Getting licensed as a social worker in Pennsylvania

Checked against the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors 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 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
3,000 hours, 1,500 client contact, for the LCSW
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

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 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.

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

Pennsylvania asks for 3,000 hours of supervised experience. The board sets no total for supervision hours.

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

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Programs in Pennsylvania

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 38 programs in Pennsylvania

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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