Authorizes Kathleen DeCola to apply for a Licensed Clinical Social Worker license

BILL NUMBER:S5011 Revised 06/02/15

Title of bill

An act in relation to authorizing Kathleen DeCola to apply for a Licensed Clinical Social Worker license

Purpose

The purpose of this legislation is to allow Kathleen De Cola to apply and receive the necessary licenses she is already entitled but has not received because she missed a deadline to file.

Summary of provisions

Section 1. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, Kathleen DeCola who took the Master Social Worker exam prior to 1996 and who was subsequently issued a New York state Clinical Social Worker license which later was divided into two separate licenses known as a Licensed Master of Social Work and the Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who was eligible for both licenses, who received the Licensed Master of Social Work license, and who was eligible for the Licensed Clinical Social Worker license but was not issued such license shall be granted the Licensed Clinical Social Worker license if she shall file an application therefore on or before December 31, 2015.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Existing law

None exist at this time

Justification

When Mrs. DeCola first started out in the social work profession with her Master's degree from Fordham University in 1995, she had taken the MSW exam and passed. She was given the NY State License called the CSW. At some point in time however, the license changed from the CSW to the LMSW (Licensed Master of Social Work) AND the LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Work). She was supposed to be grandfathered into the LCSW, but due to an issue with not receiving the communication from New York State about the licenses being changed, she was not aware of the paperwork that needed to be submitted in order to be grandfathered in. Therefore, she missed the documentation/application until after it had passed.

Mrs. DeCola asked for an exception, but was told that the deadline to apply for licensure without examination was 9/1/2005 and she would need to meet the current educational requirements and experience requirements to be approved to sit for the clinical examination. Herein lies the next host of problems. Mrs. DeCola has worked for the Rye Youth Council for the past 19 years, this is currently her 20th year. In all of the years that she has worked for the organization, she has always had a clinical advisor. For the past several years, her clinical advisor/supervisor has been a clinical psychologist. The Rye Youth Center applied for a waiver from New York State to provide

support/counseling services through New York State, but when they applied for the waiver they only checked off Licensed Clinical Social Work Licensed Master of Social Work (covering her who should be an LCSW, but is still an LMSW) on the form. Additionally, New York State said they would not count her clinical supervision/advisement hours with her advisor because she is in another location and not in our office. This seems unfair. She oversees Mrs. DeCola's work, provides consultation on her cases, and keeps documentation of her one on one face to face supervision hours.

It is her hope that she can be grandfathered into LCSW (since she should have been anyway) credential/license.

Legislative history

None

Fiscal implications

None

Local fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately