How to become a peer recovery coach in Texas, and where to find free training

If you need help now: call 911 in an emergency. In a mental health or substance use crisis, call or text 988, any time. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-4357, is free, confidential and open 24/7 for treatment referrals.

The path at a glance

Texas's peer specialist rules are in 1 Texas Administrative Code chapter 354, subchapter N. They are still the current rules: a Title 26 rule HHSC proposed in the March 20, 2026 Texas Register still defines a certified peer specialist by pointing to that subchapter.

Step	What it takes	Where it's set
1. Check you qualify	18 or older, a high school diploma or GED, lived experience and your own recovery, and criminal history and registry checks	§354.3051, §354.3201
2. Orientation	HHSC's online orientation and self-assessment, then save and print the attestation that you finished them. Training entities ask for it.	§354.3155; HHSC
3. Core training	From a certified training entity, in person or live online, ending in a knowledge assessment	§354.3159
4. Supplemental training	Recovery support (RSPS) or mental health (MHPS), picked by your own lived experience, with its own knowledge assessment	§354.3159
5. Initial certification	Apply to the Texas Certification Board for the six-month initial certification	TCB
6. Full certification	250 hours of supervised work under a certified Peer Specialist Supervisor, then apply for the two-year certification	TCB

How long the training takes. The rules don't set class hours; each training entity publishes its own schedule. One Houston training entity, The Council on Recovery, lists its core training as 19.5 hours over three days and its RSPS supplemental training as 46 hours over five days. Add up to six months for the 250 supervised hours.

What it costs to apply. The Texas Certification Board's certification applications page lists a $60 fee for the peer specialist certification, paid with the initial application and covering both the initial and the full certification. Training fees are separate and set by each training entity.

The eligibility details, the extension rule, renewal and the business side (an LLC, an NPI, insurance) are in how to start a recovery coaching practice in Texas. This guide covers what that one doesn't: which credential, where to train for less, and the day-to-day rules.

RSPS, MHPS or PRSS: which credential?

"Recovery coach" is a job title, not a Texas credential. Three peer credentials come up when you search, and they aren't the same thing:

	RSPS	MHPS	PRSS
What it is	State peer specialist certification, recovery support endorsement (substance use)	State peer specialist certification, mental health endorsement	The Texas Certification Board's own Peer Recovery Support Specialist credential, built on IC&RC standards
Set by	HHSC rule, 1 TAC 354 subchapter N	HHSC rule, 1 TAC 354 subchapter N	TCB
Training	Core, then recovery support supplemental, from a certified training entity	Core, then mental health supplemental	46 hours: 10 in advocacy, 10 in mentoring and education, 10 in recovery and wellness support, 16 in ethical responsibility
Experience	250 supervised hours during the initial certification	250 supervised hours during the initial certification	500 hours of paid or volunteer peer work, plus a 25-hour supervised practicum
Test	Knowledge assessments at the end of core and supplemental training	The same	The IC&RC Peer Recovery exam
Renewal	Every 2 years	Every 2 years	Every 2 years, with 20 hours of peer recovery continuing education, 6 of them in ethics
Texas Medicaid	Yes, through an enrolled provider	Yes, through an enrolled provider	Not on its own: the Medicaid benefit uses the state certification

• Mental health or recovery support. You take the supplemental training that matches your own lived experience (§354.3159), and you may provide only the services that match the endorsement on your certification (§354.3203). A recovery coach for alcohol and drug use is an RSPS; a peer for mental health recovery is an MHPS.
• The PRSS. TCB's PRSS application (its forms also say PRS; the posted version is from June 2019) also asks for a high school diploma or equivalent, Texas residency and an attestation of your lived experience. Peers who work with young people ages 16 to 25 can add a Young Peer Mentor endorsement with 6 more hours in a transitional-age module. TCB also posted a PRSS-to-RSPS grandfathering application for people who already held the PRSS.
• Which to get first. If you want a job that bills Texas Medicaid, get the RSPS. The PRSS is a separate, voluntary credential; ask TCB whether any of your RSPS training hours count toward it.

