How to Become an LCSW in New York

Earn Your MSW With 12 Clinical Credits

The LCSW path starts with an MSW, but not just any MSW. New York requires a core curriculum that includes at least 12 credit hours of clinical courses, or equivalent post-graduate clinical coursework, before the clinical license is even available (Educ. Law 7704(2)(b)).

That clinical-credit requirement sits on top of the standard MSW curriculum, which runs at least 60 semester hours of graduate study plus a 900-hour field practicum. The practicum is a degree requirement, not supervised experience, so keep the two separate in your head from the start. None of it carries forward into the 2,000 client contact hours you accrue later.

Get Licensed as an LMSW

With the degree in hand, apply for the LMSW itself. It is a full, permanent license granted with no experience requirement (Educ. Law 7704(1)(c)), not a temporary or associate credential, and it does not expire once issued. You need to pass the ASWB Masters examination and file Form 1 online for $294, which covers both the application fee and the registration fee.

Form 2, the education verification, is not yours to send. Your program's registrar submits it directly to the Office of the Professions, and NYSED will not accept it from an applicant. Once the LMSW is issued, the clock on your clinical experience can start.

Find an Acceptable Setting and an Eligible Supervisor

Your supervised experience only counts if it happens in one of seven defined settings under 8 NYCRR 74.6(a)(1): among them a professional service corporation, PLLC, or partnership authorized for the right scope of services, a program operated or funded by an agency such as the Office of Mental Health, or an entity holding a waiver under Education Law 6503-a or 6503-b. One setting is off the list entirely: a private practice you own or operate yourself (8 NYCRR 74.4(a)(2), (b)(2)).

Your supervisor also has to hold one of three credentials: an LCSW licensed in New York, or an equivalent license as the Department determines; a psychologist the Department finds qualified in psychotherapy; or a physician who is a diplomate in psychiatry of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, or has equivalent training (8 NYCRR 74.6(c)(2)).

Consider Filing a Supervision Plan

Once you have a setting and a supervisor lined up, you may submit a plan for your supervised experience to NYSED for review and approval (8 NYCRR 74.6(b)). It is optional, not a mandatory filing before hours can start, but a plan that is submitted needs proof the setting is one of the seven acceptable categories, a copy of the supervisor's license, the plan itself, and, if a third party is doing the supervising, an affirmation that the setting is authorized. See New York LCSW supervision requirements for more on supervision.

Accrue 2,000 Client Contact Hours and 100 Supervision Hours

This is the long step. You need at least 2,000 client contact hours in diagnosis, psychotherapy, and assessment-based treatment planning, plus at least 100 hours of clinical supervision distributed over the same period, across a continuous stretch of not less than 36 months and not more than 72 months (Educ. Law 7704(2)(c); 8 NYCRR 74.3(a), 74.6(c)(1)(v)).

The two counts run separately. Reaching 2,000 client contact hours does not advance the 100 supervision hours, and neither one shortens the 36-month floor. Hours only count once you hold the LMSW, or an LMSW/LCSW limited permit, and only for work performed after your degree; nothing from before licensure carries forward. Along the way, the Form 4B instructions have you and your supervisor keep a psychotherapy log of your practice and supervision hours, which NYSED says should be completed weekly; the supervisor retains it in case the State Board requests clarification.

Complete the Application File: Form 1, Form 4B, and the Exam

Three pieces make up your LCSW application file: Form 1, the online application, filed for $294; a Form 4B (Rev. 10/24) from every supervisor you worked under, submitted directly by the supervisor, since "the Office of the Professions will not accept this form if submitted by the applicant"; and a passing score on the exam the statute requires, which NYSED's own application pages identify as the ASWB Clinical examination (Educ. Law 7704(2)(d) itself says only that you must "pass an examination satisfactory to the board").

NYSED's published pages do not state the order in which these three have to land on file relative to each other, so treat this as one file with three parts rather than a fixed sequence. If you worked under two supervisors, you need two separate Form 4B submissions, one per supervisor. Our Form 4B guide walks through what the form asks and who is responsible for filing it.

Consider the Limited Permit If Only the Exam Remains

If your hours, supervision, and Form 4B filings are all complete and only the exam is outstanding, you can apply for an LMSW/LCSW limited permit. It runs for not more than 12 months and is explicitly not renewable (Educ. Law 7705(1); 8 NYCRR 74.4(a)(4), (b)(4)); if the 12 months pass without a passing exam score, you have to apply for a new limited permit rather than extend the one you have. It costs $70 (NYSED Fee Chart), and it cannot be issued for a private practice you own or operate (8 NYCRR 74.4(a)(2), (b)(2)).

Re-Register Every Three Years

Once NYSED issues the LCSW, licensure runs on a triennial cycle: re-register every three years for $224 (NYSED Fee Chart), and complete 36 hours of continuing education per period, up to 12 of them as self-study (Educ. Law 7710(1)(a), (b), (2)). Your first triennium after initial licensure is exempt from the CE requirement entirely, so the 36-hour clock effectively starts at your second registration, not your first.

How Long the Path Actually Takes

The fastest the experience portion of this path can move is 36 months, a hard floor, not a target you can beat by working faster (Educ. Law 7704(2)(c); 8 NYCRR 74.3(a)). Averaged evenly, 2,000 client contact hours over 36 months works out to about 56 hours a month; that 56-hour figure is arithmetic that follows from the pace, not a number the statute states directly. Someone who reaches 2,000 hours ahead of month 36 still has to wait out the calendar, because NYSED counts the continuous period, not just whichever total is hit first.

On the slow end, the ceiling is 72 months. An applicant averaging closer to 28 client contact hours a month reaches 2,000 hours right around month 72, at the edge of the window; any slower and hours outside the continuous 36-to-72-month period stop counting toward the license, no matter how many are eventually logged.

What the LCSW Path Costs

Every figure below comes from the NYSED Office of the Professions Fee Chart.

Form 1 gets filed twice across the whole path, once for the LMSW and again for the LCSW, since each is its own application with its own $294 fee.

Common Mistakes That Delay LCSW Licensure

These are common errors in LCSW-track applications, every one of them preventable with tracking that starts on day one.

Related New York LCSW Guides

FAQ: How to Become an LCSW in New York