An APCC is an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor. It's the California BBS registration required for counseling graduates before they can pursue LPCC licensure. To become an APCC, you must hold a qualifying master's or doctoral degree and apply to the BBS using Form 37A-630. After registering, you log 3,000 post-degree hours of supervised experience under BBS-approved supervisors.

How many APCC hours do you need for LPCC licensure in California?

You need 3,000 hours of post-degree supervised experience, completed over a minimum of 104 weeks. At least 1,750 must be hours of direct client contact. The remaining hours can be non-clinical work like supervision, psychological testing, and professional development, up to a 1,250-hour cap. All hours must be post-degree. No practicum or fieldwork hours count.

How do I track APCC hours for the BBS?

Each week, you log your hours by category (direct client contact, supervision, non-clinical) for each site and supervisor. Your supervisor signs off on a weekly BBS Form 37A-638 summary. SparkHours automates this: log your hours, and the app generates and pre-fills 37A-638 PDFs for e-signature by your supervisor. You keep the signed logs and produce them if the Board asks for them. At application time, the form you submit is the Experience Verification form.

Do practicum hours count toward LPCC licensure?

No. Unlike the AMFT path, zero pre-degree hours count toward the 3,000 required for LPCC licensure. Your practicum and fieldwork hours are valuable training experience, but they don't reduce your post-degree requirement. Qualifying post-degree experience may begin before APCC registration only through the 90-Day Rule when all of its conditions are met.

What is BBS Form 37A-638?

The BBS publishes two different PDFs under the number 37A-638: one for APCCs and a separate one for ASWs, and their columns are not the same. The APCC version starts with "A. Direct Counseling," while the ASW version starts with two supervision columns. One sheet holds up to ten weekly rows for a single work setting and a single supervisor within one calendar year: one row per week, plus a totals row. Your supervisor reviews and signs each sheet. SparkHours exports pre-filled 37A-638 PDFs automatically.

Does SparkHours generate the BBS Experience Verification form for APCCs?

Yes. SparkHours generates the In-State Experience Verification form for APCCs as you near the end of your hours. The form is pre-filled from your logged hours and your supervisor history, ready for supervisor signature. You get one Experience Verification form per placement (site and supervisor combination).

What's the difference between APCC hours and AMFT hours?

Both require 3,000 total hours and 1,750 hours of direct client contact. Key differences: APCCs cannot count pre-degree hours (AMFTs can count up to 1,300). APCCs have no specialty subset (AMFTs need 500 hours with couples, families, and children). APCCs use Form 37A-638; AMFTs use Form 37A-525, which prints an "A1. Diagnosis and Treatment of Couples, Families, Children" column that the APCC form does not have. The supervision step function is the same for both in the associate phase.

Can I bring my existing APCC hours into SparkHours?

Yes. SparkHours has a built-in Track Your Hours importer that runs during setup, and your existing hours transfer over automatically. If you've been tracking in a spreadsheet or on paper, you enter those weeks by hand instead. Either way, SparkHours checks each week against the rules for your license as you enter it.

California BBS · APCC → LPCC

APCC hour requirements and BBS Form 37A-638 for LPCC licensure

Here's what the BBS wants: hour requirements, supervision rules, Form 37A-638, and what current law changed. It applies whether you're in your program, just graduated, or already registered.

Download the APCC Weekly Log (37A-638)Or get it pre-filled from your hours

The APCC version, always current, straight from the Board.

LPCC Hour Requirements: The Complete Breakdown

LPCC hour requirements
Requirement	Hours
Total supervised experience	3,000 minimum
Direct counseling	1,750 minimum
Specialty subset requirement	None
Non-clinical	1,250 maximum
Supervision requirements (associate phase)	1 unit/week + 1 if >10 hours of direct client contact
Supervision weekly maximum	6 hours
Individual/triadic weeks required	52 weeks
General rules
Pre-degree hours that count	0
Maximum per 7 consecutive days	40 hours
Minimum duration	104 weeks

The simplifying factor for APCCs is the absence of a specialty subset. AMFTs (Associate Marriage and Family Therapists) need 500 hours of couples, family, or child therapy carved out of their direct contact hours. ASWs (Associate Clinical Social Workers) have a psychotherapy subset. APCCs don't have either. That means fewer categories to track and one less thing to fall behind on.

For a side-by-side look at how APCC requirements compare to AMFT and ASW tracks, see those guides. If you're still in your graduate program, see practicum and fieldwork tracking.

The current law amended BPC §4999.46.2. The amendment corrected an erroneous pre-degree PCC-trainee reference and removed the videoconference-supervision sunset.

Supervision Requirements for APCCs

The rule changes when you register. PCC Trainees follow a 5:1 ratio, the same rule MFT Trainees follow.

