Georgia Social Work Services Guide

Licensing, clinical and nonclinical practice, supervision, Medicaid, case management, and program operations

Georgia distinguishes master social worker and clinical social worker licensing, while agency and Medicaid service rules determine additional program conditions. Directors need to connect those layers before expanding treatment or community services. This guide covers professional scope, supervision, school roles, funding, documentation, staffing, reporting, and implementation for social work organizations.

Georgia social work quick facts

A professional credential, permission to provide a service, organizational approval, and eligibility for payment are separate decisions. Use the sections below to connect them before hiring, expanding a caseload, or committing revenue to a new service.

What types of social work can an organization provide in Georgia?

Social work can include clinical treatment, case management, advocacy, family support, community practice, administration, and policy work. The permitted duties depend on the professional credential, applicable exemptions, setting, and service rules. A job title such as case manager or program director does not settle those questions.

Clinical social work and behavioral health treatment

Clinical services can involve assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, and psychotherapy when performed by an appropriately authorized professional. Define the clinical service, the worker’s authority, required supervision, and escalation arrangements. A worker who provides both treatment and community support needs a clear record of which service occurred and in which role.

Nonclinical practice, case management, and resource navigation

Community work may help people obtain housing, benefits, food, transportation, education, employment, and other supports. A useful service plan identifies the person’s priorities, barriers, responsible worker, and next action. Nonclinical does not mean unregulated: professional title protection, supervision, employer qualifications, privacy, and funding conditions may still apply.

Mezzo and macro social work

Mezzo practice can include family, group, and organizational work. Macro practice can include community organizing, policy, program design, administration, research, and evaluation. Classify work by what the employee actually does. Managing a team is not itself permission to supervise clinical practice or to certify experience toward a clinical license.

A senior community or program-management job does not automatically become clinical practice. Georgia employers should identify which duties involve clinical services and apply the master’s or clinical license conditions to those duties. Keep organizational management and professional supervision explicit when one person holds both roles. [1]

Which social work licenses and credentials does Georgia recognize?

Georgia publishes master social worker and clinical social worker pathways through the Composite Board. Use the professional license category rather than treating the MSW academic degree as the issued credential. [1]

The Board’s requirements chapter addresses master’s and clinical licensure and the conditions for clinical practice by a master’s social worker. Use the current rule and application together to verify education, examination, and experience for the individual. [1]

Licensed Master Social Worker

Georgia’s master social worker license has its own practice conditions. Match the LMSW’s work, oversight, and employment arrangement to the rules rather than assuming a master’s-level license authorizes independent clinical practice. [1]

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

The clinical license adds the required postgraduate experience, qualifying supervision, and remaining application conditions. An organization employing both levels should distinguish clinical decision-making authority from ordinary administrative reporting. [1]

How to verify a new hire or transferred license

Use the regulator’s public verification system, not a résumé or a copy of an old certificate alone. Record the exact credential, active status, expiration, restrictions relevant to the work, and verification date. Verify an associate, candidate, intern, provisional, or conditional status as issued. Keep degree abbreviations separate from professional licenses in staff records and participant-facing introductions.

For an applicant from another jurisdiction, select the state’s actual application route. Endorsement, recognition, temporary permission, and compact authority have different conditions. A compact law or pending application does not prove the individual currently holds authority to practice. Set the service start date from verified authorization rather than an anticipated approval date.

What does Georgia require for clinical or independent social work licensure?

Georgia’s requirements chapter governs master’s and clinical licensure and the conditions under which a master social worker provides clinical services. Use the current rule with the clinical application to determine the qualifying experience and supervision. The Board’s application page also warns that clinical licensure is not offered through a blanket reciprocity or endorsement route. [1]

1. Confirm the education and current credential required for the intended route. Check whether registration or an approved plan must be in place before experience begins.
2. Agree on qualifying duties and an eligible supervisor. Identify which direct contact, clinical, nonclinical, group supervision, or observation categories must be tracked separately.
3. Record work and supervision as they occur. Reconcile the worker’s log with the supervisor’s evidence regularly and retain copies when a position, setting, or supervisor changes.
4. Complete the current application, source verifications, required examination or approved alternative, and license issuance. Finishing hours or passing an exam does not automatically change the worker’s scope.

How do direction and clinical supervision differ?

Georgia defines direction as administrative oversight and supervision as clinical review for training. For the master's-degree LCSW route, Rule 135-5-.04 describes 3,000 postgraduate experience hours over at least 36 and no more than 108 months, with the first 2,000 under both direction and supervision. It requires 120 supervision hours, no more than half group and at least half from a qualifying LCSW. A separate doctoral route has different conditions. Georgia licensing rules.

Both supervisor and supervisee must keep contemporaneous records of the session date, duration, type and pertinent activity. Agree on who will verify each period before the employment relationship ends. Rule 135-5-.04.

