Social Work Test Prep Academy

Getting licensed as a social worker in Pennsylvania

State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors, read .

Your first license

Licensed Social Worker

LSW

Exam required before the license

The ASWB Masters exam is required before the license.

Known fees

Fees the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors publishes for the LSW
LSW application and original licensure$75
ASWB Masters examination$230
Verification of licensure$15
Certification of license, scores, or hours$25
Known total$345

What else it takes

Supervised hours
Not checked yet
ASWB exam level
Masters
Licensure compact
Not a member
Last checked
1

Next step

Hold a master's degree in social work from a CSWE-accredited school (or a doctoral degree in social work/social welfare). Complete at least 3 hours of Board-approved child abuse recognition and reporting training.

The ladder

Pennsylvania has 3 rungs. 3 of them need an ASWB exam.

  1. bachelors

    LBSW

    ASWB Bachelors

    Licensed Bachelor Social Worker.

  2. masters

    LSW

    ASWB Masters

    Licensed Social Worker.

  3. clinical

    LCSW

    ASWB Clinical

    Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Requirements change

Nothing on our law calendar changes Pennsylvania'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 Pennsylvania 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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