CRC Exam (Certified Rehabilitation Counselor) — All Questions

Eight years after termination, a CRC is asked on a date by a former client whom the CRC treated for PTSD following an assault. What does the CRCC Code require?

• a.Proceed, because more than five years have passed since the last contact
• b.Decline, because the prohibition applies regardless of elapsed time✓
• c.Proceed after documenting that the relationship would not be coercive
• d.Proceed after obtaining approval from the CRCC Ethics Committee

Standard A.4.c prohibits romantic or sexual relationships with former clients who have a history of physical, emotional, or sexual trauma, regardless of how much time has passed. The five-year period in A.4.b does not apply to these vulnerable former clients, documentation of non-coercion is the A.4.b safeguard for other former clients, and the Code provides no Ethics Committee approval route.

At the final session, a client from a culture in which small gifts express gratitude offers her rehabilitation counselor a handmade scarf. Which approach is consistent with the CRCC Code?

• a.Refuse the gift, since the Code prohibits accepting any gift from a client
• b.Accept the gift only if it is worth less than twenty-five dollars
• c.Accept the gift and report it to the client's funding source
• d.Weigh the cultural practice, the gift's value, and each party's motives✓

Standard A.4.j says CRCs do not accept gifts except when culturally appropriate or therapeutically relevant, and directs them to consider cultural or community practice, the therapeutic relationship, the gift's monetary value, and both parties' motives, while following employer policy. The Code does not impose a blanket ban, sets no dollar threshold, and does not call for reporting gifts to a funding source.

A CRC is coordinating a job accommodation for a client who has bipolar disorder. The client's new manager asks the CRC for the client's diagnosis and medication list. What should the CRC do?

• a.Share only job-relevant information the client consented in writing to share✓
• b.Give the diagnosis but keep the medication list confidential from the manager
• c.Share the full clinical file, because the employer is paying for the placement
• d.Refuse to discuss the client with the manager in any way at all

Standard B.1.f requires written client consent before disclosing information to employers and, in placement and retention work such as coordinating accommodations, limits disclosure to necessary job-relevant information for those with a need to know. Volunteering the diagnosis or the whole file exceeds that limit regardless of who pays, and refusing all contact would block the accommodation the client asked the CRC to coordinate.

A CRC in private practice receives a subpoena for a client's records issued by the opposing party's attorney, not signed by a judge. What is the CRC's first appropriate step under the CRCC Code?

• a.Send the complete file before the response deadline stated on the subpoena
• b.Disregard the subpoena, since only a judge can compel the release of records
• c.Shred the session notes that the subpoena happens to cover
• d.Inform the client and assess the potential harm before releasing anything✓

Standard B.2.c says that when a subpoena comes from someone other than a judge, such as an attorney, the CRC informs the client and assesses potential harm to the client or the counseling relationship before releasing information, and ensures properly signed releases are in place. Releasing the full file skips those steps, ignoring a subpoena is not what the Code directs, and destroying requested records is never an acceptable response.

After a thorough discussion of the risks, a client insists on pursuing a sales job that her rehabilitation counselor considers a poor fit. The counselor supports her decision. Which ethical principle does this most directly reflect?

• a.Fidelity
• b.Autonomy✓
• c.Justice
• d.Nonmaleficence

The CRCC Code defines autonomy as respecting the right of clients to be self-governing within their social and cultural framework, and Standard A.1.e directs CRCs to respect clients' decisions on their own behalf. Fidelity concerns keeping promises and honoring trust, justice concerns fair treatment and appropriate services for all clients, and nonmaleficence is the duty to do no harm.

The publisher of a vocational aptitude battery released a revised edition 18 months ago. A CRC still uses the earlier edition with a new client. Under the CRCC Code, what must the CRC do?

• a.Nothing, because tests remain current for five years after publication
• b.Document a valid reason the earlier edition better fits this client✓
• c.Obtain written permission from the publisher to keep the earlier edition
• d.Have a second evaluator co-sign every report that uses the older edition

Standard H.4.b states that new or revised tests are generally used within one year of publication unless the CRC documents a valid reason why the previous version is more applicable to the client. The Code sets no five-year currency window, and neither publisher permission nor co-signed reports substitute for that documented rationale.

