We know that one of your main goals as an intern or trainee is to gain enough hours to sit for licensure with the BBS. With cutbacks in staff in early 2011, the current processing time for MFT and LCSW applications is running a few months out. If you’ve already submitted your application and are wondering where you are in the process, the BBS website frequently updates what ‘week’ of submitted applications they are currently working on. For the week of January 23rd, MFT applications received the week of August 2nd, 2011 and Clinical Social Work applications received the week of October 31st were being processed. You can find the most recent information here.
A completed application provides the best opportunity to avoid delays in approving the applicant for the licensure examination. With that in mind, below are suggestions to help ensure your application has everything in order when you submit your materials to the BBS.
Make sure your application is 100% complete. This sounds pretty basics, but according to the BBS, the number one reason why applications are refused from sitting for exams is that they are missing information.
Double check that your graduate course work meets all the requirements. The BBS lists accredited and approved schools, so you can see if your program is on the list. If not, it is possible to take CEUs that meet the BBS criteria.
Submit your weekly experience logs in date order. This will not only make for a smoother review of your weekly logs, but ensures that you’ve gone back through your signed statements and know that they are all present. If you do find that you’ve misplaced a weekly experience sheet, don’t worry, you’ve got all your hours still logged on TYH. Scroll back through your weeks, reprint and submit to your supervisor.
Include all signed experience verification logs. Double check each sheet to make sure your hours add up and that each sheet includes signatures in the proper place. This is the time you want to dot all your i’s and cross your t’s.
Are your transcripts in a sealed envelope? This is a must for the BBS.
Don’t forget your payment! After making it through your grad program, successfully logging 3000 hours and beginning to prep for your exam, the last reason you would want to be denied is for forgetting to submit payment.
For additional information on the application process, contact the BBS with your questions.