Getting licensed as a social worker in South Dakota

Compact member

Checked against the South Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners 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

Certified Social Worker

CSW

Exam required before the license

An ASWB exam is required before the license; the primary sources do not confirm the level.

Known fees

Fees the South Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners publishes for the CSW
Application for licensure (biennial)$170
ASWB examination (level not named by the board rule)exam fee depends on level: $230 Bachelors or Masters, $260 Advanced Generalist or Clinical
Known total$170

What else it takes

Supervised hours
No hour total set (4 hours per month), for the CSW-PIP
ASWB exam level
Not published by the board
Licensure compact
Member jurisdictionMultistate licenses are not yet being issued. Last checked against the compact's own site.
Last checked
1

Next step

Hold a doctorate or master's degree from a school of social work accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (SDCL 36-26-14(1)). Submit an application and the biennial application fee to the Board (SDCL 36-26-19).

The ladder

South Dakota has 3 rungs. 3 need an ASWB exam.

  1. bachelors

    Social Worker

    ASWB Bachelors

    Social Worker (baccalaureate in social work or social welfare, CSWE-accredited; a supervised Social Work Associate credential, SDCL 36-26-16, covers a non-social-work bachelor's or an approved human-services associate's degree).

  2. masters

    CSW

    ASWB exam, level not confirmed

    Certified Social Worker.

  3. clinical

    CSW-PIP

    ASWB exam, level not confirmed

    Certified Social Worker, Private Independent Practice.

Requirements change

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

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

Experience hours: no single total (30 hours per week). Supervision hours: no single total (4 hours per month).

Checked against the published rule. Last checked September 27, 2026.

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Programs in South Dakota

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 5 programs in South Dakota

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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