Don’t want to take a grueling exam on the High Holy Days? Just bring a signed letter from your rabbi, and you’re excused.
Sound a bit intrusive? That’s what Ruth Carter thought when the state’s Board of Behavioral Sciences scheduled her marriage and family therapist’s licensing exam on Rosh Hashanah.
Instead of bringing a letter from a rabbi, she arranged for one from the Anti-Defamation League. The BBS changed its policy, Carter eventually passed her exam and all was well. That was 1996.
Carter was shocked, however, when she recently thumbed through the social workers’ professional journal and discovered that those wishing to reschedule the BBS licensing exam for religious reasons were still required to present a letter from a spiritual adviser.
“I don’t have to take any more exams, but I thought that policy was unjust,” said Carter, who practices in San Francisco.
“What’s the big deal if you don’t take the test on Friday or Saturday? Why can’t you take it on a Sunday if you’re an observant Jew? You still have to take the test, you can’t not take it.”
Regional ADL Director Jonathan Bernstein agreed with Carter, sending the BBS a letter early last month. In it, he suggested that instead of insisting upon documentation from a religious official, a “notarized letter from the test registrant signed under penalty of perjury” should suffice.
Sherry Mehl, the BBS’ executive officer, had little trouble with that suggestion, and it was officially adopted within a week.
“The government doesn’t want to get into the business of deciding how religious you are,” explained Bernstein of the ADL’s position.
“They just shouldn’t be doing that. That’ll end up causing all kinds of trouble.”
He praised the BBS, which licenses both therapists and social workers, for “doing the responsible thing and responding quickly.”
Mehl was surprised to learn the ADL had written a nearly identical letter to her predecessor, however.
“If the policy was changed, it should have stayed changed. It would have been reflected in the policy,” she said.
“The policy has been around as long as I’ve been here.”
This time, however, the policy has been changed, in writing, and has been updated on the BBS Web site and in mailings.
The 45-minute oral licensing exam for therapists and social workers has a pass rate hovering at roughly 50 percent or less. About 2,000 candidates take the test every year. The test’s highly competitive nature necessitates verification of one’s religious obligations if he or she wishes to reschedule, according to Mehl.
The ADL recently spoke with the purveyors of the LSAT law school entry test regarding similar religious verification issues, and they too changed their policy, according to the ADL.