Path to Licensure Newsletter
September 2020
Dear Path to Licensure partners,

Back when everyone rapidly made adjustments to finish the spring term in a virtual environment, who would have thought that many of you would still be converting from teaching in your brick and mortar classrooms to using online platforms in the fall? You have met many challenges and are continuing to bring your ingenuity and experience to benefit your students. Wishing you all well as you meet and greet new and returning students to your social work program.

Many of you have already welcomed students back to classes. You may have offered or are planning orientation activities. Please use the resources shared in this newsletter—such as our free downloadable brochure on why social work regulation matters—as you begin helping students establish their identities as social workers and understand that social work is a career defined by professional licensure. 

New this school year in the Path to Licensure newsletter are some regular features: Licensing 101, Understanding the ASWB Licensing Exams, and Hot Topics. We want to make our newsletters useful to your academic program, so I invite your questions and requests for information on these topics. I look forward to receiving your emails.

Best wishes for a great fall term!

Jan Fitts, MSW, LCSW
Education and Research Senior Manager
Licensing 101: Why does social work licensing matter?
Social work students need to know that the profession they are entering is regulated across the United States and Canada. For aspiring social workers, this means one thing: either licensure with their U.S. jurisdiction or registration in Canada.

Licensing is for all social workers, not just clinical social workers. Most U.S. jurisdictions require licensure for practice as a bachelor’s, master’s, and clinical social worker. As they enter their chosen career, students need to know that social work licensing is a fact of professional life.

Share ASWB's brochure Why it matters to help students understand the important role of professional regulation.
Understanding the ASWB licensing exams: Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Our society is experiencing a time of renewed commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. ASWB has long embraced these social work values as it creates the social work licensing examinations. From the writers who create the questions, to the committees that review and approve them, to the statistical measurement of how test-takers perform, steps are in place to ensure freedom from bias.

Learn more about how the social work licensing examinations are developed to ensure fairness in every step of the process.




Licensed social workers needed to write questions for the
ASWB exams
Hot Topics: Emergency provisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Regulators across North America continue to cope with challenges to their work resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most U.S. states have created emergency regulatory provisions to help meet these challenges through adjustments to policies on, for example, continuing education, electronic practice, license renewal, and in-person supervision.

For a list of these provisions, go to ASWB's COVID-19 web page, and look under the Regulatory Provisions tab.

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