As a current student in the Marriage and Family Therapy doctoral program at Virginia Tech, I support this petition to count 600 hours of supervised experience toward residency. Counting supervised hours accumulated in the doctoral study, toward residency will be heavily influential in accelerating the licensure process for doctoral students so that they may begin to serve the community in effective ways. The state of Virginia is in need of licensed professionals as demand increases. 33.3% of older adults in the state of Virginia have a reported disability ( Disability Statistics Report, 2017).
As a student hoping to work with individuals with a disability(s), the movement of this petition will allow me to serve the populations with high needs. Below is another petition that could be used as a guidance

Summary:
Purpose: The proposed regulatory action will allow persons who have obtained a doctoral degree in counseling to become licensed with a smaller number of postgraduate hours in a supervised residency. It will accelerate the licensure process for those candidates and will allow them to provide counseling services in independent practice more quickly. Since the practicum or internship hours are within a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) program and under the supervision of credentialed faculty, the board is assured of appropriate oversight to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

Substance: The proposed amendments, requested per a petition for rulemaking, provide that supervised practicum and internship hours in a CACREP-accredited doctoral counseling program may be accepted for up to 900 direct or indirect hours and up to 100 supervision hours if the professor or supervisor has an active professional counselor license.