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

Hawaii licenses social workers at three levels: the licensed bachelor social worker (LBSW), the licensed social worker (LSW) and the licensed clinical social worker (LCSW).

Every applicant submits evidence satisfactory to the director, and chapter 467E sits with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Professional and Vocational Licensing division; the sources read name no separate social work board.

The LCSW is the clinical tier, and the only rung whose requirements include supervised clinical experience and a clinical-level exam.

No intern or associate license appears in the sources read; a 2026 law refers to supervised social work interns earning post-master's hours without naming any license they must hold.

The letters do not travel: Hawaii's LSW is a full master's-level license, not a supervised-associate credential.

The LBSW requires a bachelor's degree from a social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, or a program deemed equivalent to an accredited one.

The LSW and the LCSW share the master's rule: a master's degree from a CSWE-accredited (or deemed-equivalent) social work program, or a doctoral degree from a social work doctoral program accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or a comparable regional accreditation body.

The LCSW adds no coursework — it requires that the applicant has met the educational requirements in paragraph (2), the LSW's rule.

For a master's graduate, what separates the LSW from the LCSW is the Clinical exam and the supervised hours, not more school.

Because every level carries deemed-equivalent language, graduates of nonstandard programs should confirm equivalence with the director before counting on it.

The LCSW requires at least 3,000 hours of post-master's clinical social work experience under supervision, completed within no fewer than two years but within no more than five.

The experience must include a minimum of 2,000 hours of assessment, clinical diagnosis, and psychotherapy and no more than a maximum of 900 hours of client-centered advocacy, consultation, and evaluation; because 2,000 plus 900 falls short of 3,000, hours may also sit outside both named categories.

Supervision sits inside the same subparagraph: at least 100 hours, of which at least 60 must be individualized and no more than 40 may be small-group with up to six supervisees.

The statute deems the experience requirement satisfied for a holder of NASW certification as a qualified clinical social worker or diplomate in clinical social work, or American Board of Examiners board certified diplomate status — a deeming that covers this subparagraph, 100 supervision hours included.

Who may supervise sits in a separate subparagraph, (D), which the deeming does not mention; a certified applicant should ask the director how (D) applies to them.

Each tier maps to one ASWB exam, and the statute names each by ASWB's older category names.

The LBSW requires the basic level national examination — the Bachelors exam under ASWB's current categories.

The LSW requires the intermediate or higher level national examination, so a Masters exam or any higher category satisfies it.

The LCSW requires the clinical level national examination.

Hawaii's statute still uses ASWB's pre-2018 names (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced were the old names for Bachelors, Masters and Advanced Generalist), so read them as the current exams.

Mechanics live in §467E-8: an eligible applicant applies to the director at least ninety days before the examination date, on the director's form, with a nonrefundable application fee, and a person who fails may apply for reexamination.

The sources read name no additional state-law or jurisprudence exam for this chapter.

The supervisor must have been a licensed clinical social worker with at least 4,500 hours of post-master's clinical social work experience, and the supervision must have included review of assessment, clinical diagnosis, and psychotherapy.

A transition provision deemed other professionals qualified supervisors for the first five years after July 1, 2004: master's-level social workers with 4,500 hours of post-master's clinical experience, holders of NASW diplomate or American Board of Examiners certifications, and board certified psychiatrists, psychologists and advanced practice registered nurses with 4,500 hours.

That window has closed, so a current applicant's supervisor is an LCSW.

On format the statute is permissive: in collaboration with the supervisor, an applicant may elect to fulfill some or all of the supervision requirements through face-to-face supervision conducted electronically through a video conference service compliant with federal and state privacy law, including HIPAA.

What such an election may cost you elsewhere is the endorsement section's subject.

Hawaii's own endorsement rules are not stated in the sources read: the research notes HAR chapter 16-140 was not retrieved, and the neighboring statute section, §467E-8, is Application for examination.

A clinician licensed elsewhere who wants a Hawaii license should therefore ask DCCA's Professional and Vocational Licensing Division directly how it treats an out-of-state license.

What the statute does address is the outbound risk of a Hawaii-earned record: an applicant who elects electronic supervision is told, before making the election, to review the laws and rules of other jurisdictions to determine the impact on license by endorsement in those jurisdictions.

The practical point for a Hawaii-trained clinician who may leave: supervision done by video, which Hawaii counts in full, may not be counted by a jurisdiction you move to later.

As of September 2026, Hawaii is not on the Social Work Licensure Compact commission's list of member jurisdictions: it has not enacted the compact.

There is no multistate-license route into or out of Hawaii, so practice in the state takes a Hawaii license issued through DCCA PVL, and no multistate license has been issued anywhere as of the research date.

The compact itself has reached activation status, but the commission says multistate licenses are not yet being issued, and it estimates its data system will be complete in spring 2027 rather than giving a launch date.

Check the commission's jurisdiction list and DCCA PVL before relying on either status.

Every license issued under the chapter renews triennially on or before June 30.

Each licensee pays the required fees and completes a minimum of 45 credit hours of continuing education within the three-year period preceding the renewal date, including a minimum of three credit hours in ethic courses; a first-time licensee is exempt from the continuing education requirement at the first renewal.

The enforcement mechanics reward attention: failure to renew forfeits the license; a forfeited license can be restored within one year of expiration on payment of renewal and penalty fees, and audited licensees must also show documentary proof of continuing education; after one year the license terminates automatically, and relicensure may be subject to the person applying as a new applicant and satisfying all licensing requirements again.

Licensees keep their own continuing education records and certify compliance under oath at renewal, and the director may audit, with 60 days from notice to produce documentation.

Section 467E-7 appears in the statute in two versions: one effective until June 30, 2026, and one effective July 1, 2026.

The change is a new subsection (b) added by Act 93 of 2024, section 32.

It makes services provided by a supervised social work intern obtaining post-master's clinical social work experience under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker eligible for insurance reimbursement, on two conditions: the supervising LCSW's services must be eligible for reimbursement as a contracted provider, and the billed rate for the intern must be commensurate with the requisite level of training.

For a graduate counting hours, this matters at the job-offer stage: an agency that bills for intern services can fund supervised hours that the prior text did not make reimbursable.

The subsection says nothing about any license the intern must hold, and the sources read name none.

The statute's cross-references point clinical social workers licensed under paragraph (3) to appointment as child custody evaluators, §571-46.4.

That section was not among the sources read, so what appointment requires is not stated here; the pointer is the point — family-court evaluation work is one place a Hawaii LCSW license appears in the statutes.

If that direction interests you, read §571-46.4 and ask DCCA PVL what it requires before counting on it.