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

Kansas issues three social work licenses: the licensed baccalaureate social worker (LBSW), the licensed master social worker (LMSW) and the licensed specialist clinical social worker (LSCSW).

The initials are the first thing to get right: the clinical tier is the LSCSW — licensed SPECIALIST clinical social worker — and the scope rules below attach to that title.

The LSCSW sits on a specialty-license baseline, subsection (e): a graduate social work degree plus two years of full-time post-master's or post-doctor's experience supervised by a licensed social worker in the area of the specialty.

Private, independent clinical practice is then gated a second time by its own statute, beyond the license.

The board's renewal fee list also still carries a legacy LASW line that the statute's license tiers do not name.

The LBSW and LMSW each require a degree from an accredited college or university that includes completion of a social work program recognized and approved by the board; the board adopts the criteria programs must meet and may send schools a questionnaire where it lacks information.

The reciprocity packet states the Kansas LMSW standard as an MSW from a CSWE-accredited program, or a program that meets K.A.R.

102-2-6.

The LSCSW adds academic lines a general master's does not include: 3 credit hours, as part of or in addition to the specialty requirements, supporting diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders with the DSM through identifiable study of psychopathology, and a graduate-level supervised clinical practicum that includes psychotherapy and assessment.

The practicum line carries one alternative — additional postgraduate supervised experience as determined by the board — so an applicant short a practicum should ask what the board will accept.

The experience rule stacks.

Subsection (e)(2) requires two years of full-time post-master's or post-doctor's experience under the supervision of a licensed social worker in the specialty; the clinical rule then requires, as part of or in addition to that, not less than two years of postgraduate supervised professional experience under a clinical supervision plan approved by the board — the 3,000 hours, the 1,500 hours of direct client contact and the 100 supervision hours quoted below.

The direct-contact hours are defined by their content: conducting psychotherapy and assessments with individuals, couples, families or groups, integrating diagnosis or diagnostic impressions and treatment with the DSM.

The sources read state no maximum completion window and no weekly or monthly cap on hours, so pacing is a question to settle with the board when your supervision plan is approved.

Each tier's statute requires an examination approved by the board and names no exam body or level.

Two board documents fill the gap: the fee schedule prices examinations at $230 for BSW and MSW and $260 for Clinical — the fees ASWB charges for its Bachelors/Masters and Clinical exams — and the LSCSW reciprocity packet requires the ASWB exam at the Masters level or above, while making the ASWB clinical exam optional: the packet demonstrates clinical competence through at least two of three items — the clinical exam, three years of qualifying clinical practice, or an attestation.

Read together they point to ASWB Bachelors for the LBSW, Masters for the LMSW and Clinical for the LSCSW, but that mapping is an inference from board documents rather than a rule quote, so confirm your exam category with the BSRB before scheduling.

The statute keeps one relief valve: an applicant who has taken and passed a similar examination is exempted, as determined by the board.

What the statute pins down: qualifying LSCSW supervision runs in accordance with a clinical supervision plan the board approves, and it must include not less than 100 hours of face-to-face clinical supervision, of which not less than 50 are individual supervision.

The face-to-face requirement has one pressure valve — the board may waive it upon a finding of extenuating circumstances, which the definitions section describes as conditions beyond a person's control that are sufficiently extreme to make compliance impossible or inadvisable.

What the statute does not answer is who qualifies to supervise and how telesupervision is treated: the research places those details in the board's regulations, K.A.R.

102-2, which the sources read did not include.

Before you sign an employment contract around a supervisor, ask the BSRB to confirm the supervisor qualifies under K.A.R.

102-2 and get the supervision plan approved.

The LSCSW may engage in social work practice and is authorized to diagnose and treat mental disorders specified in the DSM edition the board designates by rule.

One Kansas-specific workflow rule follows: when a client has symptoms of a mental disorder, the LSCSW shall consult the client's primary care physician or psychiatrist about whether a medical condition or medication may be causing or contributing to the symptoms; the client may waive this in writing, and the LSCSW may keep evaluating and treating the client until the consultation is obtained or waived.

