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

The statute names three licenses: the licensed clinical social worker, the master's social worker and the baccalaureate social worker — each requires a CSWE-accredited degree at its level and an examination the Board designated (24 Del. C. § 3907(b)–(d)).

The definitions do the tiering.

Licensed clinical social work is a specialty within master's social work whose scope includes counseling and psychotherapy, private practice and supervision; master's social work is generalist practice plus specialized knowledge and advanced practice skills; baccalaureate social work is generalist practice (§ 3902).

The abbreviations LBSW, LMSW and LCSW come from the Board's rules (Rule 1.5).

Neither the statute nor the rules read creates an associate, intern or provisional tier below these three, so the LMSW is the rung a new master's graduate holds while deciding whether to pursue clinical licensure.

What separates the LCSW from the LMSW is supervised experience and the clinical examination, not additional coursework — the master's degree requirement is the same.

Every tier is built on a degree accredited by the Council on Social Work Education or its successor.

The LBSW requires a baccalaureate in social work, the LMSW a master's in social work, and the LCSW a master's or doctoral degree in social work from an accredited program — or a doctoral degree from a program the Board has approved (24 Del. C. § 3907(b)(2), (c)(2), (d)(2)).

The degree is documented by an official transcript from the institution that granted it (Rule 2.1).

Because the LCSW's degree clause repeats the master's option, an MSW graduate is academically complete for either license.

Applicants educated outside the United States take a separate route: evidence satisfactory to the Board that their instruction was equivalent to a CSWE-approved program, plus a credential evaluation arranged and paid for by the applicant through a Board-approved agency (§ 3907A).

The experience rule is where Delaware's number differs from guides that assume 3,000: an LCSW applicant documents not less than 3,200 hours of post-degree supervised clinical social work experience, obtained over not less than 2 years and not more than 5 years (Rule 3.1.1).

All 3,200 hours sit under professional supervision acceptable to the Board, and 1,600 of them must be clinical experience hours under direct professional supervision (Rule 3.1.2).

That direct supervision totals 100 hours: at least 75 one-to-one, and no more than 25 in group supervision, with groups capped at 7 supervisees (Rule 3.1.2.1).

Hours earned under a supervisor who does not meet rule 3.2 count for nothing (Rule 3.1.3).

Supervision is verified by the supervisor's Supervisory Reference Form, and through it you must demonstrate ten practice skills — clinical diagnoses and biopsychosocial assessments, short- and long-term interventions, treatment plans with measurable goals, and clinical risk assessment among them (Rules 3.1.4–3.1.5).

Plan the job around the 1,600 direct-supervision hours, not just the total.

The statute requires each tier's applicant to pass an examination the Board designated (24 Del. C. § 3907(b)(3), (c)(3), (d)(3)).

The Board's rules put examination language under a heading for all applicants, but the sentence names only the clinical exam — a mismatch to read carefully at the LBSW or LMSW level, because the rules read do not name those tiers' exam level.

Ask the Board which ASWB category to register for before you schedule.

Two other provisions help: the Board accepts the passing grade as ASWB determined it, and an applicant who has already taken and passed the designated national examination need not take any further state examination (24 Del. C. § 3908(b)).

Students get early access: a master's or baccalaureate social work student may take the examination up to 45 days prior to graduation (Rule 2.2.2).

Delaware issues no separate supervisor credential: a clinical supervisor is defined as a licensed clinical social worker who has met the Board's qualifications (24 Del. C. § 3902; Rules 3.2).

Supervision by an LCSW of any state or U.S. territory is acceptable (Rule 3.2.1).

The statute's fallback — a psychologist or psychiatrist when an LCSW was not available (24 Del. C. § 3907(b)(4)) — is gated: a compelling clinical reason plus a notarized Board-form statement of efforts made to find LCSW supervision, which the Board may reject (Rule 3.2.2.2).

A supervisor not licensed by the Board must attest to familiarity with Delaware's requirements and training to supervise clinically (Rule 3.2.3).

Supervisors must attest to at least 3 years post-licensure without disciplinary action, 3 hours of CE in clinical supervision plus 3 in cultural competency or diversity and 6 in ethics within 4 years of the application, and no more than 7 total supervisees at any given time (Rules 3.2.4.1–3.2.4.3).

Two applicants may not supervise one another (Rule 3.2.5).

If your supervisor is an LMSW, the 2024 change below applies.

The scope lines sit in the definitions.

Licensed clinical social work includes individual, marital, couple, family and group counseling and psychotherapy as related to the clinical therapeutic relationship, and expressly includes private practice and supervision — so the private-practice door opens with the LCSW, not before.

