Bill Text: VA HB606 | 2024 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Clinical social workers; licensure examination alternative.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-03-01 - Failed to report (defeated) in Rehabilitation and Social Services (6-Y 8-N) [HB606 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HB606-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. §1. That the Board of Social Work (the Board) shall amend the regulations for the licensure of clinical social workers to allow an applicant to utilize an examination alternative that allows the Board to ascertain the qualifications and fitness of the applicant for licensure as a clinical social worker. The examination alternative shall consist of at least 1,500 hours of supervised clinical experience that is obtained within the five calendar years immediately preceding the date of application. Such supervised experience completed as an examination alternative shall be in addition to any other supervised clinical experience required for licensure. An applicant who has taken but not successfully completed the licensing examination shall be eligible to utilize the examination alternative, and such applicant may use supervised experience hours previously accumulated towards such examination alternative, provided that such hours were earned in addition to any other supervised clinical experience required for licensure. An applicant's eligibility for licensure as a clinical social worker shall be based on the applicant's supervised experience hours and shall not be contingent on the applicant's current employment. An applicant may utilize both the examination alternative and the licensing examination pathways concurrently.
