Skip to main content

Education Law § 7702 · Article 154. Social Work

Authorized practice and the use of the titles "licensed master social worker" and "licensed clinical social worker"

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)

§ 7702. Authorized practice and the use of the titles "licensed master social worker" and "licensed clinical social worker". 1. In addition to the licensed social work services included in subdivisions one and two of section seventy-seven hundred one of this article, licensed master social workers and licensed clinical social workers may perform the following social work functions that do not require a license under this article, including but not limited to:

(a) Serve as a community organizer, planner, or administrator for social service programs in any setting.

(b) Provide supervision and/or consultation to individuals, groups, institutions and agencies.

(c) Serve as a faculty member or instructor in an educational setting.

(d) Plan and/or conduct research projects and program evaluation studies.

(e) Maintain familiarity with both professional and self-help systems in the community in order to assist the client in those services when necessary.

(f) Provide advice and guidance and assist individuals or groups with difficult day to day problems such as finding employment, locating sources of assistance, and organizing community groups to work on a specific problem.

(g) Consult with other agencies on problems and cases served in common and coordinating services among agencies or providing case management.

(h) Conduct data gathering on social problems.

(i) Serve as an advocate for those clients or groups of clients whose needs are not being met by available programs or by a specific agency.

(j) Assess, evaluate and formulate a plan of action based on client need.

(k) Provide training to community groups, agencies, and other professionals.

(l) Provide administrative supervision.

(m) Provide peer services.

(n) Collect basic information, gathering of demographic data, and informal observations, screening and referral used for general eligibility for a program or service and determining the functional status of an individual for the purpose of determining the need for services.

2. Practice of "licensed master social work" and use of the title "licensed master social worker" and designation "LMSW". (a) Only a person licensed or exempt under this article shall practice "licensed master social work" as defined in subdivision one of section seventy-seven hundred one of this article.

(b) Only a person licensed pursuant to subdivision one of section seventy-seven hundred four of this article shall use the title "licensed master social worker" or the designation "LMSW".

3. Practice of "licensed clinical social work" and use of the title "licensed clinical social worker" and designation "LCSW". (a) Only a person licensed or exempt under this article shall practice "licensed clinical social work" as defined in subdivision two of section seventy-seven hundred one of this article.

(b) Only a person licensed pursuant to subdivision two of section seventy-seven hundred four of this article shall use the title "licensed clinical social worker" or the designation "LCSW".

Source of truth

Edition
Law content up to date as of October 2, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
Official file
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/EDN7702
Text hash
sha256 ebe17c09cfa84e1621fd5dc774d2fb96d39b3bca0713cd5f81d32ec297defc6c
Composed by
gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.