How Medicaid pays for RSPS and MHPS services, and who bills for them, is in can recovery coaches bill Medicaid in Texas?

Who certifies, and who trains

• The certification entity is an organization HHSC approves to certify peer specialists, peer specialist supervisors and training entities (§354.3003). HHSC's certification page sends peers to the Texas Certification Board, which issues the RSPS and MHPS certifications and keeps the list of certified training entities.
• Training entities have to be certified by a certification entity, have a physical location in Texas, teach curricula HHSC has approved (with the knowledge assessments) and keep written fee policies (§354.3151).

Before you pay for any course, check:

1. Is the provider on TCB's list of certified training entities?
2. Is this the core course, or the RSPS or MHPS supplemental course? Those are the ones that count toward the state certification.
3. Is it in person or live online, where you can ask questions in real time? §354.3159 allows only those two.
4. What's the fee and the refund policy? Ask for it in writing: §354.3151 requires training entities to keep written fee policies.
5. Are there free or scholarship seats, and will an employer pay?
6. Who can supervise your 250 hours afterward? Some training entities also offer supervision.

"Recovery Coach Academy" training. The Recovery Coach Academy is a 30-hour introductory course from CCAR, a Connecticut recovery community organization, which says plainly that no one masters coaching in 30 hours. Taken by itself, it isn't the Texas state certification. If a course is called a recovery coach academy, ask the two questions above: is the provider TCB-certified, and is it the HHSC-approved core or supplemental curriculum?

Free and low-cost recovery coach training in Texas

We looked for training that each program's own website says is free or paid for by public money. Here's what we could confirm on October 27, 2026. Seats and funding come and go, so ask whether a cohort is open now.

Where	What its site says	How to apply
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, RSPS Fellowship (federally funded through HRSA)	Recruits new RSPS trainees, covers tuition, fees and supplies, and pays a stipend, working with 15 training entities, practice sites and peer supervisors in high-need parts of Texas (UTHealth Houston)	The news story names no deadline. Contact the School of Public Health and ask whether the fellowship is taking trainees.
One World Recovery Network, a recovery community organization in North Texas	Posted a no-cost peer specialist training for Texas residents of at least six months who are 18 or older, have a diploma or GED and have lived experience (its notice). Its registration form also asks whether you want a scholarship.	The RSPS training application on its site. Classes are online, so you need a camera and steady internet. Incomplete applications aren't considered.
Your local Workforce Solutions office (federal WIOA funds)	WIOA can pay for training through an Individual Training Account, but only for programs on the Texas Workforce Commission's statewide eligible training provider list. Priority goes to public assistance recipients and other low-income adults (TWC)	Ask the office whether any peer specialist course is on the list. We didn't find one.
An employer	HHSC's recovery support services are funded through SAMHSA and delivered by peer specialists, so publicly funded programs hire peers	When you apply for peer jobs, ask whether they pay for training and supervision.

Everywhere else, training costs vary by training entity. Ask each one for its fee policy and whether it has scholarships. Free reading to start with: SAMHSA's core competencies for peer workers, the skills the trainings build on.

A criminal record and the background check

A record doesn't rule everyone out, but the rule is strict. Under §354.3201:

• Disclose everything: charges, indictments, deferred adjudication, community supervision (probation) and convictions. Leaving something out can get an application denied or a certification revoked.
• Look-back periods. The rule sorts offenses into five categories. An application is denied for a conviction or community supervision in a category within its look-back period, counted from the date you apply: for life (category 1), 15 years (2), 10 years (3), 5 years (4) or 3 years (5). The rule lists the offenses in each one.
• Pending charges put the application on hold until they're resolved.
• HHSC's Employee Misconduct Registry: anyone on it can't be certified.
• Exceptions: a certification entity may have an exception process, which HHSC has to approve.
• Renewal means new background and registry checks.

