New Licensure Issues Coming to Light…

Throughout the summer, NASW-NYS has been receiving calls from concerned social workers around the state regarding licensure implementation, specifically, as it relates to appropriate settings and supervision leading to the LCSW. As such, we have been representing your concerns to the State Board for Social Work at the State Education Department, the agency authorized to oversee social work practice in New York State.

There have been no substantive alterations in statute nor regulations since enactment of the social work licensure law in September of 2004; however, recent “clarifications” issued by the State Education Department have lead to great confusion, frustration and denials amongst applicants seeking the LCSW. Such “clarifications” focus specifically on the practice of licensed clinical social work by licensed master social workers in independently owned and operated settings. While statutorily, LMSWs were never permitted to provide clinical social work services (assessment based treatment planning, diagnosis and psychotherapy) in independently owned and operated settings, guidance documents authored by the State Education Department did not make this clear. This has resulted in untold numbers of social workers facing denial of their LCSW under the grounds that their clinical experience was obtained in an invalid setting.

NASW-NYS is extremely concerned about this recent development and as such we are working in collaboration with the State Education Department and other interested parties in an attempt to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. It is our intention to keep members informed of the process as it unfolds over the next several months. Most recently, NASW-NYS and NASW-NYC issued a joint letter to the Department articulating our concerns and requesting specific corrective actions. To view a copy of this letter, simply click here.

Given the complexity of the social work licensure statute and the broad array of professional experiences among social workers, we understand that there may be additional issues not addressed in the above referenced letter. As such, we invite you to log onto our Social Work Licensure Comment Form . The intent of this form is to gather intelligence regarding the impact of social work licensure which will assist us in our representation of the profession as additional issues arise in the future. This form is not intended to provide individual consultation regarding licensure issues; should you need individual assistance please contact the Chapter directly at swlicensure@naswnys.org