Many thanks to those that attended the August 17th Social Work Licensure Compact Review Session hosted by NASW-WA. We appreciate your time and valuable input to inform our Chapter's comments on the social work licensure compact draft.

During the meeting, we reviewed the draft compact language and questions about the existing provisions. There was much discussion regarding the testing requirements currently written into the compact draft (and Washington law). Participants outlined that the ASWB testing data highlights unacceptable disparities. The group highlighted concerns about the inclusion of the exam in the compact draft and that it was important to do something in Washington to address racial disparities and barriers to professional social workers.

To that end, NASW-WA will host a virtual event to build on this discussion and narrow the discussion's focus on identifying and exploring alternatives to the exam requirement, creating a regulatory board focused on social workers, and advocating for levers for license portability should a social worker's license be revoked in an anti-abortion state for assisting clients getting abortion access.

Join us on August 24, 2022 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) for our virtual discussion. Once you register, the Chapter will send you the link to join the discussion on Zoom.

If you have not done so already, please submit your individual comments about the social work licensure compact draft directly to the Council on State Governments at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialworkcompact

If you are comfortable doing so, please send your comments to the Chapter as well to jarp.naswwa@socialworkers.org to inform the Chapter's discussion and public comment.