Trainee

5:1 ratio

PCC Trainees need 1 unit of supervision for every 5 hours of direct client contact, averaged over their time at that setting. You still need at least 1 unit at that setting in any week you log experience there.

Associate

Step function

1 unit of supervision required in any week you log experience at that setting. If you log more than 10 hours of direct client contact at that setting in a single week, you need a second unit. It's not proportional. The step happens at 10.

Key supervision rules

One unit = 1 hour of individual or triadic supervision, or 2 hours of group supervision
Group supervision: no more than 8 people in a group
Qualified supervisors: LMFT, LPCC, LCSW, Licensed Psychologist, or a physician certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
One exception: hours from attending workshops, seminars, training sessions or conferences still count toward your total, but on their own they do not require a unit of supervision that week

Licensed Educational Psychologists may supervise up to 1,200 hours of educationally related mental-health services. Workshops, seminars, training sessions, and conferences count only when directly related to professional clinical counseling and approved by your supervisor.

SparkHours checks your supervision requirements per site, per supervisor, every week. If you're short, you'll see a warning before you submit.

BBS Form 37A-638: Your APCC Weekly Log

The BBS publishes two different PDFs under the number 37A-638: one for APCCs and a separate one for ASWs, and their columns are not the same. This page describes the APCC version.

One sheet holds up to ten weekly rows for a single work setting and a single supervisor within one calendar year. You fill one row per week, and the sheet ends with a totals row. Change setting or supervisor, or cross into a new year, and you start a new sheet. The APCC version has 4 columns you write hours into.

What you keep and what you send

You keep the signed logs, and you produce them if the Board asks for them. So store them where you can find them years later.

What you send at application time is the Experience Verification form. When you're ready to apply for licensure, SparkHours also generates your In-State Experience Verification form. One Experience Verification per placement (site and supervisor combination), pre-filled from your full hour history and ready for supervisor signature.

APCC weekly log columns
Column	What goes here
A. Direct Counseling with Individuals, Groups, Couples or Families	Your hours of direct client contact. The header names every setting this one column covers: individuals, groups, couples or families, added together into a single figure.
B. Non-Clinical Experience	The form's own footnote defines it: "Non-Clinical Experience includes: Supervision, psychological testing, writing clinical reports, progress or process notes, client-centered advocacy, and workshops, seminars, training sessions or conferences."
B1. Supervision, Individual or Triadic	A sub-category of line B, so the same supervision is written here and inside the B figure.
B2. Supervision, Group	Also a sub-category of line B, written here and inside the B figure in the same way.

The fifth column is the total, and the form prints the arithmetic in its header: "C. Total Hours Per Week (A + B = C)". Supervision counts inside the non-clinical column. The second footnote spells out what that means when you add the row up: "Lines B1 and B2 are sub-categories of line 'B.' When totaling weekly hours do not include the subcategories." Add B1 or B2 into the weekly total and you have counted your supervision twice.

You can download the blank 37A-638 from the BBS website. Or, SparkHours exports pre-filled PDFs directly from your logged hours and collects electronic supervisor signatures so you don't have to chase anyone down with a pen.

For a column-by-column walkthrough of the weekly log itself, see the BBS Weekly Log of Experience Hours guide.

Common APCC Hour Tracking Mistakes

1. Thinking pre-degree hours will count

Unlike AMFTs, zero practicum hours count toward your 3,000. Some APCCs enter the associate phase expecting a head start that doesn't exist. Qualifying post-degree experience may begin before APCC registration only through the 90-Day Rule when all of its conditions are met.

2. Treating supervision as a proportional ratio

In the associate phase it's 1 unit minimum per week, plus a second unit when you exceed 10 hours of direct client contact at that setting. That matters because the Board requires supervision in any week you log experience at that setting, including a week of nothing but progress notes.

3. Exceeding the non-clinical cap

The Board counts at most 1,250 non-clinical hours toward the 3,000. If you're heavy on psychological testing, workshops, or documentation, track the balance early so you can see how much of your remaining time needs to be direct client contact.

4. Not tracking per site and supervisor

The BBS requires weekly logs grouped by work site and supervisor. Lumping everything together means redoing your records later. If you work at two sites or have two supervisors, each combination needs its own weekly log.

SparkHours checks these rules as you log, not after.

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Frequently Asked Questions

SparkHours includes a built-in AI assistant trained on the official BBS handbooks: ask it about supervision requirements, hour categories, or the Board's 90-Day Rule. Your employer must require the Live Scan before work, the Board must receive your application within 90 days, only work after the Live Scan date may count, and you must retain and submit a separate employer-required form for each employer.

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