Governor Inslee signed 2SHB 1724 early this month, May 2023, which went into effect 5/11/2023.

The Washington Department of Health released an announcement of the changes on 5/16/2023. Read the DOH message below:

2SHB 1724 was signed into law effective immediately on May 11th, 2023.Changes are made to the licensing requirements for advanced social workers and independent clinical social workers. In addition, the following changes are made to licensing requirements for the professions:Advanced Social Workers: An applicant's doctoral degree may be from any university accredited by a recognized accrediting organization, instead of only the Council on Social Work Education. The supervised experience hours are reduced from 3,200 hours to 3,000 hours. The requirement that at least 50 hours be supervised by a licensed advanced social worker or licensed independent clinical social worker is eliminated.Independent Social Workers: An applicant's doctoral degree may be from any university accredited by a recognized accrediting organization, instead of only the Council on Social Work Education. The supervised experience hours are reduced from 4,000 hours to 3,000 hours over two years instead of three years. The hours of experience that must be directly supervised are reduced from 130 hours to 100 hours.The Department of Health is in the process of working to identify applicants who meet the new requirements as established in 2SHB 1724. Once a pending application is reviewed in relation to the new standards, applicants will be notified by email regarding your next steps.If you meet these new standards you are encouraged to submit your application. The Office of Customer Service can be reached at 360-236-4700.Additionally, if you have questions about other changes made as a result of this bill please contact Brandon Williams, Program Manager at brandon.williams@doh.wa.gov.