BBS Processing Wait Times

NASW and other professional associations have been working to reducing the wait time for ASW registrations and LCSW exams. The Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) and the associations were successful in securing additional staff to process the applications in this fiscal year’s budget (the Governor granted an exception to the statewide hiring freeze). The BBS has started the hiring process (civil service) and has already brought some staff on board. We are hoping to see reductions in the wait time in the next few months.

Even with the additional staff resources, the wait time is still unacceptable and NASW has supported the following changes to free up more staffing resources by the BBS:

• Move to the national LCSW exam (expected to start Jan 1, 2016)
• Move to assign CE provider approval to outside organizations such as NASW, APA, etc.  (expected mid 2015)
• Move to automate the renewal process (next two to three years)
• Supported blanket approval of California MSW programs as meeting the California pre-ASW law and ethics requirement.
• NASW and other professional associations have opposed adding additional licenses to the BBS workload.

While these actions won’t dramatically affect wait times in the near future, it is hoped that significant resources will be freed up in the next few years to dramatically reduce wait times.

NASW will continue to attend BBS meetings and press the BBS to reduce wait times for its applicants.