The CRCC Code of Ethics, and the disability law around it

To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee of a covered employer (50 or more employees within 75 miles) must have worked there for at least:

1. 6 months and 1,000 hours.
   Both numbers are too low: the FMLA requires 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours.
2. 90 days of full-time work.
   Ninety days resembles a typical probationary period; FMLA eligibility needs a full 12 months and 1,250 hours.
3. 12 months and 1,250 hours.
   FMLA eligibility requires 12 months of employment (not necessarily consecutive) and 1,250 hours worked in the 12 months before leave.
4. 12 months and 1,000 hours.
   The hours threshold is 1,250; 1,000 hours is a common benchmark in pension rules, not the FMLA.

A rehabilitation counselor who testifies as a vocational expert and manages long-term disability insurance claims most likely works in which setting?

1. Private-for-profit rehabilitation
   Private-sector rehabilitation counselors commonly provide forensic testimony, disability insurance claim management, and workers' compensation case management.
2. Nonprofit community rehabilitation program
   Nonprofit CRPs provide direct vocational services, not expert testimony and insurance claim management.
3. State-federal vocational rehabilitation
   State VR counselors serve eligible public clients and do not work for insurance carriers as claim managers.
4. VA Veteran Readiness and Employment
   VR&E counselors serve veterans with service-connected disabilities and do not manage private LTD claims.

An attorney retains a CRC to review a plaintiff's records and asks her to reach a conclusion favoring his side before she has seen the data. Which section of the 2023 CRCC Code most directly applies?

1. Counseling Relationship
   In forensic work the person reviewed is an evaluee, not a client, so the counseling-relationship section is not the main source.
2. Business Practices
   Section L covers fees, records, and advertising; being paid by one side does not make an attorney's demand for a set opinion a business-practice issue.
3. Assessment and Evaluation
   Section H governs assessment methods and informed consent; pressure to reach a set conclusion in litigation is addressed in the forensic section.
4. Forensic Services
   Section G of the 2023 Code requires forensic CRCs to form objective opinions from the data and to decline cases that ask them to support predetermined positions.

Under the ADA Amendments Act, when deciding whether an applicant with epilepsy fully controlled by medication has a disability, the employer must:

1. require evidence of a seizure in the past year
   Requiring a recent seizure would judge the condition in its mitigated state, which the ADAAA forbids.
2. treat the condition as transitory and minor
   The 'transitory and minor' exception applies only to 'regarded as' claims about conditions lasting 6 months or less; epilepsy is lifelong.
3. disregard the benefit of the medication
   The ADAAA requires disability to be judged without the ameliorating effects of mitigating measures such as medication, except ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses.
4. consider how the person functions on medication
   Considering function on medication is the pre-2008 approach from Sutton v. United Air Lines that the ADAAA overturned.

An employer requires all warehouse applicants to hold a driver's license, although driving is not part of the job. The rule screens out many applicants with epilepsy. This is an example of:

1. hostile work environment
   A hostile environment involves harassment of employees; this is a hiring requirement.
2. retaliation
   Retaliation is adverse action for protected activity, such as filing a complaint; no one complained here.
3. disparate treatment
   Disparate treatment is intentional, different treatment because of disability; this rule applies to everyone.
4. disparate impact
   A neutral rule that screens out people with a disability and is not job-related or consistent with business necessity is disparate impact discrimination.

A worker believes that her private employer, which has 40 employees, refused a reasonable accommodation. She should file a charge with:

1. the Department of Transportation
   The Department of Transportation handles transportation accessibility, not employment charges.
2. the Department of Justice
   The DOJ enforces Title I against state and local government employers and handles Titles II and III, not charges against private employers.
3. OSHA
   OSHA enforces workplace safety, not disability discrimination.
4. the EEOC
   Title I covers private employers with 15 or more employees, and charges of employment discrimination go to the EEOC, or a state fair employment agency, before any lawsuit.

Which of the following is an employer NOT required to provide as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA?

1. Reassignment to a vacant job
   Reassignment to a vacant position is listed in the ADA as a reasonable accommodation.
2. A modified work schedule
   Part-time or modified schedules are listed in the ADA as reasonable accommodations.
3. Removing an essential function
   Employers never have to eliminate essential functions; accommodations help the person perform them.
4. A sign language interpreter
   Qualified readers and interpreters are listed in the ADA as reasonable accommodations.

Under WIOA, which of the following is one of the five required pre-employment transition services for students with disabilities?

1. Instruction in self-advocacy
   WIOA's five required pre-employment transition services are job exploration counseling, work-based learning, counseling on postsecondary options, workplace readiness training, and instruction in self-advocacy.
2. Job coaching in supported employment
   Supported employment job coaching is a separate individualized service, not one of the five required Pre-ETS.
3. Vehicle modification
   Vehicle modification is an individualized VR service under an IPE, not a pre-employment transition service.
4. Payment of college tuition
   Tuition is not one of the five required services; Pre-ETS includes counseling on postsecondary options, not paying for them.

