LITTLE ROCK—A state agency that oversees parolees has been given until the end of September to seek a permit from a federal agency to test parolees for drugs or stop the practice.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an arm of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, released a copy of a letter Tuesday to the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections, telling the state agency that the deadline to seek the permit had been extended to Sept. 29.

Last week, federal regulators ordered a Community Corrections Department office at Pine Bluff to stop testing parolees’ urine for drugs, saying the state agency lacked a needed certificate. Community Corrections spokeswoman Rhonda Sharp said at the time that agency officials believed the Pine Bluff office did not need a certificate, as courts and the state’s parole board decide on what treatment and counseling parolees need.

“We supervise parolees for the parole board and probationers for the court,” Sharp said. “So what we’re doing is a law-enforcement function.”

Sharp could not be reached for comment Tuesday.