MY SUPERVISOR at my master of social work internship would often look at me at the end of the week and ask what I would be doing on the weekend. I’d always laugh/cringe simultaneously, and reply that I will be at work. A typical week is working six days a week — two days are unpaid at my field placement.

I often joke that I “pay to work” because I pay to be enrolled in field education every semester. Unfortunately, this “joke” is the reality for many master of social work students.

To complete a master of social work degree in Massachusetts, most social work students must complete over 1,000 hours of a typically unpaid supervised internship while paying for a college education. We must find one or two internships to complete the 1,000 hours.

Due to the lack of social workers in the state and the limited capacity for most, some students experience a challenge in finding an internship placement. I myself had this experience while looking for a field placement while obtaining my degree. If it were to pass, the so-called SUPER Act would do three things to support our workforce:

● The act would allow licensed independent clinical social workers to earn continuing education credits for supervising students pursuing a bachelor of social work and masters of social work.

● It would create a state-run grant program that would provide stipends for field placements for master of social work students in the state, prioritizing BIPOC and first-generation college students.

● And finally it would remove the exam component for master’s level social workers applying for licensure at the licensed certified social worker level.

We are facing a massive shortage of behavioral health providers in Massachusetts, and the behavioral health crisis has gotten worse. We need less barriers to entry into the profession, not more.

On top of a financial barrier to entry, students also have to take an exam to be licensed at the licensed certified social worker level and to work in most settings once they graduate. This exam has been shown to have lower pass rates for Black test takers, people who do not speak English as their primary language, and older exam takers. This lower pass rate in those populations speaks to the bias of the exam itself and the disparities it causes within the profession.

The licensed certified social worker exam does not show who is a competent social worker. It simply indicates who can pass an exam. As someone who struggles to do well on exams because of the narrow focus but has been successful in my master’s education, I worry that the exam only serves as a further barrier to entry into the profession. I also fear it could potentially deter competent clinicians we desperately need.

Furthermore, other states have succeeded in increasing the number of social workers by removing the exam requirement. The removal of the exam would help increase the number of social workers in the profession in Massachusetts, as it would eliminate the need to retake the exam if individuals did not pass it the first time and eliminate the financial barrier that people face with the $230 registration fee.

Eliminating the exam would not decrease the number of qualified master’s level social workers in the profession, as social workers would still have to go through over 1,000 hours at an internship(s) as they complete their master’s degree, course work, and then submit multiple references to the state before being approved for licensure.

I can’t help but wonder for myself and my classmates, what if we go through all of this and then won’t be hired simply because we can’t pass a standardized exam? I have a history of doing poorly on exams, so this is a genuine fear.

Ultimately, if we want to solve the behavioral health crisis in the Commonwealth, we need to remove known barriers. Removing the licensed certified social worker exam requirement and providing continuing education credits to those who supervise other social work students will cost the Commonwealth nothing. We have the funding to provide stipends, as the FY24 state budget allocated $25 million of the leftover federal funds that are allocated for the behavioral workforce to go toward paid field placement stipends.

There has been an identified problem with a need for more trained master’s level social workers, and this bill offers a reasonable solution that does not cost the taxpayers money. We need to pass the SUPER Act today.

Kathryn Janiuk is a master of social work student at Boston University.