Newly graduated with your Master’s in Social Work and wanting to work in Oregon? Let’s chat. If you want to understand the bigger picture before jumping in, read here for a brief overview on Oregon’s licensing process for social workers.

To get started, you need a Clinical Social Work Associate license (here). You can never practice without an approved CSWA in place. Here’s how you get one:

1. Fill out the first 7 pages of the CSW application (here) and send it in, along with a $260 application fee. There are four spots for previous places of employment- don’t feel compelled to add more than that, and yes, only put relevant employment. If you have any significant legal history, the board may want paperwork from various courts providing details.

2. If you have a supervisor identified and a place where you will be accruing clinical practice hours (i.e. you’ve got employment in place) then fill out pages 8-10. If you don’t have them identified, just leave that blank and send in the application anyway. You can fill out and submit the work/supervisor information when you’ve got it.

3. Contact your university registrar office or login to the school’s website and request they send over an official transcript to the OBLSW (address is on the application).

4. Have fingerprints completed with FieldPrint Oregon and have them sent to OBLSW. Go to the board website (here) and scroll down to the Fingerprint Instructions section.

5. Complete the Oregon Statutes and Administrative Rules open-book Exam (here) and mail in the answer sheet (on page 9) to the OBLSW (address on first page of exam). Refer to the “related rules” at the bottom of the CSWA info page.

As one of my supervisees put it: “Not quite sure why the documents seem like such a hurdle. Really not all that complicated!”.

Alright, no excuses now. Go get it!