SB 74

This bill ratifies and enters Wisconsin into the Social Work Licensure Compact, which provides for the ability of a social worker to become eligible to practice in other compact states. Significant provisions of the compact include the following:

1. The creation of a Social Work Licensure Compact Commission, which includes one member or administrator of the licensure authorities of each member state. The commission has various powers and duties granted in the compact, including establishing bylaws, promulgating binding rules for the compact, hiring officers, electing or appointing employees, and establishing and electing an executive committee. The commission may levy on and collect an annual assessment from each member state or impose fees on licensees of member states to cover the cost of the operations and activities of the commission and its staff.

2. The ability for a social worker who is licensed in a home state and satisfies certain other criteria to obtain a multistate license, which allows a social worker to practice social work in all other compact states (remote states) under a multistate authorization to practice. The compact specifies a number of requirements in order for an individual to obtain a social worker multistate license, including holding or being eligible for a social worker license in a home state, paying any required fees, and satisfying a number of criteria that are specific to the category of social work license the individual is seeking—bachelor’s, master’s, or clinical. A regulated social worker’s services in a remote state are subject to that member state’s regulatory authority. A remote state may take actions against a social worker’s multistate authorization to practice within that remote state, and if any adverse action is taken by a home state against a licensee’s multistate license, the social worker’s multistate authorization to practice in all other member states is deactivated until all encumbrances have been removed from the multistate license.

3. The ability of member states to issue subpoenas that are enforceable in other states.

4. The creation of a coordinated data system containing licensure and disciplinary action information on social workers. The compact requires all home state disciplinary orders that impose adverse actions against the license of a regulated social worker to include a statement that the regulated social worker’s multistate authorization to practice is deactivated in all member states until all conditions of the decision, order, or agreement are satisfied. A member state must submit a uniform data set to the data system on all individuals to whom the compact is applicable as required by the rules of the commission.

5. Provisions regarding resolutions of disputes among member states and between member and nonmember states, including a process for termination of a state’s membership in the compact if the state defaults on its obligations under the compact.

Since the compact has already been enacted by the minimum number of states required for it to become active, the compact becomes effective in this state upon enactment of the bill. The compact provides that it may be amended upon enactment of an amendment by all member states. A state may withdraw from the compact by repealing the statute authorizing the compact, but the compact provides that a withdrawal does not take effect until 180 days after the effective date of that repeal.