Getting licensed as a social worker in Iowa

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Checked against the Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals on .

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Your board, the portal you apply in, the fees, the supervised hours, and the order to do them in.

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Your first license

Licensed Master Social Worker

LMSW

Exam required before the license

The ASWB Masters exam is required before the license.

Known fees

Fees the Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals publishes for the LMSW
License fee for license to practice social work (LMSW initial)$120
ASWB Masters (intermediate level) examination$230
Known total$350

What else it takes

Supervised hours
3,000 hours, 1,500 client contact, 110 supervision, for the LISW
ASWB exam level
Masters
Licensure compact
Member jurisdictionMultistate licenses are not yet being issued. Last checked against the compact's own site.
Last checked
1

Next step

Complete a CSWE-accredited master's (or board-approved doctoral) degree in social work. Submit a completed licensure application and the nonrefundable fee to the Iowa Board of Social Work (481-895.3).

The ladder

Iowa has 3 rungs. 3 need an ASWB exam.

  1. bachelors

    LBSW

    ASWB Bachelors

    Licensed Bachelor Social Worker.

  2. masters

    LMSW

    ASWB Masters

    Licensed Master Social Worker.

  3. clinical

    LISW

    ASWB Clinical

    Licensed Independent Social Worker.

Requirements change

Nothing on our law calendar changes Iowa's exam requirement today. The change that does touch you is national: ASWB launched the 2026 exams on August 3, 2026 with three content areas and 122 items, and held fees at $230 Masters and $260 Clinical. ASWB's announcement.

Law calendar read . If Iowa moves, this page moves with it.

Already passed? Track your supervised hours toward your clinical license.

Iowa asks for 3,000 hours of supervised experience and 110 hours of supervision.

Checked against the published rule. Last checked September 19, 2026.

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Programs in Iowa

How first-timers from each accredited program here did on the ASWB exam. A rate built on fewer than 10 first-time exams is one or two people, so those programs show how close they are to that floor instead of a percent. Source: ASWB, 2025 report.

See all 16 programs in Iowa

Sources

We read the board's own pages. Nothing here is a guess.

SWTPA is not affiliated with any state board or with ASWB. Requirements change; the board's page is the source of record. This record is also available as JSON.

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