Update Related to the Corporate Practice of Social Work

As you are aware, in June of 2010 the NYS Legislature passed a law addressing the practice of clinical social work and other scope protected tasks including the provision of mental health counseling and psychotherapy in currently unauthorized corporate settings. The law allowed the Education Department to issue a waiver from corporate practice prohibitions to qualified not-for-profit and education corporations.

The Board of Regents approved permanent regulations to implement the law, and as such, the Department began accepting waiver applications beginning February 2, 2011 through June 16, 2011, however, many organizations felt this was an insufficient timeframe and as such the legislature passed a bill last week (June 17th) to extend the time frame to February 1, 2012.  We expect the Governor will sign the legislation shortly and we will keep you up to date on such progress. 

In the meantime, the Department has updated its FAQ’s related to the subject at the following link http://www.op.nysed.gov/waiver-corporate-faq.htm#filing

The NYS Association of Deans of Schools of Social Work in conjunction with the NASW New York State Chapter have produced an informational video regarding this issue to clarify who the law pertains to, which corporate entities might require a waiver and the application process.

We encourage everyone to share this with their agency administrators and colleagues so that the information reaches as many affected agencies as possible especially given the brief window for application.

Click Here to View the video (16 mins in length)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8QKH-SJwDM

Link to Waiver Applications on NYSED website:
http://www.op.nysed.gov/waiver-corporate-practice.htm

NEW Extended Deadline for Waiver Applications:
February 1, 2012