An attorney who is not a psychologist or counselor asks a CRC for the client's raw test answer sheets. The client has signed a general release. What does the CRCC Code allow?

• a.Release the raw data to the attorney because the client signed a release
• b.Release the raw data only after removing the client's name and scores
• c.Release the raw data after the attorney signs a confidentiality pledge
• d.Release raw data only to a professional qualified to interpret it✓

Standard H.2.b allows raw data identifying a client to be released, when copyright law allows, only with client consent or court order and only to professionals recognized as qualified to interpret it. A general release does not make an unqualified recipient eligible, removing identifiers would strip the data of its use rather than satisfy the rule, and a confidentiality pledge does not add interpretive qualifications.

A plaintiff's attorney offers a CRC who provides forensic vocational opinions a bonus equal to a share of any damages awarded. How should the CRC respond?

• a.Accept, as long as the fee arrangement is written into the retainer
• b.Decline, because forensic payment can never depend on the outcome✓
• c.Accept, provided the bonus is disclosed to the trier of fact at trial
• d.Accept only if the CRC's opinion is finished before the offer is made

Standards G.4.a and L.3.d state that in a forensic setting payment for services is never contingent on the outcome of a case or award, and the Glossary defines a contingency fee as one payable if the case is won or settled. Writing the arrangement into a retainer, disclosing it at trial, or timing the opinion before the offer does not cure the conflict the Code forbids.

A CRC is revising her professional disclosure statement. Regarding social media, what does the CRCC Code specifically require her to include?

• a.A list of every social media platform on which she keeps a personal account
• b.Her consent for clients to tag her in public posts about their progress in services
• c.A promise to review each client's public social media profiles before the intake session
• d.A statement that she declines client friend or follow requests on personal accounts✓

Standard K.4.c requires CRCs to explain the benefits, limitations, and boundaries of social media as part of informed consent and to include an explicit statement about non-acceptance of friend or follow requests from clients on personal accounts. The Code does not require listing personal accounts, and K.4.d directs CRCs to avoid searching a client's online presence unless it is relevant and disclosed in advance.

A CRC is starting telehealth counseling with a client who lives two hours away. Which step does the CRCC Code require at the beginning of virtual counseling?

• a.Confirm that the client's internet connection passes a formal speed test
• b.Require that the client's family attend the first video session
• c.Collect local emergency numbers and an emergency contact near the client✓
• d.Schedule at least one in-person meeting before any video sessions

Standard K.5.d requires CRCs, at the beginning of virtual counseling, to develop an emergency procedure that includes contact information for local emergency services and a personal emergency contact in the client's physical location. The Code does not require a speed test, family attendance, or an in-person session before virtual work begins, though K.5.a lists technology failure as an informed-consent topic.

An employer's manager tells an applicant that the company will not hire him because he once received treatment for cancer, which is now in remission. Which prong of the ADA definition of disability most directly covers him?

• a.An actual disability that is currently active
• b.A record of such an impairment✓
• c.An impairment that is transitory and minor
• d.A disability established by a physician's letter

Under 29 CFR 1630.2(g) and (k), an individual is covered under the 'record of' prong if he has a history of an impairment that substantially limited a major life activity, and ada.gov gives cancer in remission as an example. The cancer is not currently active, 'transitory and minor' describes an exception to the 'regarded as' prong rather than a basis for coverage, and the ADA definition does not turn on a physician's letter.

A client has worked for a 40-person employer for 14 months, averaging 30 hours a week, and needs time off after surgery. All 40 employees work at one site. Is he eligible for FMLA leave?

• a.Yes, because he has worked for this employer for more than 12 months
• b.Yes, because he has worked more than 1,250 hours in the past year
• c.No, because the employer has fewer than 50 employees within 75 miles✓
• d.No, because he has not worked full time for the full 12 months

Under 29 CFR 825.110(a), an eligible employee must have 12 months of employment, at least 1,250 hours of service in the prior 12 months, and work at a site where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles. He meets the months and hours tests (about 1,560 hours), but the 40-employee worksite fails the 50-within-75-miles test; nothing in the rule requires full-time status.