LCSW requirements in California

3,000, not 3,200. The LCSW requirement dropped from 3,200 hours to 3,000 on 1 January 2019, and the old rule no longer applies to anyone. If a guide or an app still says 3,200, it is out of date.

When your hours start counting

Hours count from the day your ASW registration is issued, or earlier under the 90-day rule. All three of these must be true:

• The Board receives your ASW application within 90 days of your master’s degree being granted.
• If you finished graduate study on or after 1 January 2020, your workplace required Live Scan fingerprinting before you started gaining hours there, and you send a copy of that form with your licensure application. The Board won’t accept DOJ results or a letter from your employer instead.
• Your registration is later granted.

Hours under the 90-day rule can’t be earned in a private practice or professional corporation, and hours from before your degree don’t count.

What counts, and the caps

At least 2,000 of your hours must be clinical psychosocial diagnosis, assessment and treatment, including psychotherapy or counseling, and at least 750 of those must be face-to-face individual or group psychotherapy. No more than 1,000 hours can be non-clinical: client-centered advocacy, consultation, evaluation, research, direct supervisor contact, and workshops.

At least 1,700 hours must be supervised by an LCSW, and no more than 1,200 by a licensed educational psychologist (for educationally related mental health services only). There is no limit on telehealth hours.

Supervision each week

One unit of supervision is one hour of individual supervision, one hour of triadic supervision (two supervisees), or two hours of group supervision (no more than eight people). Group time can be split into segments of at least one continuous hour.

• You need at least one unit in every week you claim hours, in each work setting, in the same week.
• A week with more than 10 hours of clinical work in a setting needs one additional unit for that setting. (The Board’s example: 12 hours at one job and 9 at another means three units that week.)
• No more than six hours of supervision count in any week.
• At least 52 of your 104 weeks must include individual or triadic supervision, and at least 13 weeks must be supervised by an LCSW.

Video: supervision by two-way, real-time video counts in every setting, permanently since 1 January 2026. Your supervisor must assess and document that video is appropriate within 60 days. Supervision by telephone doesn’t count.

Who can supervise you

An LCSW, LMFT, LPCC, psychologist, a licensed educational psychologist (limited scope), or a psychiatrist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, remembering that at least 1,700 of your hours and 13 of your weeks must be with an LCSW. Your supervisor must:

• have held an active license for at least two of the last five years, and practiced or supervised psychotherapy for two of them;
• hold a current California license that is not suspended or on probation;
• never have treated you, and not be your spouse or a relative;
• have completed 15 hours of supervisor training (psychologists and psychiatrists are exempt), then six hours each renewal period, and have filed a one-time self-assessment report within 60 days of starting.

You and your supervisor sign a Supervision Agreement within 60 days of starting (for supervision that began on or after 1 January 2022). If your supervisor isn’t employed by your employer, or is a volunteer, a written oversight agreement is signed before supervision starts; the Board publishes a sample.

Private practice

You can’t work in a private practice or professional corporation until your ASW number is issued, and not at all under a subsequent registration number. When you do, your supervisor must be employed or contracted by the practice (or an owner) and either see clients there or have a written contract giving the same access to records. A supervisor in a nonexempt setting can have at most six individual or triadic supervisees at once.

Time limits

Your hours must have been earned within the six years before the Board receives your licensure application, and the Board can’t make exceptions. Your registration renews up to five times and can’t go beyond six years; a subsequent number requires a passed Law and Ethics exam and doesn’t allow private practice.

Forms: what you keep, what you send

• Weekly Log (37A-638): your supervisor signs it every week and you keep it until you are licensed. Don’t send it unless the Board asks.
• Experience Verification (37A-201): completed when supervision ends and sent with your licensure application, one for each supervisor in each setting. Weekly logs can’t be sent in its place.
• With your application you also send the Supervision Agreement(s), any written oversight agreements, W-2s or a volunteer letter, your employer’s Live Scan form if you used the 90-day rule, proof of coursework, and the fee.

Signatures: the Board’s FAQ says “Signed documents may be original, scanned, or have an electronic signature,” and the Experience Verification form reads “original, scanned or electronic signature required.”

Coursework beyond your degree

You need an MSW from a school accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. Before licensure: six hours of suicide risk assessment and intervention and, for applications on or after 1 July 2023, three hours on telehealth including its law and ethics. If you graduated on or after 1 January 2021 with a California degree, you don’t need to prove the other coursework; older and out-of-state degrees may need courses in child abuse, human sexuality, substance use, partner abuse and aging, which the Board’s application lists.

The exams

Take the California Law and Ethics exam in each renewal cycle until you pass, with a 90-day wait between attempts and three hours of law and ethics continuing education per cycle. You need to pass it before a subsequent registration and before the ASWB Clinical exam, which you can take once the Board approves your licensure application; take it within a year of approval and of any failed attempt. Then request your license and pay the fee within a year.

What changed recently

• 1 January 2019: 3,200 hours became 3,000; non-clinical maximum 1,200 became 1,000; triadic supervision allowed.
• 1 January 2020: the 90-day rule started requiring employer Live Scan for new graduates.
• 1 January 2022: Supervision Agreements and supervisor training rules; supervisors in private practice may supervise up to six.
• 29 August 2022: video supervision allowed in every setting.
• 1 January 2023: subsequent registrants barred from private practice; three hours of law and ethics CE per renewal.
• 1 July 2023: the three-hour telehealth course became required.
• 1 January 2026: video supervision made permanent.

Other California licenses: LMFT (AMFT) · LPCC (APCC)