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

Kentucky issues the Licensed Social Worker (LSW) on a baccalaureate social work degree, the Certified Social Worker (CSW) on a master's or doctorate, and the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), the clinical tier.

The scope rule draws the lines: an LSW may engage in a social work activity except the practice of clinical social work, a CSW may practise clinical social work only if the conditions established in KRS 335.080(3) are met, and an LCSW may engage in all social work practice, hold out as a clinical practitioner, and employ a CSW.

House Bill 424 (2026) wrote the LSW's exclusion into statute at KRS 335.090(3).

The board's licensure page also lists temporary permits — including Temporary Clinical Social Worker and non-resident temporary versions — and its temporary licensure section requires the LSW or CSW application and transcript first; their scope and duration are not stated in the text read.

Kentucky's titles are its own: the CSW is a full master's-level license, and the LCSW is the clinical tier.

The LSW sits on a baccalaureate degree in a social work or social welfare program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, or a bachelor's degree with courses the board finds equivalent.

The CSW and LCSW both require a master's or doctorate in social work from an educational institution approved by the board, and 201 KAR 23:070 Section 1(2) defines that phrase: a graduate school of social work accredited by CSWE.

House Bill 424 (2026) went further for the LCSW only, rewriting KRS 335.100(1)(a) to require a degree from an educational institution accredited by the Council on Social Work Education outright, while the CSW statute at KRS 335.080 kept the approved-by-the-board wording.

In practice both routes land on the same test — CSWE accreditation — but an applicant reading the statutes sees two wordings, and the practical check is whether your program holds CSWE accreditation at the time the board reviews it.

The LCSW requires a minimum of two (2) years of post-master's degree experience acceptable to the board in the use of specialty methods and measures for clinical social work practice, acquired under appropriate supervision as established by the board; the 2026 act struck the wording that had spelled out two years full-time at thirty (30) hours per week or three years part-time at twenty (20) hours per week.

The rule gives the experience its shape: at least sixty (60) percent of it in a direct client-professional relationship, at least 150 hours of supervision including at least two individual hours in every two weeks of supervised practice, at least 100 of the supervision hours individual, and up to 50 in groups of no more than six supervisees.

No total-hour figure appears anywhere in the statute or the rule, so track the two-year period, the 150 supervision hours and the 60 percent share.

Because supervision runs across that period, a supervisor who can see you every two weeks for two years has to be part of the plan from the start.

Each tier sits on an examination, and the 2026 act changed the adjective: the statute now requires an examination approved by the board rather than one it prepared — the board's own 2026 legislation overview lists the wording update among its regulatory-cleanup items.

The board's licensure page names the exams in practice, and its Advanced Generalist exclusion matters for any master's-level applicant who sat that category elsewhere.

The act also repealed, at every tier, the bar on applicants who had failed a board examination within the preceding three (3) months, so the wait Kentucky itself imposed is gone; ASWB's own guidebook still sets at least a 90-day wait between attempts of any of its exams.

Confirm your exam category with the board before scheduling, since the licensure page is the board's current statement.

Only a board-approved LCSW may supervise, and approval is its own record: two years of clinical practice following licensure as an independent licensed clinical social worker, an initial board-approved six (6) hour supervision course, and a three (3) hour refresher every renewal period to keep the status.

The rule says supervisory experience obtained with a supervisor who has not completed those courses shall not be approved by the board — so verify a prospective supervisor's approval before hours begin, not after.

One LCSW can be supervisor of record for at most six CSWs at a time, must have no previous or existing personal relationship with the supervisee, and every client must be notified in writing at the start of treatment of the supervisor of record's name and contact details.

The board's licensure page repeats the frame for LCSW applicants: two years plus 150 hours of supervision by an approved licensed clinical social worker licensed a minimum of two years.

Video works within limits, as the quote shows, and group supervision counts only up to 50 of the 150 hours.

Kentucky's sharpest edge is how a CSW may touch clinical work at all: only by written contract with an LCSW who assumes responsibility for and supervises the practice, board-approved before any clinical work begins.

The CSW must be an employee of an institution or organization in which they hold no direct or indirect interest other than employment, and the contract must state that Social Security and income tax are deducted from salary — the rule text forecloses 1099 contracting while accruing clinical hours.