A CRC who holds a PhD in history signs vocational reports as "Dr. Lee, Rehabilitation Counselor" without noting the degree field. This most directly raises a concern about:

1. a breach of client confidentiality
   No client information is disclosed; the problem is the signature line.
2. misrepresenting credentials
   The 2023 CRCC Code allows the title 'doctor' in a counseling context only for a doctorate in rehabilitation counseling or a closely related field; with an unrelated doctorate, the field must be stated.
3. exceeding assessment scope
   The concern is how the credential is presented, not which assessments she performs.
4. a conflict of interest
   A conflict of interest involves competing loyalties or gain; nothing here involves divided interests.

A CRC realizes that her own worsening depression is impairing her work with clients. Under the CRCC Code, she should:

1. keep working normally so clients are not disrupted
   Continuing while impaired risks harm to clients, which the Code is meant to prevent.
2. wait until a client complains before acting
   The Code expects counselors to act on their own impairment, not wait for harm to surface.
3. seek help and limit or suspend services as needed
   The CRCC Code directs counselors who notice impairment to seek assistance and to limit, suspend, or end services until it is safe to resume.
4. disclose her diagnosis to each client in detail
   Detailed self-disclosure burdens clients and does not protect them; managing the impairment does.

A supervisor tells a counselor to steer clients toward one employer that pays the agency a referral fee, regardless of fit. The counselor should:

1. decline and raise the conflict of interest
   Steering clients for a referral fee puts the agency's gain above their welfare, so the counselor declines and raises the conflict through proper channels.
2. comply only when clients lack options
   Clients with fewer options are more vulnerable to exploitation, not less.
3. refuse quietly without raising it
   Quietly refusing protects only her own clients and leaves the harmful policy in place for others; the CRCC Code asks counselors to make the conflict known and seek a resolution.
4. comply but disclose the fee
   Disclosing the fee does not cure steering clients to jobs that do not fit them.

Before a client's case is discussed by an interdisciplinary treatment team, the CRCC Code requires the counselor to:

1. have team members sign a waiver of liability
   Liability waivers do nothing to inform the client or protect confidentiality.
2. tell the client about the team and its sharing
   The CRCC Code requires telling clients during professional disclosure that a team exists, who is on it, and that their information will be shared with it.
3. get the team leader's written approval to share
   Internal approval does not replace informing the client.
4. remove the client's name from team notes
   Teams need identifiable information to coordinate care; the obligation is to inform the client, not to remove names.

A 24-year-old client with an intellectual disability, who is her own legal guardian, wants to work at a grocery store. Her parents insist she stay in a day program. The counselor should:

1. let the day program staff make the decision
   Staff have no authority over the choices of an adult who is her own guardian.
2. support her choice and address parents' concerns
   As her own guardian, she makes her own decisions; the counselor supports her informed choice while listening to and addressing her parents' worries.
3. follow the parents' wishes
   Her parents' good intentions do not override her legal right to decide.
4. ask the client and parents to vote on the plan
   A family vote gives her parents decision-making power that legally belongs to her.

A cook in recovery from alcohol use disorder relapses and misses two shifts without calling in. Under the ADA, his employer:

1. may not discipline him during treatment
   Being in treatment does not shield an employee from discipline for violating uniform rules.
2. must terminate him for drinking
   The ADA does not require firing; the employer may choose its usual disciplinary steps.
3. must excuse absences related to disability
   Unexcused, no-call absences need not be excused even if linked to a disability; leave can be an accommodation when requested in advance.
4. may apply the usual attendance rules
   The ADA lets employers hold employees with alcohol use disorder to the same attendance and conduct standards as everyone else, including no-call absences.

A former client whose case closed three years ago asks a CRC on a date. Under the 2023 CRCC Code, the counselor:

1. must decline, because five years have not passed
   The 2023 CRCC Code bars sexual or romantic relationships with former clients for five years after last professional contact, so at three years the counselor must decline.
2. may accept, because more than two years have passed
   No two-year rule applies; the CRCC waiting period is five years, and even then harm must be ruled out.
3. may accept if a supervisor approves the relationship
   Supervisor approval cannot override the Code's five-year prohibition.
4. must decline, because former clients are always off-limits
   The CRCC Code bans relationships permanently only with vulnerable former clients; for other former clients the ban lasts five years, and the lifetime ban for all former clients is AAMFT's rule.

A VR counselor wants the high school evaluation records of a 19-year-old applicant who is still in a school transition program and has no guardian. Under FERPA, the school may release the records to VR with written consent from:

1. his IEP case manager
   School staff hold the records but cannot consent to their release on the student's behalf.
2. his parents
   Being enrolled in high school does not keep FERPA rights with the parents once the student turns 18.
3. the student himself
   Under FERPA, rights pass from parents to the student at age 18 or on entering postsecondary school, so a 19-year-old without a guardian signs his own release.
4. the VR agency director
   A request from the receiving agency is not consent; the school needs the written consent of the eligible student.