The Board approves CE Providers, not specific CE activities. Any CE activity offered by a Board approved CE Provider, or by NASW or ASWB, will be automatically accepted.
However, pre-approval of CE activities is not required. CE activities that 1) promote the Standards of Practice, and 2) contribute to the practice of social work are considered acceptable CE content under Minnesota Statues section 148E.130. If a provider or activity is not pre-approved by the Board, NASW, or ASWB, it is your responsibility to review the content of a CE activity to determine if it meets this criteria.
Graduate or undergraduate courses completed after your license is issued can be considered. The courses may be completed in an accredited social work program; or from a university, college, or other institution of higher learning accredited by a national or regional accrediting body. One semester credit equals 15 CE hours and one quarter credit equals 10 CE hours.
To apply to the requirement for social work ethics, a CE activity must include one or more of the following topics:
History and evolution of values and ethics in social work, including cultural awareness and social diversity
Ethics theories
Professional standards specified in the ethical codes of NASW, ACSW, or CSWE
Legal requirements of a social work licensing entity
Ethical decision-making process
The two hours in ethics do not need to be obtained from a "stand alone" CE ethics program. For example, an eight hour training which includes two hours of social work ethics content could fulfill your ethics CE requirement for license renewal.
No. CE hours must be completed during your license renewal term. For example, if your license renewal date is September 30, 2020, only CE activities completed between October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2020, may be counted toward your 2020 license renewal. CE activities completed after October 1, 2020, will be counted toward your license renewal in 2022.
The Board uses clock hours to measure CE hours. One clock hour is equal to 60 minutes of learning. For example, a training you attend from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm with a 1 hour lunch break will count for 7 CE hours, since the training included 7 clock hours of learning. The number of CE hours should be listed on the certificate of attendance or other documentation provided for an educational workshop, seminar, conference, live webinar, or employer’s staff training. It is your responsibility to track dates and times of independent learning activities.
The type of documentation required depends on the type of CE activity:
For educational workshops, seminars, conferences, or live webinars, documentation of attendance must be issued by the presenter or sponsor and must include:
Name of the sponsor
Title and date of the activity
Number of clock hours
Names of presenters
For an employer’s staff training, documentation of attendance must be issued by your employer’s and must include:
Name of the employer
Title of the training
Date of the training
Number of clock hours completed
For CE independent learning, you are responsible for preparing a brief written summary of the activity conducted which must include:
Topics covered
Applicability of the activity to your social work practice
Titles and authors or presenters of materials reviewed
Dates you conducted the activity
Number of clock hours completed
For academic coursework from an institution of higher learning, submit a copy of official transcript including:
If you are due to renew your license and have not completed the required CE hours, the Board may grant a one-time extension to complete remaining hours. Even if your CE hours are not complete, you still need to submit your renewal application and fee on or before your license expiration date to avoid a late fee or possible expiration of your license. To request an extension, select the extension option in the CE section of your renewal application, and a 90-day extension from your license renewal date will be automatically granted. You should take steps right away to complete the remaining CE hours within the 90-day extension time frame. You are subject to audit following the 90-day extension. Failure to comply with CE extension requirements may be grounds for the Board to take disciplinary action.
In general, online CE activities that are not interactive are considered independent learning. CE independent learning includes activities like:
Online activities without live interaction
Research for publication, presentations, or professional development
Live webinars viewed in real time that allow for interaction are not considered independent learning. However, watching a recording of a webinar is considered independent learning, since there is no interaction.
Up to half of your required CE hours per license renewal term may be completed through independent learning.
Identify how much time was spent on each content area and count CE hours accordingly, not to exceed the total number of hours for the training. For example, if you are an LICSW and attend a six hour training that includes two hours of social work ethics and four hours of clinical content, you could count two hours toward the social work ethics requirement for license renewal and four hours of clinical content toward the clinical content requirement for LICSWs, for a total of six hours toward your overall CE hours for license renewal.
