Getting licensed as a social worker in Massachusetts

Checked against the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Social Workers 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 Certified Social Worker (Massachusetts's master's-level, non-independent license)

LCSW

Exam required before the license

The ASWB Masters exam is required before the license.

Known fees

Fees the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Social Workers publishes for the LCSW
New applicant vendor fee (all license types)$105
New applicant application fee (all license types)$68
LCSW license issuance fee$68
ASWB Intermediate/Masters-level examination$230
Known total$471

What else it takes

Supervised hours
3,500 hours, 100 supervision, for the LICSW
ASWB exam level
Masters
Licensure compact
Not a member (legislation pending)Multistate licenses are not yet being issued. Last checked against the compact's own site.
Last checked
1

Next step

Earn a master's or doctoral degree in social work from a CSWE-accredited graduate school (or CSWE-equivalent foreign degree). Submit application and fee to the Board (processed by ASWB on the Board's behalf via healthprofessionlicensing.mass.gov).

The ladder

Massachusetts has 3 rungs. 3 need an ASWB exam.

  1. bachelors

    LSW

    ASWB Bachelors

    Licensed Social Worker (six alternate education and experience pathways under 258 CMR 9.05). Practice is supervised at this rung.

  2. masters

    LCSW

    ASWB Masters

    Licensed Certified Social Worker (Massachusetts's master's-level, non-independent license). Practice is supervised at this rung.

  3. clinical

    LICSW

    ASWB Clinical

    Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.

Requirements change

Nothing on our law calendar changes Massachusetts'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 Massachusetts moves, this page moves with it.

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

Massachusetts asks for 3,500 hours of supervised experience and 100 hours of supervision.

Checked against the published rule. Last checked September 6, 2026.

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Programs in Massachusetts

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 18 programs in Massachusetts

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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