News

The social work licensing exams determine whether an aspiring social worker is ready to practice as a member of a profession that serves vulnerable client populations. Because the stakes are high — for licensure candidates and for the communities they hope to serve — ASWB adheres to rigorous exam development standards. The 2026 exams will feature a new structure centering candidates’ experiences and a renewed focus on applied knowledge rather than simple recall of information.

ASWB delegates elected four members to the ASWB Board of Directors and two members to the Nominating Committee at the organization’s 2025 Annual Meeting of the Delegate Assembly in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday, November 8, 2025.

At the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Delegate Assembly, delegates from ASWB member jurisdictions cast votes on a proposed amendment to the bylaws as well as a series of amendments to the Model Social Work Practice Act.

ASWB celebrated the outstanding service of two leaders in social work regulation at the association’s 2025 Annual Meeting of the Delegate Assembly.

The 16th edition of the yearbook continues to communicate ASWB’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and high standards in the examination development process. Every question writer, Examination Committee and Form Review Team volunteer, and consultant is listed.

The 2024 Social Work Workforce Study Series provides hard data about the social work workforce that employers can use to advocate for the resources they need to serve their communities.

The Association of Social Work Boards convened a panel of social work educators to compare the content of one of the social work licensing exams alongside the competencies for academic accreditation.

ASWB is recruiting exam question writers from all license categories who represent a variety of experience and educational, geographic, and demographic backgrounds.

Achieving substantive change for our profession – for any system or institution – will require collaborative discussions and decision-making that is driven by data, not by conjecture, opinion, or personal agendas. This holds true regardless of the topic at hand.

ASWB has published a series of workforce study reports authored by Joy Kim, MSW, Ph.D., of the School of Social Work at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. These reports draw on a survey dataset collected by ASWB as part of the Social Work Census.