You finished your MSW. Here's what the LCSW path looks like next.

Many California MSW graduates receive a CalSWEC Title IV-E child-welfare stipend during school and, in exchange, head into a public child-welfare agency for a service obligation after graduating. If that's you, the good news is that Title IV-E service-obligation employment can still count as BBS supervised experience toward the LCSW — provided the work is properly supervised.

The catch is supervision, not the agency type. Public child-welfare placements vary widely in whether a qualified, BBS-eligible LCSW supervisor is available to oversee your clinical hours. Before you assume your obligation placement counts, confirm that the agency provides an LCSW-qualified supervisor for at least part of your 3,000 hours — and that the experience itself is the kind of supervised clinical work the BBS recognizes.

Map it out before your first day: estimate your LCSW timeline with the calculator and read how to track LCSW hours in California so your supervised hours are documented correctly from week one.