AB 141

Current law prohibits a person from using the title “social worker” without holding a social worker certificate, and similarly prohibits the use of other titles corresponding to higher levels of social work practice without a corresponding credential for that level of social work practice. Those higher levels of social work practice include advanced practice social work, independent social work, and clinical social work. Current law further prohibits the practice of clinical social work without a clinical social worker license. Current law specifies requirements for obtaining these social worker credentials, all of which include a requirement of passage of an examination.

This bill provides for an alternative pathway to obtain a social work credential without passage of a national examination. Under the bill, an individual who has taken the examination corresponding to a particular category of social work credential and has not passed the examination, but who otherwise satisfies the requirements for the credential, may obtain a provisional credential. With the provisional credential, the individual is allowed to practice the corresponding level of social work, may use the corresponding title, and is considered to be that level of social worker, but the individual must obtain at least three hours of supervision during every 160 hours of practice, in accordance with the bill and rules promulgated by the Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board and subject to periodic evaluation. Upon successful completion of the supervised practice requirement, the individual must receive a final evaluation and may obtain a corresponding nonprovisional social worker credential without passage of the examination.