Social Work Test Prep Academy

Getting licensed as a social worker in Michigan

Michigan Board of Social Work, read .

Your first license

Limited Master's Social Worker (no exam, no hours; accrues 4,000 hrs; renewable 6x)

Limited LMSW

Exam comes after the first credential

No exam for this one. Michigan licenses you first, then you test.

Known fees

Fees the Michigan Board of Social Work publishes for the Limited LMSW
Limited Master's Social Work license, application plus 1-year license$44
Known total$44

What else it takes

Supervised hours
4,000 hours over at least 24 months
ASWB exam level
None for this credential
Licensure compact
Not a member
Last checked
1

Next step

Earn a qualifying master's or doctoral social work degree. Obtain a Michigan Limited Master's Social Work license before accruing Michigan supervised experience.

The ladder

Michigan has 4 rungs. 3 of them need an ASWB exam.

  1. bachelors

    LBSW

    ASWB Bachelors

    Licensed Bachelor's Social Worker.

  2. limited

    Limited LMSW

    No ASWB exam

    Limited Master's Social Worker (no exam, no hours; accrues 4,000 hrs; renewable 6x). Practice is supervised at this rung.

  3. advanced

    LMSW-Macro

    ASWB Advanced Generalist

    Master's Social Worker, macro designation.

  4. clinical

    LMSW-Clinical

    ASWB Clinical

    Master's Social Worker, clinical practice designation.

Requirements change

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

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.

See your path inside the app

Pick your state once. We keep the fees, the hours and the next step in front of you while you study.

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