All Roll Calls
Yes: 122 • No: 3
ArkansasHB17122025 Regular SessionHouse
TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE.
Sponsored By: Jamie Scott (Democratic), Joey L. Carr (Republican)
Enacted
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
13 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 3 costs, 7 mixed.
Social workers gain cross-state practice options
The law makes Arkansas a member of the Social Work Licensure Compact. A worker’s home state must issue a multistate license to an eligible resident applicant. The license covers practice in participating states within the worker’s bachelor’s, master’s, or clinical category, including services through telehealth. Workers must follow the laws and practice standards where their client is located when services are provided. States outside the Compact are not covered.
License restrictions can stop cross-state work
A restriction on a multistate license deactivates permission to practice in every other participating state. After home-state disciplinary action, that permission stays inactive until restrictions end and every disciplinary condition is met. Another state may also deactivate permission within its borders while local restrictions remain. States must promptly share disciplinary notices through the Compact’s data system. States may recover investigation and case costs from workers only when state law allows it; the Compact sets no amount.
Social workers face multistate license standards
Applicants need an active, unrestricted home-state license and fingerprints or other biometric data for FBI and state criminal-history checks. Each category requires a qualifying degree from an accredited program or one in qualifying candidacy. Applicants must pass the category’s national exam, qualify through prior continuous licensure, or meet a Commission-approved equivalent. Clinical applicants need a social work master’s degree and 3,000 supervised postgraduate clinical hours or two full-time years, or an approved equivalent. License holders must meet home-state renewal and continuing-competence rules and pay applicable renewal fees. They must report adverse actions, restrictions, or other limits on any professional license to their home state within 30 days.
States share social worker discipline powers
Only the home state may discipline the multistate license itself. Other participating states may restrict local practice permission, impose fines, and issue investigation subpoenas while following due-process rules. States must give out-of-state conduct equal weight and may use another state’s findings under their own procedures. States cannot discipline workers for conduct that was lawful in another participating state. States keep authority over single-state licenses and social work laws consistent with the Compact.
Military families can keep licensing ties
Active-duty service members and their spouses with multistate licenses may choose a state where they hold that license as home state. They may keep that home-state designation throughout the service member’s active duty. This preserves their licensing relationship during military service.
Social worker investigations continue across states
Moving to a new home state does not end a pending social work investigation. The former state must finish it and report its findings through the data system. The system administrator must promptly notify the new home state of disciplinary actions. Participating states may investigate together and must share investigation, lawsuit, or compliance records that help Compact investigations. The Compact also allows alternative programs instead of formal disciplinary action.
Multistate social workers can face fees
Home states may charge social workers a fee to issue a multistate license. The Compact Commission may also charge multistate license holders fees and assess participating states each year. Commission charges cover its approved yearly budget only to the extent other revenue does not cover it. The law sets no fee amounts.
Arkansas must meet shared licensing standards
The Arkansas Social Work Licensing Board administers the Compact and may adopt rules consistent with it. Arkansas must regulate at least one covered license category and maintain qualifying education, clinical training, and complaint-review standards. Continued membership requires national-exam standards for multistate applicants, criminal-history procedures, required data sharing, and a Commission delegate. The state must follow Commission rules, which do not need separate Board adoption to take effect in Arkansas.
Moving social workers must update licenses
Workers can hold only one multistate license and home state, but may hold separate single-state licenses. After moving between participating states, they must immediately apply for reissuance, pay fees, and notify their former home state. The new state verifies eligibility, repeats criminal-history checks, and may require its test on state practice laws. Reissuance deactivates the former multistate license; workers who do not qualify must meet the new state’s single-state licensing requirements. Moves between participating and nonparticipating states also require meeting the new state’s single-state licensing requirements.
Social worker records cross state lines
The Commission must run a shared licensing data system and assign each multistate applicant a unique identifier. States must submit and monitor required license, disciplinary, denial, investigation, and nonconfidential alternative-program records. Significant investigative information is limited to participating states, and states may block public release of designated information. Records later erased under applicable federal or contributing-state law must be removed. Commission-certified records qualify for the business-records exception to hearsay rules in court and agency proceedings.
Social workers get state-exit transition periods
A state can lose membership for unresolved violations only after notice, help, exhausted compliance measures, and a majority delegate vote. A terminated state must immediately notify licensees and recognize Compact licenses for at least six months after notice. A state may also repeal its membership law, with withdrawal taking effect 180 days after enactment. A withdrawing state must immediately notify licensees and recognize Compact licenses for at least 180 days after notice. Withdrawal preserves earlier investigation and reporting duties, with reporting continuing through its effective date; termination preserves obligations and liabilities incurred through termination.
Commission staff gain civil lawsuit protections
Commission members and staff receive civil immunity for covered actions within their duties or reasonably believed to be within them. The Commission must defend them and pay qualifying settlements or judgments; they may hire their own lawyer at personal expense. These protections exclude intentional, willful, or wanton misconduct. The Compact does not waive state or Commission sovereign immunity. Social workers remain liable for malpractice and professional misconduct under state law.
Shared commission sets social work rules
The law establishes a joint-state Commission to administer the Compact, make rules, and oversee compliance. Compact terms override conflicting state requirements only where they conflict; courts may limit Commission rules that conflict with state practice laws. A majority of member-state legislatures can end a Commission rule by rejecting it within four years; Arkansas assigns rejection authority to the General Assembly or Legislative Council. The Commission may collect fees and other revenue and must maintain audited accounts and an annual financial review. Compact amendments take effect only after every participating state enacts them; the provided text gives no calendar date for Commission operations.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
Jamie Scott
Democratic • Senate
Joey L. Carr
Republican • House
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/9/2025
Senate Vote - Wednesday, April 9, 2025 7:44:23 PM
Yes: 30 • No: 2 • Other: 3
House vote • 3/17/2025
House Vote - Monday, March 17, 2025 2:24:03 PM
Yes: 92 • No: 1
Actions Timeline
Notification that HB1712 is now Act 639
4/16/2025HouseCorrectly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's Office.
4/10/2025HouseTO BE ENROLLED
4/9/2025HouseReturned from the Senate as passed.
4/9/2025HouseReturned to the House as passed.
4/9/2025SenateRead the third time and passed.
4/9/2025SenateReturned by the Committee, with the recommendation that it Do Pass
4/7/2025SenateRead first time, rules suspended, read second time, referred to PUBLIC HEALTH, WELFARE AND LABOR COMMITTEE - SENATE
3/17/2025SenateReceived from the House.
3/17/2025SenateRead the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.
3/17/2025HouseReturned by the Committee Do Pass
3/13/2025HouseRead the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and referred to the Committee on PUBLIC HEALTH, WELFARE AND LABOR COMMITTEE- HOUSE
3/10/2025HouseFiled
3/10/2025House
Bill Text
HB1712 - Introduced
3/10/2025
Act Version
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