What supervision do social work programs in Georgia need?

Georgia’s rules include conditions for private practice by a master’s social worker and an application timing provision once clinical experience and supervision requirements are met. Do not let a worker’s employment arrangement or growing caseload substitute for checking those conditions. [1]

Keep three responsibilities visible: management of employment and workload, oversight of services and clinical decisions, and supervision that qualifies toward a credential. One person may hold more than one responsibility, but the qualifications, agreement, and evidence for each should be clear. NASW and ASWB distinguish administrative, educational, and supportive functions in professional supervision. [2]

What belongs in a supervision agreement?

• The worker’s credential, service setting, assigned duties, and intended licensing pathway.
• The supervisor’s qualifying license or approval, scope of responsibility, availability, and backup coverage.
• The meeting schedule, permitted format, recordkeeping method, evaluation milestones, and handling of missed sessions.
• How participants are informed, how records may be accessed, and how concerns move between an external supervisor and the employer.
• What happens when employment or supervision ends, including final verification, record custody, and continuity of care.

Can social workers bill Georgia Medicaid?

Community behavioral health rehabilitation

GAMMIS publishes the current Community Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services policy manual, and DBHDD maintains separate community provider guidance. A program should use the current versions together with the applicable provider and payer arrangements. Distinguish the professional scope of the worker from the service category, agency qualification, and required evidence. Existing community-service experience or an agency referral relationship does not itself establish Medicaid participation for a new clinical service. [3]

CCBHC certification is an organizational decision

DBHDD states that Georgia CCBHC candidates must be certified by the department before billing Medicaid for CCBHC services. It directs readers to the community behavioral health provider manual and Georgia certification criteria. Hiring an LCSW or adding a care coordinator is not equivalent to becoming a CCBHC. Evaluate the certification, required service model, staffing, reporting, and funding obligations before presenting a new program as part of that pathway. [4]

How should a program verify billing codes and rates?

Select the code from the benefit and provider manual that governs the actual service. Review the service definition, eligible rendering role, units, modifiers, place of service, authorization, and exclusions together. Psychotherapy, assessment, targeted case management, rehabilitation, and care coordination are different services; they should not be relabeled to fit a more convenient code.

Use the current fee schedule and the organization’s payer agreement to model reimbursement. A published fee does not establish that a particular organization, worker, participant, or encounter qualifies. Preserve the source version and effective date used for a billing decision, and check payer notices when the service date crosses a policy change.

What should be verified before the first claim?

1. Participant coverage and benefit eligibility on the service date, including the responsible plan or funding program.
2. The enrolled billing organization, rendering professional, site, and any required agency certification or network participation.
3. The covered activity, assessed need, service or treatment plan, required order or referral, and authorization.
4. The actual service, staff role, time or units, modality, location, documentation, and required signatures or review.
5. The claim route, code and modifiers, exclusions, duplication rules, filing requirements, and response to denials.

How can a program fund nonclinical social work and case management?

Fund the defined activity rather than the staff title. A social worker may deliver a Medicaid-covered clinical service, a separately defined case management benefit, and grant-supported outreach in the same week. Those activities can have different eligibility, documentation, time allocation, and reporting rules. Keep the activity and funding source identifiable without making staff maintain several conflicting accounts of the same work.

Potential sources include agency contracts, local government agreements, school or hospital partnerships, philanthropy, grants, and eligible health-plan arrangements. These are funding models to investigate, not promises of an open grant or universal reimbursement. Build each budget from the applicable award or agreement and include supervision, coordination, travel, documentation, training, software, and implementation support.

Where do social workers deliver services in Georgia?

Schools, students, and families

GaPSC Rule 505-2-.147 describes the School Social Work P-12 service certificate and the routes to its issuance. Check the applicable preparation, professional certificate, and employment conditions. A professional social work license and a school service certificate address different parts of the position. [5]

Define how attendance concerns, family engagement, crisis response, special education work, and treatment referrals move between the school and outside providers. Decide which organization owns each record and the authority for sharing it. HHS publishes specific guidance on the relationship between FERPA and HIPAA; a shared worker or software login does not make every school and health record subject to the same rules. [6]

Hospitals, health centers, and discharge planning

Medical social work can connect assessment, discharge planning, benefits, caregiver support, and community referrals. A discharge referral is not complete merely because it was sent. Name the receiving service, document the participant’s preferences and permissions, assign follow-up, and record whether the connection occurred. The clinical credential and payer arrangement for therapy may differ from the qualifications and funding for a hospital’s discharge coordination role.

Children, family services, and child welfare

Make referral authority, the purpose of the service, caregiver involvement, and decision-making responsibilities explicit. Distinguish support and advocacy from an investigation, court evaluation, or mandated treatment role. Establish the applicable reporting and escalation procedures for the actual setting. Staff should know when to consult a supervisor instead of treating every family concern as a routine case note.

