By Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Government 
Relations and Political Affairs
If you have been in the licensure process within the last few years, you have undoubtable experienced delays while the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) has processed your application. Although the BBS is funded by licensure fees and not by the state General Fund, in the last few years, the state had not given the Board the authority to be fully staffed. This has resulted in about an 8-month delay to process an application to take the LCSW exam. This directly affects the livelihood of applicants who need their LCSW either to keep their job or to procure a job. It also contributes to the shortage of social workers in the state and leaves potential clients unserved.
In addition, during the budget crisis, the state borrowed from special funds to shore up the state’s General Fund, which funds most state programs. During this time, the BBS loaned the general fund $12.3 million. This fiscal year, the board is finally scheduled to receive a $1.4 million loan repayment. The full loan will be repaid over a number of years.
So believe it or not, there does seem to be good news on the horizon. In the Governor’s recently released budget, he did give the board authority to hire more workers. These jobs are not scheduled to be filled until the start of the new fiscal year, but the BBS is seeking approval to fill these positions earlier. Once the positions are filled and the employees are trained, the board believes that application wait times will decrease to 30 days. If the board is granted early approval to hire, this summer will be the earliest we could see wait times decrease given the need to hire and train new employees.
So the bad news is that there is a chance that the Legislature could cut these positions from the budget; therefore, NASW is partnering with other mental health professionals to lobby the Governor to keep these positions available. We recently sent a letter to the Governor, state agency and department heads, and legislators on the Senate and Assembly Budget Committees. See the letter at the end of this article.
If not granted these positions, wait times could increase to 12 months within the next year.
We will be monitoring and reporting on this situation throughout the year. We may also ask for individual advocacy on this issue so please monitor your email and also check our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/naswca?ref=hl on this and other NASW issues.
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