accept it. A state that requires telehealth CE means you must complete a designated number of hours specifically on telehealth topics — failing to do so creates a compliance gap even if your total CE hours are complete. A state that accepts telehealth CE means such courses count toward your general CE total, but aren't mandated. This is the default in most states. Before 2020, almost no states mandated telehealth CE. The post-pandemic regulatory environment has shifted that considerably, with Florida leading the most specific requirements and several others following. Running a search for "telehealth CE requirements" often returns results that conflate these two categories, leading therapists to either panic unnecessarily or miss a genuine mandate.
What Telehealth CE Actually Means
Not all telehealth-adjacent courses satisfy telehealth CE requirements. States that mandate telehealth CE typically specify the content areas the course must cover. Common required topics include: legal and ethical standards for telehealth practice, HIPAA compliance in virtual settings, interstate practice and compact implications, crisis protocols for remote clients, technology platform security and informed consent, and documentation standards for telehealth sessions. A course titled "Ethics in the Digital Age" may or may not satisfy a state's telehealth CE requirement depending on whether it explicitly covers these practice-specific topics. Courses focused primarily on technology tools ("Using Zoom for Telehealth") typically don't satisfy ethics or clinical CE requirements even when labeled as telehealth training. When in doubt, check the learning objectives against your state's specified content requirements.
States That Require Telehealth CE
As of 2026, the states with explicit telehealth CE mandates for mental health licensees include: Florida: 2 hours telehealth CE required every other renewal cycle for LMFTs, LPCs, and LCSWs. Florida alternates telehealth with ethics in its mandatory rotation — check your current cycle requirement. Virginia: 3 hours of technology and telehealth ethics required per renewal for all mental health licensees effective 2025. Maryland: 3 hours of telehealth competency CE added to renewal requirements for LCSWs in 2024. Oregon: telehealth ethics is subsumed within the multicultural and ethics requirement — courses explicitly covering telehealth equity and access count toward the required hours. Massachusetts: the LMHC board issued guidance in 2025 recommending but not yet mandating telehealth CE — watch for a formal requirement in the next rule update cycle. Tennessee: suicide assessment training for telehealth contexts is required as part of the existing 6-hour suicide prevention mandate. This is not a separate telehealth CE requirement but a content specification within an existing mandate.
Common Misconceptions
Therapists routinely make one of three telehealth CE mistakes. The first: assuming that because they practice telehealth, they've somehow satisfied a telehealth CE requirement. Practice experience doesn't substitute for formal CE on telehealth legal and ethical standards. The second: completing a telehealth course and assuming it satisfies the ethics requirement without verifying the specific approval and topic coverage. In Florida, telehealth CE and ethics CE alternate — they're not the same requirement, and completing telehealth training doesn't credit toward ethics in off-cycle years. The third: not checking for updates. Telehealth CE requirements are among the fastest-changing regulations in mental health licensing. A board that had no telehealth CE requirement in 2023 may have added one by 2025. The safe practice is to check your state board's CE requirements page every renewal cycle, not once at initial licensure.
How to Apply This
Here's a practical checklist for telehealth CE compliance. First, determine whether your state has a mandatory telehealth CE requirement (see the list above — and verify at your state board's website since this changes frequently). Second, if there is a mandate, identify the specific content areas your state requires the course to cover. Third, search CE providers using those specific content areas as search terms, not just "telehealth CE." PESI, NetCE, and Telehealth.org all offer courses that explicitly cover the required content areas for Florida and Virginia requirements. Fourth, verify the course provider is approved in your state before enrolling. Fifth, log the credit with the certificate in your tracking system immediately upon completion, noting which specific requirement it satisfies.
Your Next Steps
Telehealth CE requirements are the fastest-moving area of mental health CE compliance in 2026. The safest approach is to assume your state may have added requirements since your last renewal and verify directly with your licensing board. If you're in Florida, Virginia, or Maryland, telehealth CE is definitely on your required list. If you're elsewhere, check the board website for any 2024–2026 rule changes. HYR GrowthTracker tracks telehealth CE requirements as a separate requirement category for states that mandate it, so you can see at a glance whether this box is checked — start your free 14-day trial to set up your compliance profile.