2.1 P-LPC Education, Core Courses & Pass/Fail Jurisprudence Requirement

Why education and the Pass/Fail JP sit on the same P-LPC checklist

A Mississippi P-LPC is not a courtesy title for a new graduate. Under Rule 4.2, it is the credential that authorizes counseling or psychotherapy in Mississippi only under a Mississippi Board qualified supervisor (LPC-S). The Board’s P-LPC page states the same operational fact: only a P-LPC practicing under a Mississippi LPC-S may count supervised experience toward becoming an LPC, and a P-LPC cannot practice independently. That is why this jurisprudence exam treats degree rules and the Pass/Fail JP as one filing problem. If the graduate program is short, untitled, or missing a specified course, the Board never reaches the question of how well you know Title 30 Part 2201. If the degree is complete but the JP is missing, Rule 4.2.A still withholds the license.

This OpenExamPrep chapter is an independent study resource for the Mississippi Pass/Fail LPC Jurisprudence Examination. It does not speak for the Board, the Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE), the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), or the American Counseling Association (ACA). The teaching compilation used here is Title 30 Part 2201 Effective 09/16/2025, together with the Graduate Packet 2025 and the Board’s P-LPC page. On 01/29/2026 the Board posted a further Rule 4.3 final submission. Unless you open a newer effective compilation that actually changes these numbers, use the 09/16/2025 Current.pdf figures and confirm the live Board PDF before you test.

Rule 4.2.A: what must be complete before a P-LPC issues

Rule 4.2.A is a gate, not a suggestion. A P-LPC license is issued once all of the following are completed and approved by the Board:

• Application
• General requirements (the Rule 4.1 file: among other items, the current compilation requires an applicant to be at least 21 years of age, to be a U.S. citizen or to hold a current U.S. Immigration Bureau document verifying legal alien work status, and to be of good moral character)
• Official transcript(s)
• Background check
• Verification of a passing score on the Jurisprudence Exam
• Online Supervision agreement
• Supervision Contract
• Declaration of Practices

The Graduate Packet 2025 turns that legal list into a portal sequence: create an applicant profile, secure a Mississippi LPC-S, enter the post-grad supervisory agreement, upload the signed supervision contract and the Declaration of Practices, complete the P-LPC application, remit the application fee, request the official transcript, request the fingerprint card, return the completed card, then register for the Pass/Fail JP from the App Info tab. Packet screenshots are procedure. Rule 4.2.A is the standard the Board applies when the file is reviewed. Incomplete applications are not reviewed (Rule 4.1.M).

Rule 4.2.F sets the nonrefundable P-LPC application fee at $50.00, payable by check, money order, or the online process, to the Mississippi Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors. The Graduate Packet also describes a $50 fingerprint processing fee remitted with the application fee so the Board can mail a customized fingerprint card. Rule 4.1.K separately states that the applicant signs a release and is responsible for the fee associated with the criminal background check. Do not treat the packet’s processing timeline (the packet currently estimates four to six weeks for results from the Mississippi Criminal Information Center) as a Rule 4.2 deadline; it is operations guidance that can move.

Graduate hours: 60 semester or 90 quarter, and the January 1, 2017 master’s cutoff

Rule 4.2.B opens with a single quantitative rule for every applicant: either sixty (60) semester hours or ninety (90) quarter hours of graduate study. The next sentence is the cutoff that traps older catalog memories: for degrees conferred after January 1, 2017, the Board will only accept sixty (60) semester-hour or ninety (90) quarter-hour master’s degree programs.

Those post-January 1, 2017 master’s programs shall be either:

1. CACREP degree programs or degree programs with the word counseling in its title that meet the structure of CACREP as it specifically pertains to the twelve (12) courses specified, as part of the 60 semester hours or 90 quarter hours required for completion of the degree, or
2. An earned doctoral or educational specialist degree primarily in a counseling, guidance, or related field, which meets similar standards as specified above.

Read option 1 as the Board wrote it. A CACREP degree program is one qualifying route. A non-CACREP program can still qualify if the degree title contains the word counseling and the program meets CACREP structure for the 12 specified courses inside the 60/90-hour degree. A master’s conferred after January 1, 2017 that is neither a CACREP program nor a counseling-titled program meeting that 12-course structure does not become a P-LPC degree merely because it is “clinical” or “mental health related.” Option 2 is a doctoral or EdS path, not a second master’s-length shortcut.

Rule 4.2.B then converts credit: all references to hours of college credit are for semester hours. Quarter hours convert with the stated formula: quarter hours × 0.67 = semester-hour equivalent. Semester hours must total sixty (60) hours. A 90-quarter-hour program converts to 60.3 semester-hour equivalents (90 × 0.67), which is how a genuine 90-quarter master’s maps onto the 60-semester rule. A 48-semester-hour master’s conferred in 2018 does not become 60 hours by adding workshops, employer in-service, or a national exam score.

