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Eligibility · all three license tiersThe Compact covers all three social work license tiers — clinical, master's, and bachelor's — but the requirements differ by tier. Here's what each one needs, from Section 4 of the model legislation.
All three. The Social Work Licensure Compact defines three license categories — bachelor's (e.g. LBSW), master's (e.g. LMSW), and clinical (e.g. LCSW / LICSW) — and a multistate license is available in each. The clinical category carries one extra requirement (supervised postgraduate practice); the rest are shared across all tiers.
For a multistate license in any category, the model legislation (Section 4) requires all of these:
A bachelor's in social work from an accredited program, the ASWB Bachelors exam, plus the shared requirements. No supervised-hours requirement.
A master's in social work from an accredited program, the ASWB Masters exam, plus the shared requirements. No clinical supervised-hours requirement.
Everything the master's tier needs, the ASWB Clinical exam, plus 3,000 hours or 2 years of full-time supervised postgraduate clinical practice.
Requirements mirror Section 4 of the Compact model legislation (Nov 2024 final), verified 2026-07-15. Final eligibility is decided by your home state when applications open (estimated after Spring 2027) and may be refined by Commission rulemaking.
One email the day your state opens multistate license applications — and nothing else between now and then except rule changes that affect you.
FAQ
All three. The Compact defines bachelor's (LBSW), master's (LMSW), and clinical (LCSW/LICSW) categories, and a multistate license is available in each.
Only the clinical category requires supervised postgraduate clinical practice — 3,000 hours or two years full-time — on top of the requirements shared by all tiers.
No — you need a passing score for your category, which you already have if you're licensed. Limited grandfathering applies if your state licensed you before it required the exam.