County Exemption from Social Work Licensure in Minnesota: Understanding the Past and Present to Affect the Future

Abstract

This three-paper dissertation discerns the current landscape surrounding county exemption from social work licensure in Minnesota and whether additional repeal efforts are timely and necessary. It outlines the purpose, critiques, and history of social work licensure in Minnesota and analyzes how the literature describes the reasons for and against licensing county social workers and the gaps remaining in the literature. It then describes the results of a mixed methods study to: 1) ascertain the number of current Minnesota county employees would need to be licensed should the exemption be eliminated, how the number has changed since 2007, and the number of licensure supervisors currently available within the MN county public service agencies; and 2) to understand the connection between having the resources in place to support licensure and the decision to become licensed when an exemption is in place.