Rule 4.2.C requires official transcripts from an approved educational institution of all graduate work verifying educational qualifications. The Graduate Packet 2025 instructs that only graduate-level transcripts are required and that the official transcript should be sent directly to the Board via eScrip to info@lpc.ms.gov or mailed sealed, signed or stamped across the seal by the transcript clerk. Unofficial student-portal PDFs are not Rule 4.2.C transcripts.

The 12 specified courses, each three semester hours or equivalent

Rule 4.2.B defines a graduate program related to counselor education as one that contains course work in all of the following areas. Each Applicant must have completed a three (3) hour semester course or its equivalent in each area. The current compilation names and describes them in this order. Do not substitute a cousin title from another state’s list.

The Graduate Packet 2025 prints a 12-course heading and then names a subset on the visible page (Human Growth and Development; Group Counseling; Research and Evaluation; Marriage and Family Counseling/Therapy; Social and Cultural Foundations; Lifestyle and Career Development; Professional Orientation to Counseling or Ethics; Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology; Counseling and Psychotherapy Skills). That packet list is incomplete as a study checklist. Use the numbered 12 in Current.pdf, including Testing and Appraisal, Theories of Counseling Psychotherapy and Personality, and Internship. Course 10 in the rule uses and/or (“Marriage and/or Family Counseling/Therapy”), which is the wording to recognize on an item, not a permission to skip couples work.

Internship is not an optional capstone the Board will waive because you already work in a clinic. It is specified course 12: supervised, planned, practical, advanced clinical experience. Testing and Appraisal is not undergraduate statistics. Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology is the rule’s home for DSM/ICD classification and diagnostic-relevant intervention planning — the same diagnostic language that later matters for LPC scope, but here it is an education requirement.

The Pass/Fail JP examination is a P-LPC issuance requirement

Rule 4.2.A requires verification of a passing score on the Jurisprudence Exam before the P-LPC issues. Rule 4.2.D requires the application packet to include the certificate indicating a passing score on the Mississippi Jurisprudence Exam. The Graduate Packet 2025 and the Board P-LPC page describe the instrument the applicant actually sits:

• 35 multiple-choice questions; you must answer all of them
• 60 minutes
• Open book — printed Mississippi Rules and Regulations and the ACA Code of Ethics
• 80 percent required to pass
• Administered through CCE Academy after the P-LPC application is submitted and fees are remitted; register from the App Info tab
• First-time visitors create a CCE username and password; returning visitors reuse that login
• If you do not finish in time or do not pass, wait 30 days to purchase and retake
• Scores arrive by email; CCE provides the official score report to the Board; you may upload unofficial scores to the portal

Keep the renewal product separate. CCE Academy’s Mississippi jurisprudence page is the no-fail renewal instrument (30 items for LPC / 35 for LPC-S) for already-licensed LPC and LPC-S renewals. The applicant exam is the Pass/Fail JP. A passing NCE or NCMHCE does not waive the JP. The Graduate Packet FAQ states that all P-LPC applicants must also have a passing score report for the Mississippi Pass/Fail Jurisprudence Exam even if they already passed a national exam.

Supervision paperwork travels with the education file

Rule 4.2.E.1 requires an online agreement and written contract between the applicant and an LPC-S and the Declaration of Practice as part of the online application. Rule 4.2.E.2 states that post-master’s supervised experience begins once the P-LPC is issued and must be documented in the online portal. Hours you logged as a student intern, or as an unlicensed employee before the P-LPC issued, are not Rule 4.3 LPC hours. Rule 4.2.E.3 and Rule 4.3.B.7 both keep the P-LPC under supervision until the LPC is issued. Rule 4.2.E.4 requires a Mississippi LPC-S. Rule 4.2.E.7 forbids the P-LPC from practicing independently or holding out as a counselor in independent practice. Rule 4.2.G: the P-LPC is renewable for not more than four (4) years, with a Board appeal for extension. Rule 4.2.H: upon yearly renewal the LPC-S submits the online evaluation of the P-LPC.

Jurisprudence scenario: the 48-hour 2018 graduate

Jordan finished a 48-semester-hour “clinical mental health” master’s in May 2018. The diploma does not contain the word counseling. Jordan passed the NCE on the first attempt, has two years of agency employment, and wants to skip the JP because “national already proved competence.” Under the 09/16/2025 compilation, the degree was conferred after January 1, 2017, so the Board accepts only a 60-semester-hour or 90-quarter-hour master’s. A 48-hour non-counseling-titled program is not option 1. The NCE does not add 12 graduate semester hours and does not replace Rule 4.2.D’s JP certificate. Jordan’s next move is a qualifying degree analysis against Rule 4.2.B and the 12 specified courses — not a faster national-exam retake.

Confirm the live Current.pdf before test day. Education numbers in this section are from the 09/16/2025 compilation; a later effective file would control if the Board replaces it.