If you have a record, ask TCB before you pay for training. If you later want to become a counselor, the LCDC has its own criminal history review.

What a peer recovery coach may and may not do

The rule lists three kinds of peer services (§354.3013, as the Texas Certification Board's peer standards lay it out). Services are to be recovery-oriented, person-centered, relationship-focused and trauma-informed. The ethics rule, §354.3055, lists what's off-limits.

You may	You may not
Recovery and wellness support: information and help with planning for recovery	Provide psychotherapy, or make clinical or diagnostic assessments
Mentoring: be a role model, and help the person find resources and get through community systems	Give expert opinions, or provide any service that needs a license
Advocacy: support in stressful or urgent moments, and help protecting the person's rights	Cross personal or sexual boundaries, including dual relationships
Use your lived experience along with your training: that's how §354.3003 defines a peer specialist	Break privacy, falsify records, break drug or alcohol laws, discriminate, retaliate against a good-faith complaint, or fail to report suspected abuse or neglect

When someone needs more than peer support, connect them with a counselor, a doctor or a program. Find Care lists addiction treatment across Texas by city and kind of care.

Recovery coach group ideas

A peer group works when each meeting fits one of the three service kinds above and stays out of therapy. These are our suggestions, not state text:

Service	Group ideas
Recovery and wellness support	Write one recovery plan goal and this week's first step, then report back next week. A wellness check-in: sleep, food, movement, people, and what helped this week.
Mentoring	A meeting map: what AA, NA, SMART Recovery and other groups are like, and finding one tonight (our AA and NA meetings in Texas guide links each finder). Benefits night: how to apply for Texas Medicaid and SNAP, and where to get an ID. Job and housing leads.
Advocacy	Getting ready for a doctor's or court appointment: what to ask and what to bring. Your rights to privacy and to make a complaint. Talking with family (and pointing them to family support groups).

Leave trauma processing, diagnosis and medication advice to clinicians. If the group will be billed to Medicaid, the group size limit and billing rules are in the Medicaid guide.

Recovery coach progress notes and progress reports

For Medicaid, peer services have to be written into the person's recovery plan (§354.3015), so each note ties the contact to a goal in that plan. A short note covers:

1. Date, start and end time, and where (in person, video or phone)
2. The recovery plan goal it served
3. What you did, in peer words (shared experience, planning, a referral, a ride to a meeting)
4. How the person responded, and the next step
5. Any safety concern, and who you told
6. Your name, certification and signature

A made-up example: 10/20, 2:00 to 2:45 pm, in person. Goal: two mutual-help meetings a week. I shared how I found a home group, and we looked up three meetings near her job. She picked the Tuesday one and will text me after it. No safety concerns. J. Doe, RSPS.

What each note element proves to a health plan, a worked example of the units, and how the supervision log fits in are in Cima EHR's peer recovery support billing guide.

A progress report for someone else (a court, an employer, a referring program) is a disclosure. Get the person's written consent first. If you work for a federally assisted substance use program, 42 CFR Part 2 sets what the consent must say. Ask your supervisor before you send anything.

Recovery coach pay: what BLS says

• No separate pay data. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't collect data on peer support specialists on their own. It counts them as community health workers (occupation 21-1094).
• Nationally: community health workers' median pay was $51,850 a year, or $24.93 an hour, in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• In Texas: the latest state figure we could check is from May 2023. Texas had 4,760 community health workers, with a mean wage of $21.63 an hour ($44,990 a year) (BLS OEWS, May 2023).

Those numbers cover every community health worker, not just peers, so use them as a benchmark rather than a promise. What Medicaid pays a provider per unit of peer service is a separate thing; see the Medicaid rate. In private practice you set your own hourly rate. Post it on your listing, and see Find Care for recovery coaches for how coaches get paid and for the Good Faith Estimate tool for self-pay clients.

