The Time Is Right for Licensed Social Work

by Dwight J. Hymans, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, and Roxroy A. Reid, MSW, PhD, LCSW

     ASWB’s vision is “All social workers are licensed in order to protect clients and client systems.” Social work regulatory boards establish and enforce standards of competency, safety, and ethical behavior for licensed practice. When the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) was formed in 1979, only 23 states were regulating social work. Today, all jurisdictions regulate clinical practice—49 regulate master’s practice, and 44 regulate bachelor’s practice. The number of licensees has grown to 541,635 in the United States, according to ASWB’s most recent reports from social work regulatory boards.

     Consumers of social work services often do not have the option to select a social worker and cannot be expected to have the expertise to evaluate a social worker’s competence. Licensing gives clients and the public assurance of a licensee’s competence, as well as recourse when a social worker behaves unethically or incompetently. ASWB’s Model Social Work Practice Act, or model law, includes three categories of license—Licensed Bachelors Social Worker, Licensed Masters Social Worker, and Licensed Clinical Social Worker—and exempts only students from licensure and only while they are fulfilling experience requirements to get licensed.

     ASWB developed the model law as a guide to help member boards and their legislative partners create and revise regulations. Part of the model law’s purpose is to increase consistency of regulation from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. That consistency is the foundation for achieving practice mobility. For that reason, regulatory standards are a focus area of ASWB’s 2022–2023 strategic framework with the objective of monitoring and responding to the regulatory landscape to strengthen consistent standards across all jurisdictions.  

     Developing a social work licensing compact to support practice mobility in collaboration with other social work organizations is one of three strategies ASWB has identified to achieve this objective. Work is already under way. In 2021, the Council of State Governments (CSG) selected the social work profession to receive assistance in creating an interstate licensure compact with funding through the Department of Defense. Since then, ASWB has been working with CSG in concert with other social work organizations to develop recommendations for drafting the model compact legislation.

     The timing—during the COVID-19 pandemic—highlighted the need for greater flexibility in the use of electronic practice and in physical movement of social workers across jurisdictional boundaries to provide continuation of client services. Developing model compact legislation for social work is in part a response to these changes to practice delivery. 

     ASWB’s role as a 501(c)(3) organization is to reduce burdens on state governments. We work with our members to help them find solutions to their regulatory challenges. As we have learned during the pandemic, practice mobility is pivotal to increasing workforce accessibility. It will continue to be needed into the future, and compacts will be a critical conduit.

     Licensed social work will be an essential element of compact development. The time is right.

 Dwight J. Hymans, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, is CEO of the Association of Social Work Boards.

Roxroy A. Reid, MSW, PhD, LCSW, is president of the ASWB Board of Directors and former chair of the New Mexico Board of Social Work Examiners.