The same definition draws one hard boundary: administering psychological tests is not part of licensed clinical social work and is reserved exclusively for licensed psychologists under Chapter 35 of Title 24 (24 Del. C. § 3902).

Master's social work is defined as generalist practice plus specialized knowledge and advanced practice skills, and the chapter separately defines an advanced practice of nonclinical services — community organization, administration, policy — but issues no license for it (§ 3902).

Read job postings against these lines: a psychotherapy role is LCSW work under this chapter, while case management and nonclinical roles map to the LMSW and LBSW definitions.

The Board shall grant a license to an applicant who presents a current, active license in good standing, with no disciplinary action, from another jurisdiction whose standards the Board has determined are substantially similar to Delaware's, who has passed the Board-designated examination, and who provides the required disciplinary statements (24 Del. C. § 3909(a)).

An applicant from a jurisdiction the Board finds less stringent has a second door: at least 5 years of practice in the licensure field within the 7 years immediately preceding application (§ 3909(b)).

The rule puts the burden of proof on the applicant — you submit the other state's statute and rules and demonstrate that its educational, experience and supervision requirements are at least equivalent to Delaware's (Rules 4.1–4.2).

If your home state's clinical-hour rule differs from Delaware's 3,200, start collecting that documentation early; the Board, not a national database, makes the call.

Delaware has enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact: the statute says the State hereby enters into it (24 Del. C. ch. 39D, 85 Del. Laws c.

174).

As of September 2026 Delaware is on the Compact commission's list of member jurisdictions.

Enacted is not the same as usable: the commission has reached activation status but is not yet issuing multistate licenses anywhere as of the research date, so practicing in Delaware — or practicing in another state on a Delaware license — still runs through § 3909 reciprocity.

If your relocation plans assume a compact privilege, track the commission's status and confirm with the Board before relying on either.

Each license renews biennially, and renewal periods last 2 complete calendar years, beginning February 1 and ending January 31 of odd-numbered years (24 Del. C. § 3911(b); Rule 7.1.1.4).

Continuing education per period: 20 hours for the LBSW, 30 for the LMSW, 40 for the LCSW — every tier with at least 6 hours in professional ethics and at least 1 in mandatory reporting, and no more than 10 hours of credit from self-directed activity (Rules 7.1.1–7.1.4).

An hour means 50 minutes of instruction or participation, meals and breaks excluded (Rule 7.1.6).

The Board does not pre-approve courses, though it accepts courses from ASWB, NASW, CSWA and APA approved providers (Rules 7.2.3–7.2.4).

Renewal is by electronic attestation, with random audits, so keep your documentation (Rules 7.3.2–7.3.3).

A first renewal is prorated for licensees with less than 2 years, so check the schedule against your licensure date.

The sharpest recent change hits anyone planning hours around an LMSW supervisor.

The statute now requires supervision by an LCSW, subject to a grandfathering window (24 Del. C. § 3907C): applicants who started or completed supervision by a master's social worker on or before September 26, 2024 satisfy § 3907(b)(4) if otherwise compliant, and a master's social worker who was supervising an applicant as of September 26, 2024 may continue to supervise that applicant until after March 25, 2025.

Applicants who will not complete the 2-year supervised experience requirement on or before March 25, 2025 must continue under an LCSW, licensed psychologist or licensed psychiatrist.

One discrepancy: the Board's rule prints both March dates as March 26, 2025, where the statute says March 25, 2025 — confirm with the Board if your file sits near either date (Rule 3.2.2.1).

The saved rules also carry Delaware Register amendments dated April 2024, March 2025 and December 2025; the saved text shows current wording, not what each amendment changed.

Before any tier's qualifications, § 3907(a) applies to everyone: fingerprints submitted at your expense for a Delaware State Bureau of Identification report and a federal FBI criminal history report, and no license issues until those reports are produced; reports from child and adult abuse registries in Delaware and every state in which you have ever been licensed, employed or resided as an adult; and a certified statement from the board of every jurisdiction in which you have ever been licensed.

A felony sexual offense conviction is disqualifying and cannot be waived (24 Del. C. § 3907(a)(3)).

A conviction for a crime substantially related to social work is also disqualifying, but the Board may waive it by affirmative vote of a majority of a quorum after weighing the Title 29 factors — the felony-sexual-offense bar admits no such waiver (§ 3907(a)(7)).

A licensee can also step away cleanly: inactive status runs up to 3 years on written request (§ 3911(c)).