What the Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensing Board (Indiana Professional Licensing Agency) requires to reach LCSW — supervised hours, exams, continuing education and renewal.
The part-time route's 4,500 hours. Indiana's part-time pathway requires 4,500 hours in total, but only 3,000 of those must fall after the graduate degree. The 4,500 figure is a lifetime total and is widely misquoted elsewhere as a post-degree requirement. Read 839 IAC 1-3-2 carefully if you are part-time.
| Credential | Full name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LBSW | Licensed Bachelor Social Worker | Bachelor's-level license (IC 25-23.6-5-1.5). |
| LSW | Licensed Social Worker | Master's level (IC 25-23.6-5-1). |
| LCSW | Licensed Clinical Social Worker | The clinical license (IC 25-23.6-5-2). |
| Supervised experience | 3,000 hours — Indiana expresses this as 2 years of post-graduate clinical experience at a minimum of 1,500 qualifying hours per year, rather than as a single total |
| Supervision hours | Not specified by the board |
| Supervision frequency | At least 4 hours per month of face-to-face supervisor contact. Up to 100% of supervision may be completed over a HIPAA-compliant real-time audio-and-visual platform; phone, email and text do not qualify. |
| Minimum elapsed time | 2 years full-time |
| Direct client contact | Not specified by the board |
LBSW takes the ASWB Bachelors exam, LSW the ASWB Masters, and LCSW the ASWB Clinical. The statute itself says only "an examination provided by the board"; the category mapping comes from an agency document dated 2019, so confirm it with the board before relying on it.
We have flagged the exam mapping above because the board does not state it plainly in the sources we could reach. Confirm it with the board before you register and pay for a category.
40 hours per 2-year renewal cycle, expressed in the rule as 20 CEUs per year.
Easy to get wrong. Hours accrued under a temporary permit remain usable for up to 4 years, and longer only with board approval. If the experience is earned in Indiana, you must hold an LSW first.
Indiana has not enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact. Thirty-three jurisdictions have; this is not one of them. Note that no state is issuing multistate licenses yet in any case. Where the compact actually stands.
Primary authority: Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensing Board (Indiana Professional Licensing Agency). Where anything on this page differs from the board, the board governs.
We do not publish fee amounts. Boards revise fee schedules without notice and a stale figure on a page people budget from is worse than no figure — use the board link above for current fees.
Requirements change. Confirm anything you intend to act on with the board before you apply. Tell us if something here is out of date and we will correct and re-date the page.
Last reviewed: October 2026 · Next scheduled review: January 2027
This guide is the reference. If you want it turned into dates and a checklist — when to register, when each exam opens to you, what the fees come to — the roadmap builder does that for Indiana.
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