Update: Gov. Bevin’s Social Work Apprenticeship Program

Author: Janet Doss, KSCSW Board Member 
       I was a part of a collaborative group of social workers that attended a meeting with the Commissioner for the Cabinet for Families and Children services on Thursday, May 24th. Our main reason and goal for the meeting was to ask questions about the recent news release by Governor Bevin about the High School Apprentice Program for students to work in the social work field.  The meeting was an hour long. Commissioner Johnson and her staff were in attendance; they talked about the program for approximately 50 minutes leaving very little time for questions. There was a tremendous about of information given during the 50 minutes and the information given was very confusing and disjointed leaving the collaborative group with more questions than before the meeting.
       There was a great representation of social workers in the collaborative group; there were social workers from many geographic areas of KY, representation from several different organizations and social workers affiliated with several different colleges and universities as well as the KY NASW lobbyist.  After the meeting, the collaborative group discussed many concerns and possible ways to object effectively to the implementation of this program but also agreed that as a group of professions, we need to concentrate on how we can protect and advocate for our profession.  The group all agreed, we need to revisit the idea of lobbying to change licensure laws in KY to require all social workers to be licensed. This would mean changing the exemption section of the licensure requirement for social workers.
      Since this meeting Commissioner Johnson resigned from her appointed position so there has not bee any additional updates on the program proposal.