The Board office will not contact you after receiving the Employment Verification form, signed Position Statement for Clinical Supervision, or your Emergency Crisis Plan unless additional information is needed or there are compliance concerns. It is documented in your file and data base for office
use. You may begin clinical practice as soon as you have a Clinical Supervisor in place and have submitted your required paperwork. If you wish to confirm receipt by the Board office, please send with tracking from your selected carrier.

Please consult your Clinical Supervisor and Employer to determine if you are authorized to provide clinical services and the duties and responsibilities meet the definition of Clinical Social Work Practice. Please refer to the Social Work Practice Act [NC Gen. Stat. 90B-3 – Definitions], and the NC Administrative Code, Section .0102, (10), (11), (12), and (18) for the definitions of Clinical Social Work Experience, Diagnosis, Clinical Case Management, and Treatment to determine what constitutes clinical practice. The requirement for clinical licensure is not determined by job title, agency, etc., but by job function, job description, and the duties preformed. The Board will review your specific job duties when submitting the Employment Verification form and job description to ensure they meet the definition of clinical social work.

If you need to confirm receipt of your six month review documents, etc., please send the information with traceable delivery as we have limited staff that answer the phones and process all administrative activity. The LCSWA Six-Month Reviews are processed in order of receipt and it may take several weeks to be reviewed depending on the current volume of administrative activity. Notification will be sent to you only if follow up action is needed or there are compliance concerns.

[IMPORTANT NOTICE: Case narratives associated with each Six-Month Review period MUST be prepared, reviewed with your clinical supervisor and signed. Each document must be maintained on file with your clinical supervisor and immediately available to the Board upon request. Files are required to be maintained for a minimum of 3 years beyond the termination of services.]

NO. Reviews received via fax will not be processed. We require original signature documents only. Please make sure you retain a copy for your records and can provide a signed copy of the case narrative upon request.

Please refer to the Supervision Manual for information regarding case summaries, supervisory agreements, crisis plans etc.

For a change in employment, you must submit an updated Employment Verification form with attached job description, and an updated Emergency Crisis Plan. For a change in clinical supervisor, you must submit an updated Position Statement on Clinical Supervision and an updated Emergency Crisis Plan with the new supervisor’s information and signature.
***A separate Six-Month Review document must be submitted for each place of employment worked during the review period. A comprehensive case narrative for each place of employment must also be prepared, reviewed and signed by you and your supervisor and maintained in the supervisor’s files to be provided upon request from the Board. Also, a separate Six-Month Review document must be completed by each supervisor that provided you clinical supervision during the review period. ***

You and your Clinical Supervisor will need to complete a Six-Month Review form and case narrative for each place of employment. The case narrative should be co-signed by you and your clinical supervisor for each practice location and maintained by the supervisor (case narratives are submitted to the Board only upon request). The Six-Month Review documents (for each practice location) should be submitted to the Board in accordance with the reporting date provided by the Board. [An Employment Verification form should already be on file with the Board verifying your employment for each job location.]

Please maintain a copy of all Six-Month Reviews submitted to the Board office. You will not receive a response from the Board unless follow up action is needed or there are compliance concerns. You and your clinical supervisor should also maintain an ongoing log of your supervision hours to insure compliance with the 1:30 hour supervision to practice ratio and to document how many hours of supervision were provided face-to-face and in person as well as how many hours were provided through the use of technology.

If you have completed or are nearing the 50 hours of supervision by technology allotted; your clinical supervisor will need to submit a request to the Board for additional hours via technology. The LCSW supervisor will need to complete the Request for Supervision Via Technology document and email to epope@ncswboard.gov.  Approval of the request shall be determined on a case-by-case basis, based upon the circumstances provided in the request. Please also be reminded that all supervision provided through the use of technology shall be synchronous, involve visual and audio interactions throughout the entire session, and shall take place in such a manner as to maintain the confidentiality of the communication [21 NCAC 63 .0211(a)(4)].

The NC General Statutes and Rules [NC AC 63 .0211 (a)] state “The 3,000 hours shall be accumulated over a period of time not less than two years nor more than six consecutive years”. To qualify for the LCSW license, you must document two years (24 months) of supervised clinical practice, with a minimum of 3,000 clinical practice hours, a minimum of 100 hours of supervision and passing of the ASWB Clinical exam.

Please be reminded, you will not receive notice or anything further unless there is a concern or something that needs to be addressed. Please ensure that you make copies of documents submitted to the Board office to be maintained for your records. If anything further is needed upon review, you will be notified.

Pursuant to NC AC 63 0.211 (3) , a LCSW Associate licensee practicing in a clinical setting, must document “at least one hour of supervision during every 30 hours of experience”. The number of supervised clinical practice hours must be supported by the number of clinical supervision hours at the 1:30 ratio. [i.e. a person accruing 890 clinical practice hours during a six-month period must document at least 30 hours of clinical supervision]

You may submit the LCSW Short Form Application along with your final six- month review form once you have satisfied all requirements for LCSW license: two full years of supervised clinical practice [24 months] with no less than 3000 hours of documented practice and at least 100 hours of appropriate clinical supervision (no more than 25 hours of group supervision), and you have passed the ASWB Clinical Exam. You will also need to document the required continuing education and include the application fee. The review process may take a minimum of 21 days upon receipt of a completed Short Form application packet, including all required documents.

To report a change in employment, the LCSWA will need to complete the Employment Verification Form, attach a job description on agency letterhead and submit to the Board.

To report a change in clinical supervisor, the LCSWA will need to submit a signed Position Statement on Clinical Supervision.  If there is a change in employment or supervision, a new emergency crisis plan will need to be submitted to reflect the change.

The North Carolina Social Work Certification and Licensure Board continues to strongly discourage independent private practice during the associate licensure period, and closely examines all requests for permission to practice outside the structure of a public agency. The NC General Statute 90B-7(f) and Section .0210(d) & (e) of the North Carolina Administrative Code mandates that a Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate (LCSWA) must practice with clinical supervision and immediate access to emergency clinical backup during the associate license period. This statute is intended to protect the client and the LCSWA during this supervised practice period. The Board approves independent private practice arrangements for LCSWA’s only when it is fully satisfied that clients and the public will be protected through close supervision of each clinical case by a North Carolina Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), as well as by a plan for twenty-four (24) hour emergency consultation and backup for the LCSWA with a North Carolina licensed mental health professional in accordance with N.C.A.C. 21:63.0210(d).

Prior to the expiration date of your LCSWA license, you will need to submit the LCSWA Renewal Affidavit listing the required continuing education, a six-month review form and the current LCSWA Renewal fee. The Statute and Rules advise submitting early enough to allow 30 days for administrative processing and Board action prior to the expiration of the associate license.

Prior to the expiration date of your LCSWA license, you will need to submit the LCSWA Renewal Affidavit listing the required continuing education, a six-month review form and the current LCSWA Renewal fee. The Statute and Rules advise submitting early enough to allow 30 days for administrative processing and Board action prior to the expiration of the associate license early enough to allow 30 days for administrative processing and Board action prior to the expiration of the associate license. Once the LCSWA license has been renewed and you have completed and documented two years of clinical practice to the Board, you may submit the Clinical Exam Request Form.  Upon receipt, the Board will review your record to ensure completion of two years of clinical practice and will provide exam eligibility if this has been met.

To extend the LCSWA license, prior to your two year ending date, you will renew the license by submitting the LCSWA Renewal Affidavit, listing the required continuing education, Public Notice Statement and the renewal fee of $140.00.  The Board recommends submitting 30 days prior to the expiration date to avoid a lapse in licensure.