Adele Natter, DC Legislation and Advocacy Co-Chair

For example, telehealth continues to be permitted, with no end date currently in view.  Social workers seeing clients in DC must be licensed in DC, whether they are seeing clients using telehealth or not.  Clinical supervision is permitted in person, through video, or telephone.   On February 28, the DC Board of Social Work extended the permission for use of telephone or video for supervision until Dec. 31, 2022.

By order of the Mayor, all health professionals, including clinical social workers, must attest to having been fully vaccinated, including a booster shot.  Social workers must attest to meeting this criterion by reporting it on the vaccine reporting portal that was created:  https://doh.force.com/ver/s/vaccinereporting.  Attesting is simple and quick, and must be completed by March 1, 2022.

Spurred by community agencies’ requests for supervised practice for the BSW and MSW graduates employed in their agencies, the Board created a Supervised Practice Letter.  This enables BSWs and MSWs to practice under supervision of an LISW or LICSW for 90 days, while they are waiting to take the licensing exam.  Such supervised practice will be approved only one time, and cannot be renewed.  If the applicant fails the exam, he or she will be required to stop practicing immediately.

The GWSCSW brought to the attention of the Chairperson of the Board the fact that the pass rate for graduates of color is lower than for other graduates.  The Chairperson brought this to the attention of  the Association of Social Work Boards, which maintained that the exam is not biased.  GWSCSW is currently processing ways of addressing this problem.

Board of Social Work meetings are held the fourth Monday of the month at 10:00 am.  You can find the agenda and the link at https://dchealth.dc.gov/publication/board-social-work-agendas.   The Board takes notice of our Society’s participation and has respectfully considered our input and feedback as to how Board policies affect us and our practices.