South Carolina Licensed Independent Social Worker – Advanced Practice (LISW-AP)

South Carolina Licensed Independent Social Worker – Advanced Practice (LISW-AP) Licensure Process

An LISW-AP doesn’t have to be supervised when providing non-clinical services. To engage in clinical services, they will need supervision. An LMSW license is needed before you can apply to become an LISW-AP. Some of the settings they will practice non-clinical services are:

• Research facilities
• Higher education
• Consulting
• Business
• Government

Education Requirements

You can apply for an LISW-AP with either a master’s or doctorate degree in social work from an CSWE-accredited school. Here you can find all schools offering social work degree programs in South Carolina.

Experience Requirements

Before you can start accruing hours toward your supervised advanced social work experience, an LISW Supervision Contract must be completed by you and the qualified supervisor. Only an LISW-AP with at least 4,500 hours of post-licensure experience and 45 hours of training supervision can oversee your advanced experienced.

Once you find a supervisor, you’ll need to finish 3,000 hours, 100 of them spent receiving face-to-face supervision. Either 15 academic hours or 20 CE hours of professional ethics courses must be completed. You have 2-4 years to finish the supervised experience. The supervisor will send a Report of Supervised Experience to verify the completion of the required hours. You’ll also need to send a Required Coursework form with your official transcript attached. The transcript will show you’ve taken the 45 hours each of psychopathology and psycho-diagnostics courses and practiced advanced social work within the community and for organizations.

Background Check

All licensed social workers are required to undergo a criminal background check by the state and FBI. If you lived in any other states within the past five years, those state registries are also searched. South Carolina’s Child Care website has all of the information related to background checks. The check is based on your fingerprints which are also checked against several databases, including:

• Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) fingerprint-based background check
• Central Registry check to determine abuse or neglect toward a child
• National Crime Information Center (NCIC) National Sex Offender Registry check
• State sex offender registry check

Examination Requirements

The exam you must take for licensure is the ASWB Advanced Generalist exam which has a registration fee of $260. Only 150 of the 170 multiple-choice questions are scored. The test focuses on your knowledge of the advanced practice of non-clinical social work.

Applying for Licensure as a Licensed Independent Social Worker – Advanced Practice

The licensure process begins the same as others, with an application. Include $45 for the application fee, a copy of your state-issued ID, social security card, and the legal documents to verify your name change if you’ve had one. Your CSWE-accredited program will send a copy of your official transcript, and the ASWB will submit your testing scores.

After the board confirms your Report of Supervised Experience, Required Coursework form, and other requirements have been met, your application will be processed to issue your LISW-AP license. You will then be able to provide non-clinical services without supervision, but clinical services will have to be supervised.