There is one mistake that costs more than any other on this topic, and it is made by people who are being organized rather than careless.
They register for the exam first.
ASWB's Nonstandard Testing Arrangements Handbook is unambiguous about the consequence:
If you schedule a testing appointment before obtaining approval for nonstandard testing arrangements, you will be required to cancel your testing appointment. Nonstandard testing arrangements cannot be added to an existing testing appointment.
Approval takes up to three weeks, and ASWB does not offer any way to speed that up. So a candidate who books first and asks second can lose an appointment, and weeks, at the point in their preparation when both matter most.
The order is not intuitive, so here it is in ASWB's own words:
- Apply for a license with your state or provincial social work board or college.
- Request nonstandard testing arrangements from ASWB.
- Register for your exam with ASWB.
- Schedule your testing appointment.
Arrangements come second, before you have paid ASWB anything. You may register "beginning on the day you receive your decision letter" — not before.
What ESL candidates actually get
The exams are given only in English. For candidates whose primary language is not English, the Handbook is specific:
Qualified ESL candidates will receive up to two hours of additional time and may request permission to use up to two dictionaries, one bilingual word-to-word translation dictionary and/or one general English dictionary.
Two extra hours on a four-hour exam is a substantial change — it takes a 122-question paper from just under two minutes a question to just under three, half as much time again per question.
And this option is newer than most candidates realize. Until June 2025 it was not available everywhere. New York was the last jurisdiction to permit it; when its State Education Department approved the regulatory change, ASWB was able to say that every state, province and territory using the licensing exams now allows ESL arrangements. If you were told at any point before mid-2025 that your jurisdiction did not offer this, that information is out of date.
One prerequisite catches people: you must already be approved by your licensing board to sit the exam before you can request ESL arrangements. It is step 1 in that list for a reason.
The dictionary rules are stricter than you expect
If you are approved for dictionaries, you bring your own print copies, and they are inspected before and after your exam. The rules are worth reading before you buy anything:
- A translation dictionary must be word-to-word and may not contain definitions.
- A general English dictionary must contain only common definitions in English. No social work dictionaries, no specialized or technical ones.
- Dictionaries should not be enclosed in packaging.
- Test center staff may refuse any dictionary that does not conform.
And two rules that carry real consequences:
If notes are found in a dictionary during the check-in process, the test-taker will not be permitted to bring the item into the testing room.
If notes are found in a dictionary during the check-out process, the test-taker's dictionary(ies) will be confiscated, and the candidate's score will be held and investigated.
A dictionary you have studied from, annotated, or highlighted is not a dictionary you should bring. Buy a clean one.
ASWB also disclaims responsibility for the accuracy of any translation your own dictionary gives you. That is fair, and it is a reason to practice with the exact dictionary you intend to bring rather than meeting it for the first time on exam day.
California, twice
California appears as an exception more often than any other jurisdiction in ASWB's rules, and ESL is where it matters most.
California test-takers must request and receive preliminary ESL approval from the California Board of Behavioral Sciences before requesting ESL arrangements for extra time from ASWB. California does not permit the use of an English or bilingual dictionary.
So California candidates face an extra approval step ahead of the ASWB request — lengthening an already three-week process — and the dictionary option is not available to them at all. Only the extra time is.
(California is also one of two jurisdictions, with North Dakota, that does not permit a waiver of the 90-day wait after a failed exam. If you are testing in California, read the rules rather than the general advice.)
The caveat almost nobody publishes
Here is something worth knowing before you decide, and it sits in the Handbook rather than in any article we have seen:
Because individual states and provinces determine whether to allow and recognize test scores using nonstandard testing arrangements for ESL, recognition of these scores is subject to change. Licensing boards may decide whether or not to accept these scores as part of licensure requirements for their jurisdictions.
Every jurisdiction now allows ESL arrangements. Whether a board accepts a score obtained with them is a separate decision that boards retain, and ASWB says it is subject to change.
We are not going to tell you what your board will do — that is exactly the kind of claim this site refuses to make about individual jurisdictions. ASWB's own advice is to check, and it is right: ask your board directly, in writing, before you request. Our licensure pages carry each board's name and contact point, verified at source.
Disabilities and health conditions
The same three-week clock and the same ordering apply, but the request itself is different: you and your practitioner submit documentation, and the Handbook is blunt about what makes a request fail.
If the documentation does not include adequate information regarding your functional limitations in the testing environment, specific to the diagnosis reported by the practitioner, the request cannot be approved.
A diagnosis alone is not enough. What ASWB needs is the link between the diagnosis and what it does to you in a test center — reading, concentration, sitting, needing to move, needing to eat. If your practitioner writes a letter naming a condition and nothing else, expect it to come back.
Arrangements ASWB lists as possible include extra time, frequent or extended breaks, an American Sign Language interpreter, a beverage, and glucose testing supplies. Needs it names elsewhere include a monitoring device for conditions such as diabetes, ambulatory arrangements for a broken bone, additional breaks because of pregnancy, and lactation.
One operational detail that matters given how the exam is sectioned:
If you have approval for the nonstandard testing arrangement of extra testing time, your total testing time will be evenly divided between the exam's two sections.
Extra time is not a pool you can spend where you like. Half goes to each half of the exam, and the door between the sections still closes behind you.
What expires and what does not
ESL approvals do not expire unless revoked by ASWB or your jurisdiction. Once you have them, a repeat request is unnecessary unless you want to change the arrangements.
Disability and health arrangements can be time-limited where the underlying need is — an injury with an expected recovery date, or a pregnancy with a documented due date. If your needs change, you contact ASWB.
Two things to do that take five minutes
Diarize the three weeks. ASWB reviews requests in the order received, offers no expedited process, and says explicitly that following up is your job: "It is your responsibility to contact ASWB if you have not received communication from ASWB after three weeks from the date you submitted the request." Put a reminder in your calendar on the day you submit.
Check your Authorization to Test against your decision letter. After you register, the Authorization to Test email arrives within two business days and lists your approved arrangements. ASWB's instruction if the two do not match is unusually firm — contact them immediately and "must not schedule a testing appointment until corrections are made." Two minutes of comparison protects the whole thing.
Where this leaves your study plan
If you are reading this, your exam is probably not next week — and that is the right position to be in. Arrangements are the part of this process that rewards starting early and punishes nothing.
While the three weeks run, the useful thing to do is build the plan around the date you will actually be able to book. Tell us your exam date and how many hours a week you have, and we will email you a week-by-week plan covering the whole outline — no account needed. And if you want to see the material first, chapter 1, Ethical Principles and Responsibilities is free and complete: eight lessons and 192 questions in the largest content area on every exam.
If your date does need to move, that is usually cheaper than people assume — what the exam costs, end to end sets out the fees, including which ones are nonrefundable.
Everything quoted here is read from ASWB's Nonstandard Testing Arrangements Handbook (edition 03/2026) and the 2026 Examination Guidebook, checked 21 August 2026. Rules change and jurisdictions differ: confirm with ASWB and with your own board before relying on any of it. ASWB Master is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or approved by the Association of Social Work Boards.