The 2026 act amended this subsection, rewording its no-practice-before-approval sentence and adding a hard exit: at contract termination a CSW must apply for LCSW licensure or ask the board to extend the contract.

The contract also carries its own paperwork: an individualized job description, the supervision plan, evaluations every six months, and the supervisor's accountability to the board.

For the tier below, the 2026 act made the line statutory at KRS 335.090(3): an LSW shall not engage in the practice of clinical social work.

Check any offer against the contract rule before you sign it.

The reciprocity statute is conditional — licensure without examination only where a reciprocal agreement exists between the states — and the board's licensure page states the condition is unmet: it has no reciprocity agreements at this time.

An out-of-state clinician therefore applies through the standard process: an Official Transfer Score Report sent to the board directly by ASWB, official transcripts from the degree-granting university, and license verifications sent directly from each state board where you hold a license.

Two substitutes soften the landing: proof of five years in the active practice of clinical social work — resumes, signed job descriptions, recommendation letters, or confirmations that you are an insurance or Medicaid provider — can replace supervision documentation, and 201 KAR 23:070 Section 9 directs the board to give credit for supervision hours obtained in accordance with the legal requirements of the jurisdiction where you earned them.

Ask the board which documents it wants for your file before you leave a license elsewhere.

Kentucky enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact as KRS 335.135, created by 2024 Ky.

Acts ch. 93, effective July 15, 2024, and the board incorporated the commission's rules by regulation effective April 15, 2025.

Enactment and implementation steps are not a live license: the compact is not yet operational, and no multistate licenses are being issued anywhere as of September 2026.

The board's overview of the 2026 legislation describes its purpose as aligning Kentucky statutes with the compact to enable multistate licensing by late 2026/early 2027 — a board projection, not a commission launch date, and not something to plan a start date around.

Until multistate licenses issue, practising in Kentucky takes a Kentucky license, and Kentucky licensees practising elsewhere take that jurisdiction's own license.

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

Every Kentucky social work license renews on a three-year cycle, with a renewal fee the board sets.

Continuing education runs with the tier — 30 hours per three-year period for the CSW and LCSW, 15 for the LSW — taken in person, by home or self-study, or through electronic and distance-learning courses.

Inside those totals sit named requirements: a board-approved three (3) hour course on the Kentucky Code of Ethical Conduct every period; a three-hour supervision course for board-approved supervisors; six (6) hours of board-approved suicide assessment, treatment and management training every six (6) years; one and one-half (1.5) hours on pediatric abusive head trauma once every six years; and a three-hour course in domestic violence and elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation during the renewal period following initial licensure.

Academic credit converts at one credit hour to fifteen (15) continuing education hours.

Check the board's continuing education page for current approval rules before counting a course.

House Bill 424, signed by the Governor on April 10, 2026, is the amendment that makes older Kentucky guides unreliable.

It struck the full-time/part-time definition from the LCSW experience requirement, leaving the two-year minimum quoted below.

It rewrote the LCSW degree clause to name Council on Social Work Education accreditation, changed an examination prepared by the board to one the board approves at every tier, and repealed the three-month bar on applicants who had failed a board examination.

It amended the CSW contract at KRS 335.080(3) as well, adding that at contract termination a CSW must apply for LCSW licensure or request a board extension.

It added KRS 335.090(3), the LSW's statutory exclusion from clinical social work, and state and FBI fingerprint checks for initial, reinstatement and compact-privilege applicants.

The act's effective date is not stated in the text read, and whether 201 KAR 23 has been amended to follow it is not established by the sources read; 201 KAR 23:070's 150 supervision hours and 60 percent requirement were not amended by the act.

The board's licensure page describes a temporary-permit route: before applying for the temporary permit, you must have submitted the LSW or CSW exam/license application and had your official transcript sent directly to the board showing your degree awarded.

The page text read stops mid-sentence on what follows approval, so the permit's scope, duration and exam conditions are not stated in the sources read — ask the board before planning a job start around one.

Three further gaps stay gaps: the effective date of 2026 Ky.

Acts ch. 77 (HB 424), which the text read does not state; whether 201 KAR 23 has been amended since the act; and any total supervised-hour figure, which appears nowhere in the statute or rule.

Nothing on this page should be filled in from memory or from generic guides — confirm each point with the Kentucky Board of Social Work.