Holding the license is not the end of the private-practice question: a separate statute bars private, independent clinical practice without the license plus two years of board-approved supervised experience in the specialty to be offered, and makes violation a class B misdemeanor.

How the board applies the statute's phrase 'subsequent thereto' was not verified in the regulations — quote the statute and confirm with the BSRB.

Kansas's route in for clinicians already licensed elsewhere is the board's LSCSW reciprocity packet.

It starts from an active clinical or independent social work license in another state that allows independent diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, with state standards substantially equivalent to the Kansas LMSW standard: an MSW from a CSWE-accredited program or a program meeting K.A.R.

102-2-6, and the ASWB exam at the Masters level or above.

Clinical competence is then shown by submitting at least two of three items: passage of the ASWB clinical exam; three years of clinical practice including diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders after your clinical or independent license was issued, with at least 8 hours of client contact per week for nine or more months of each year; or an attestation signed by a physician or another professional licensed to diagnose and treat in independent practice.

An out-of-state permit adds 30 days of practice in the year; the reciprocity statute itself was not among the sources read.

Kansas is the state whose enactment switched the compact on.

On April 12, 2024, Governor Laura Kelly signed HB 2484, making Kansas the seventh state to enact the Social Work Licensure Compact — the enactment threshold the compact's own text sets for taking effect — and the section is codified as K.S.A.

65-6325, the social work licensure compact.

Enacted is not operational: as of the September 2026 research the commission had issued no multistate licenses, so a Kansas LSCSW cannot yet practice elsewhere on a compact privilege, and out-of-state clinicians still come in through the reciprocity route above.

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

Every license expires at the end of 24 months from issuance.

Renewal requires the fee and a signed statement that the licensee has met the board's continuing education requirements, including not less than three hours of professional ethics.

The board's renewal page sets the total at 40 hours for every level — LBSW, LMSW and LSCSW, with the legacy LASW line matching at 40 — and adds at least 3 hours in diagnosis and treatment for the LMSW and LSCSW.

That diagnosis-and-treatment line was cut from six hours to three on July 1, 2025, so older advice overstates it.

First-time renewals at every level also complete not less than six hours of social worker safety awareness training, which does not repeat if it was already taken at a previous level's first renewal.

The history notes on the saved statutes show one 2023 amendment — L.

2023, ch. 90 — touching the definitions, the qualifications rule, the temporary-licensure rule and the renewal rule; the saved text is the current wording and does not show what each amendment changed.

Two dated changes are readable in the current text.

The diagnosis-and-treatment CE requirement for LMSW and LSCSW renewals dropped from six hours to three on and after July 1, 2025.

And the Social Work Licensure Compact arrived in 2024: HB 2484, signed April 12, 2024, codified at K.S.A.

65-6325 with a history note of L.

2024, ch. 32, section 1; July 1.

The compact's operational status had not changed by September 2026 — no multistate licenses issued.

Kansas statute creates three routes for working before the standard license.

A temporary bachelor's or master's license goes to an applicant who has met every qualification except the exam; absent extenuating circumstances it expires when the board issues or denies the license or 24 months after issuance, is not reissued at the same level, requires work under supervision of a licensed social worker, and bars independent use of the LBSW and LMSW titles.

A temporary candidacy license serves graduates of programs in accreditation candidacy: 24 months, extendable while the program stays in candidacy, practice under supervision, no LBSW or LMSW credentials, no continuing education, converted to a permanent license if accreditation is granted, revoked if not.

A community-based license covers employment at a community mental health center, federally qualified health center, psychiatric residential treatment facility or private treatment facility — 24 months under supervision of an independent-level licensee.

One bar spans both: the board shall not issue a community-based or temporary license to anyone previously issued either one; the enactment date of subsection (i) was not located.