After you're certified

• Get found. Claim your free Find Care listing. Many Texas cities already have a recovery coach page from public records, such as Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso. Look for your name.
• Know the community resources your clients will ask about. In Houston, see recovery resources in Houston.
• Keep the certification current: renewal hours and the background check are in keep your certification.
• Thinking about counseling later? How to become an LCDC in Texas covers the 270 hours of education, 4,000 supervised hours and the exam.

Questions

Is there free recovery coach training in Texas?

Sometimes. UTHealth Houston's HRSA-funded RSPS fellowship covers tuition, fees and supplies and pays a stipend, and One World Recovery Network has posted no-cost training for Texas residents. Neither guarantees a seat, so ask whether a cohort is open. Otherwise, ask employers and training entities about paid training and scholarships.

Does a Recovery Coach Academy certificate count in Texas?

Not as the state certification on its own. Texas Medicaid peer services need the RSPS or MHPS, which takes HHSC-approved core and supplemental training from a training entity the Texas Certification Board has certified. Ask any recovery coach academy whether it's one of them.

What's a recovery coach's hourly rate in Texas?

BLS has no rate for peers on their own. For community health workers, the group it counts them in, the national median was $24.93 an hour in May 2025, and the Texas mean was $21.63 an hour in May 2023. In private practice, you set your own rate.

What goes in a recovery coach progress report?

For a session note: the date, time and place, the recovery plan goal, what you did, the person's response and next step, any safety concern, and your name and certification. A report to a court or employer needs the person's written consent first.

What are good recovery coach group ideas?

Ones that fit peer work: recovery planning and wellness check-ins, a meeting map of mutual-help groups, benefits and ID help, getting ready for appointments, and knowing your rights. Leave trauma work, diagnosis and medication advice to clinicians.

How long does it take to become a peer recovery coach in Texas?

Training takes days to weeks, depending on the training entity's schedule (one Houston entity runs a 3-day core and a 5-day RSPS course). Then you have the six-month initial certification to finish 250 supervised hours.

Is there a recovery coach exam in Texas?

For the RSPS and MHPS, the core and supplemental trainings each end with a knowledge assessment. The PRSS uses the IC&RC Peer Recovery exam.

Can I be a peer specialist with a felony in Texas?

It depends on the offense and how long ago it was. The rule sorts offenses into categories with look-back periods from 3 years to life, and allows an HHSC-approved exception process. Being on HHSC's Employee Misconduct Registry is a bar. Ask the Texas Certification Board before you pay for training.

Do I need a college degree?

No. The state certification needs a high school diploma or GED, plus lived experience and the training.

Sources

All checked October 27, 2026.

• 1 Texas Administrative Code chapter 354, subchapter N, Peer Specialist Services (Cornell LII): the subchapter; §354.3003 definitions; §354.3015 Medicaid reimbursement; §354.3055 ethical responsibilities; §354.3151 training entities; §354.3159 core and supplemental training; §354.3201 criminal history and registry checks; §354.3203 endorsements (Justia). Also §354.3013 services, §354.3051 qualifications and §354.3155 orientation.
• Texas Register, March 20, 2026, proposed rules, Title 26 (still citing 1 TAC chapter 354, subchapter N)
• Texas HHSC, Certification for peer support as a Medicaid benefit; Recovery support services
• Texas Certification Board: certification applications; PRSS application (June 2019); PRSS-to-RSPS grandfathering application; certification renewal; TCB standards for peer services
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Career Outlook, peer support specialist; Occupational Outlook Handbook, community health workers (May 2025 pay); OEWS, 21-1094 community health workers, May 2023 (Texas)
• UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Recovery Support Peer Specialist Fellowship Program
• One World Recovery Network, Become a Texas certified peer specialist and RSPS training application
• The Council on Recovery, Recovery Support Peer Specialist training
• Texas Workforce Commission, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program
• CCAR, When am I a recovery coach?
• SAMHSA, Core competencies for peer workers