Support Children’s Mental Health: Recognize LAPCs Under PA Medicaid HealthChoices
- Felix A. Perez, LCSW
- Apr 13
- 6 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
By: Felix A. Perez, LCSW, CEO of Perez Therapy, LLC
A Partial Win for Pennsylvania’s Children
At Perez Therapy, we are committed to enhancing access to quality mental health services for all children, particularly those from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. To further this mission, we have initiated a petition urging the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to recognize Licensed Associate Professional Counselors (LAPCs) as independent providers within Medicaid group practices. This policy shift would represent a critical step in expanding access to care for underserved communities across Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania began issuing Licensed Associate Professional Counselor (LAPC) licenses in early April 2024. This followed the enactment of Act 4 of 2024, which was signed into law by Governor Josh Shapiro on March 28, 2024. The Department of State began accepting applications for these licenses within days of the law’s signing. This has been an enormous victory for pre-licensed LPC- and LMFT-candidates, in pursuit of clinical licensure in the Commonwealth. The pandemic increased access (and demand) for therapy, and the industry and government stepped up, providing counselors and marriage and family therapists with an associate-level licensure, permitting them to work under supervision of a clinically licensed LPC or LMFT. Yet, there are still barriers for school psychologists, with a specialization in counseling, who hold an LAPCs, even if you specialize working with children. With the tremendous need for Medicaid providers who work with children, the system should create access for children to receive treatment from LAPCs.
The Current Challenge
Presently, Pennsylvania’s policies prevent LAPCs who work at Group Practices from being Medicaid for mental health services, even when they are working under the supervision of fully licensed clinicians. Why this is the case? We are informed that we must demonstrate need. So here, we aim to do just that.
Children seeking counseling services on Medicaid are too often placed on waiting lists for a provider. Parents can struggle to find the right fit for their child. The therapist with specialized skills, language proficiency or even just the right personality. Most kids on Medicaid would excel best if given the access to the right supports to build the resilience capital they have, especially after the certain traumas and events. Yet, the waitlists, gaps in the provider network and the barriers for child therapists to practice with this population only further hinder access to children who need specialized mental health counseling and support.
This restriction creates a serious bottleneck in service delivery — especially for Medicaid-covered families seeking child development services. Children in critical developmental windows are left waiting for care that should be timely, ongoing, and community-based.
The Role of LAPCs
LAPCs are highly trained professionals, often holding Master’s degrees in School Psychology and Counseling. Many of these professionals already work in school and community settings, offering specialized expertise in supporting children through emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges.
However, because LAPCs are not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement as licensed providers, community-based providers, like Perez Therapy, are unable to bring them onto clinical teams that serve Medicaid recipients. This unnecessarily hurts access, delays care, and limits culturally responsive and bilingual service delivery. Sadly, our victory in bringing the LAPC to Pennsylvania is thwarted by restrictions that keep kids from accessing care. Perez Therapy's mission is to provide bilingual and bicultural mental health and psychological care to the people who need it most. And in this case, it is children seeking mental health services from these highly qualified professionals.
School Psychology Grads from Temple University Are Ready to Help
Opening access to LAPCs would also immediately impact local capacity. Multiple recent graduates of Temple University’s School Psychology Counseling Program, which is a well-regarded program in the area, are eager and qualified to serve children covered by Medicaid.
Yet, current policy restrictions are preventing them from doing so. The issue is especially critical due to the active waiting lists or challenges in finding the best child-therapist match, especially for kids 3 to 11 years old. At Perez Therapy, we recognize that early intervention and developmental support are a key tool for community leaders to have long-lasting impacts.
Spanish is spoken in 11.1% of Philadelphia households, according to the US Census (April 2024 data). For bilingual or monolingual Spanish-speaking families, the shortage is even more severe. As a bilingual outpatient practice, we see firsthand how urgently our community needs more providers who speak the language and understand the culture of the families they serve.
Why This Change Matters
Allowing LAPCs to serve Medicaid children would:
Expand Access to Care: Increase the number of available clinicians who can provide therapy to children and families.
Support Early Intervention: Help children ages 3–5 receive services before problems escalate.
Address Provider Shortages: Bring qualified professionals into the workforce who are currently sidelined by outdated regulations.
Enhance Cultural Competency: Allow more bilingual and bicultural clinicians to reach the families who need them most.
Our Mission-Work at Perez Therapy
Mission-work is embedded in our founding and drives the work that we do. Perez Therapy's mission of supporting child development is led by José D. Lebrón, MEd, our Bilingual Child Development Specialist. José offers a range of services tailored to children, families, educators and other professionals. His services include consultations, developmental screenings, behavioral intervention support, peer consultation, parent education, and bilingual counseling.
I am so proud to have created a practice focused on serving my community. As founder of the practice, I recognize that children are our communities' best hope for success. In the case of the aforementioned school psychologists, who have specialized in counseling for children, they are available immediately in the after school hours to meet with children after finishing the school day. Finding clinicians who A) specialize with children and B) are available during after-school hours are incredibly difficult to find. We ask policymakers to increase access to quality community-based therapy for Medicaid kids by opening the door to LAPCs.
Join Us in Advocating for Change
We believe that recognizing LAPCs as eligible Medicaid providers is a vital policy improvement that would immediately increase access to care for children and families across Pennsylvania.
Please take a moment to sign and share our petition:
Special Request for Social Workers
I am appealing to all social workers out there. The social work value of social justice calls us to join and advocate with others to address systemic inequalities. The unnecessary restrictions in the system of our fellow counselors, when LSWs (licensed social workers) are able to practice with these same children, is unjust. Yet, we social workers complete a two year (sometimes one year...it's10 months, let's be real, ya'll) program. Whereas the students at Temple University's School Psychology program, who have a counseling concentration specialization, have done a THREE-year program and yet cannot practice with children they have even greater specialized skills to address.
Can an LSW do a brief intelligence test on a child they are seeing for individual therapy? Nope. Or can an LSW administer a quick cognitive test and behavioral observation for autism or ADHD? ... No social worker is trained to do this. Not an LSW...even an LCSW. Yet, incredibly trained and skillful LAPCs/School Psychologists who want to counsel children cannot, because of these restrictions.
Let’s Prepare Philly Kids and Parents for Kindergarten!
Perez Therapy is fortunate to have a José D. Lebrón, MEd, Child Development Specialist leading our mission-work supporting child development. José is a former bilingual pre-school teacher and graduate from Temple University's school psychology program, who specializes providing bilingual school evaluations assessment and counseling at the School District of Philadelphia as, making his start as a school psychologist in the fall of this year.
This billable service can create access for children who struggle with social-emotional regulation skills, can get expert advice from a professional who understands learning and education on mechanisms for success in more demanding social experiences. Basic psychological evaluation and testing of the child, autism screening, individual counseling, family consultation and collateral sessions, family therapy and parent-child observation, and group therapy are all unique services that counseling concentration school psychologists are able to provide. …find me an LSW who can do that. You can't!
And so...
I know we can create the change we seek at the State level so that we can build a more inclusive, responsive, and effective mental health care system in Philadelphia. Won't you join us in advocating for your support for this change to create access to quality care for kids in Philadelphia?
Now...if you wouldn't mind?
