Requirements last verified August 16, 2026 against the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners.
LBSWLicensed Bachelor Social Worker
The board lists this level but does not state its ASWB exam on the pages we checked — confirm with them directly.
LMSWLicensed Masters Social Worker
The board lists this level but does not state its ASWB exam on the pages we checked — confirm with them directly.
LCSWLicensed Certified Social Worker
The board lists this level but does not state its ASWB exam on the pages we checked — confirm with them directly.
An MSW and LMSW plus at least two years of social work experience supervised by an LCSW or LCSW-C. Despite the abbreviation, this is NOT Maryland’s clinical license.
LCSW-CLicensed Certified Social Worker–Clinical
The board lists this level but does not state its ASWB exam on the pages we checked — confirm with them directly.
Maryland’s clinical license: an MSW and LMSW plus at least two years of CLINICAL social work experience supervised by an LCSW-C.
Maryland is the second state where “LCSW” does not mean what it means elsewhere. Here the LCSW is the Licensed Certified Social Worker — a non-clinical advanced license — and the clinical one carries a suffix: LCSW-C, Licensed Certified Social Worker–Clinical. The difference is real, not cosmetic: the LCSW requires two years of general social work experience, the LCSW-C two years of clinical experience under an LCSW-C. Confirm with the Board which examination each requires; the Board’s regulations delegate the choice of examination to ASWB without naming a level, so we are not going to guess it for you.
Whatever Maryland calls its license levels, the exam behind them is one of five.
Enjoying this? Unlock all 124 written lessons, mock exams & practice questions.