Social Work Licensure in Arkansas: LCSW Requirements, Hours and Exams

The Act names three licenses: the licensed social worker (LSW), the licensed master social worker (LMSW) and the licensed certified social worker (LCSW).

Despite the word certified, the LCSW is the tier the Act builds its clinical scope around — specialized knowledge and advanced clinical skills in assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders — and the only license that may operate a private practice.

The LSW conducts a basic generalist practice in organized settings and is not qualified to diagnose and treat mental illness or provide psychotherapy; the LMSW practices under supervision within a recognized, organized setting.

Both are barred from private or independent practice, so the LCSW is where a clinical career in Arkansas leads.

Two one-time provisional licenses — Provisional Licensed Social Worker and Provisional Licensed Master Social Worker — bridge applicants to their exam, and a provisional LCSW license is not available.

The LSW requires a baccalaureate degree from a social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education or the Canadian Association for Social Work Education; the LMSW and LCSW require an accredited master's degree in social work.

A social work degree from an accredited educational institution received before June 17, 1986 is an alternate route at every level.

The rules require an official transcript sent directly from your college or university with the social work degree posted — a transcript already on file with the Association of Social Work Boards is also accepted — so request it early, because the board reviews the application only after all required information arrives.

An LCSW applicant must additionally provide documentation of LCSW supervision with the application.

The LCSW statute requires at least twenty-four (24) months of supervised social work experience under a licensed certified social worker, including at least four thousand (4,000) hours in a social work position under the supervision of an LCSW or a social worker whom the board determines to have equivalent qualifications.

The rules read the same period as post-master's social work experience in a supervised master's-level position, and let the supervisor come from inside or outside the agency where you earn the hours.

The statute states a floor and a total, not a deadline, so a slower part-time path does not expire — but the position has to be a social work position under qualifying supervision, not any paid role.

Match your job offer against both texts before you start counting.

Every license turns on an examination approved by the board for the purpose and level of practice, administered through a nationally recognized examination service; the ASWB category for each tier is not named in the statute or the rules.

The passing score is the national passing score set by the examination service, the board adopts the service's ninety-day wait between attempts, and the exam may be taken up to three (3) times.

The one-time provisional licenses give an LSW or LMSW applicant one year and up to three attempts at that exam.

A Provisional Licensed Certified Social Worker license is not available, but the statute's LCSW subsection directs the board to issue a Provisional Licensed Master Social Worker license one (1) time only to an applicant who qualifies under it, and endorsement's Rule V.B adds a second master's-level provisional route for an LCSW endorsement applicant who has met everything except the exam.

Each provisional is issued only one time per person, so someone who used one at the LMSW level has no second rung.

Qualification supervision is its own track, separate from the weekly on-the-job supervision the rules require of licensees once they hold an LSW or LMSW.

To supervise hours toward the LCSW, an LCSW — or a social worker the board determines to have equivalent qualifications — must be fully licensed for three (3) years, and may work inside or outside your agency.

You and the supervisor file a supervision plan on a board-approved form within sixty (60) days of the start date, and the rules put verifying the board's receipt of the plan on you.

Supervision is capped at two (2) hours in any one-week period, and groups of at most four count only up to one-half of the total supervisory time, so the 100 direct supervision hours need at least fifty weeks even if every session is one-on-one.

Technology-facilitated supervision is permitted with precautions such as passwords, encryption and a private setting.

The Act draws its sharpest line at private independent practice: only a licensed certified social worker may engage in it, and only an LCSW may provide social work consultation.

The LSW is not qualified to diagnose and treat mental illness nor to provide psychotherapy services, and both the LSW and the LMSW shall not practice privately or independently — the LMSW's work happens under supervision within an organized setting.

The LCSW, by contrast, may operate a private practice and practice macro social work independently.

The Act also exempts whole categories of employment: a regular employee of a licensed hospital performing social work needs no license so long as they do not represent themselves to the public as a social worker, and the same holds for state-employed family service workers, social service workers and adult protective services workers.

Read those exemptions before turning down an offer on licensure grounds alone.

The board may grant a license without examination to an applicant who meets every other requirement and is licensed by a similar board of another state, territory, district or Canadian province whose standards the board finds substantially equivalent.

The rule applying that statute waives the board-approved exam where the applicant is currently licensed elsewhere, has passed a social work examination there, and holds a CSWE- or CASWE-accredited social work degree.

An LCSW applicant must still document twenty-four (24) months of supervision and 4,000 hours in a master's-level position under LCSW supervision — waivable if you have practiced at the independent clinical level for the last three (3) years and met your state's requirements for independent clinical licensure.

An LCSW endorsement applicant who has met everything except the exam may instead be issued a master's-level provisional license.

Qualifying uniformed service members, veterans and their spouses are separately entitled to automatic licensure on a similar-scope license from another state.

As of September 2026 Arkansas is on the Social Work Licensure Compact commission's list of member jurisdictions, so the compact is enacted here; the enacting act was not located in the sources read, and the board's code PDF is the 2019 edition.

Enacted is not the same as usable: the commission has reached activation status but is not yet issuing multistate licenses, so practicing in Arkansas still takes an Arkansas license by the standard route or the endorsement routes above.

If you hold an Arkansas LCSW and expect to work across state lines later, track the commission's status rather than assuming a multistate license exists today, and check your own status with the board before relying on either.

Licenses are valid for two (2) years from issuance, and renewal requires thirty (30) hours of social work education, of which three (3) must be in ethics and no more than fifteen (15) may be independent study.

The board does not pre-approve continuing education — judging whether a workshop qualifies is the licensee's job, and hours the board disallows must be replaced within three months.

Let a license lapse and the statute allows a short window: one lapsed less than three (3) months may be renewed with a fee two (2) times the renewal fee and an attestation that you have not practiced since the lapse.

One lapsed three (3) months or longer is not renewable, and its holder applies as a new applicant — but Rule VIII.D adds a reinstatement route for a former Arkansas licensee who was in good standing, was not revoked, suspended or on probation, is sufficiently competent, and pays the fee and completes the background check.

Renewal notices go out approximately two months before expiration, but filing on time is your responsibility.

Providing social work services to a client within Arkansas through any means — electronic or by telephone — constitutes the practice of social work in Arkansas regardless of where the social worker is located, which matters if you relocate or telework across a state line.

The board's telemedicine rule requires a proper social worker/client relationship before services are delivered: an in-person psychosocial assessment, a face-to-face assessment using real-time audio-and-visual telemedicine, or a previously established professional relationship.

A psychosocial history completed online and forwarded to the social worker is expressly not sufficient to establish the relationship.

Telemedicine may be used for group therapy, but not for group therapy provided to a child age eighteen (18) or younger.