Aging, disability, housing, and community services

A community program may coordinate benefits, accessible housing, transportation, caregiver support, and long-term services. Document the person’s goals and choices, the eligibility of each external resource, and who owns the next step. Measure completed connections and unresolved barriers alongside the number of referrals. Preserve a route for people whose needs fall outside the program’s eligibility or capacity.

Justice, reentry, and substance use programs

Clarify whether participation is voluntary, required by a referral agreement, or connected to another legal process. Explain the worker’s role and the limits on information sharing. Plan for interrupted contact, changes in residence, medication or treatment handoffs, and the first community appointment. Substance use treatment records can have additional confidentiality protections; build an organization-specific disclosure process rather than assuming a general release covers every recipient.

Expanding from community support into treatment

Program design example: a community team wants to add psychotherapy rather than refer every treatment need elsewhere. Define the clinical service, license and supervision arrangement, participant eligibility, agency authority, and funding before accepting a treatment caseload. Retain the useful community pathway and make referrals between the two understandable. Growth should create a new authorized service, not simply a longer existing note template.

What should social work documentation include?

Document the service actually provided, its relationship to the person’s assessed needs or goals, the response, and the next responsible action. Use the form and review requirements applicable to the service, payer, setting, and professional role. A clinical treatment record and a housing-navigation record should support coordination while preserving their different purposes.

• Identity and context: participant identifier, service date, responsible worker and role, setting, and relevant permissions.
• Service facts: contact or activity, modality, location, time or units where required, and the people involved.
• Purpose and work: the goal or assessed need, what the worker did, and relevant information supporting the decision.
• Response and follow-up: the participant’s response, progress or barrier, next action, owner, and review date.
• Completion and accountability: required signature, supervisor review, corrections, and retained versions or amendments.

These elements are a practical design checklist, not a universal state billing template. NASW’s case management standards address assessment, planning, collaboration, recordkeeping, evaluation, and workload sustainability. [7]

What does a useful nonclinical note look like?

Fictional example for program design: A participant identifies a housing application as the next step toward a stable discharge plan. The worker reviews the required documents with the participant, helps identify two missing items, and contacts the housing program with permission to clarify the deadline. The participant chooses to obtain the income statement; the worker will confirm the referral status at the next agreed contact. Record the actual date, service details, response, and required review in the program’s authorized format.

This example describes work and ownership without inventing a diagnosis, a completed referral, or a billable unit. A clinical progress note needs the clinical content and other elements required for that treatment service. Keep a correction process that preserves who changed what and when, and avoid copying an identical narrative across people or contacts.

What should a clinical social work progress note show?

Fictional clinical example: In a session addressing an assessed treatment goal, the authorized clinician reviews the participant’s use of an agreed coping strategy, practices an additional skill, and documents the response. The record identifies clinically relevant changes, the next treatment step, and any assessment indicated under the service protocol. It also captures the required service date, modality, time, professional identity, and signature. The note must reflect the care actually provided and the clinician’s judgment; a stock narrative is insufficient. NASW’s clinical standards address documenting services and safeguarding clinical records. [8]

Should the program use DAP, SOAP, or BIRP notes?

Choose a format that meets the actual service and record requirements. DAP organizes Data, Assessment, and Plan; SOAP uses Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan; BIRP uses Behavior, Intervention, Response, and Plan. These are organizing formats, not automatic state or payer approvals. A format should help the authorized worker describe the service accurately. It should not prompt a nonclinical worker to make a clinical determination outside the assigned role.

How should consent, confidentiality, and records access work?

Map the record, the organization holding it, the purpose of access, and the proposed recipient before sharing information. Give staff access appropriate to their assignment and responsibilities, including any additional restrictions on sensitive records. Define how the team handles a participant’s request, a corrected record, an external supervisor, an outside referral, and a departing employee. Keep the applicable consent or other disclosure basis connected to the actual action.

Set retention and release procedures from the governing rules, service requirements, contracts, and any applicable hold. Different clinical, school, substance use, and community records can need different treatment. HHS’s FERPA and HIPAA guidance illustrates why record ownership and setting matter. Train staff on the organization’s approved workflow and provide a route for questions that cannot be resolved in a routine service interaction. [6]

How should social workers coordinate with peer support professionals?

For programs employing both, define complementary roles around the participant’s goals. Assign clinical decisions to appropriately authorized clinicians and keep the peer role grounded in its own qualifications and service model. Clarify referral, consultation, escalation, supervision, and what each worker documents. A shared participant record should improve coordination while making professional roles and access understandable.

Review the service and funding conditions for each workforce rather than assuming a social work license qualifies a person as a peer professional or that a peer credential authorizes clinical treatment. Include both roles in workflow design and training so the system reflects how the team actually delivers support.

Peer support credentials, funding, and program guidance in Georgia

How should a social work program handle telehealth and remote services?

Check professional authority, service suitability, funding coverage, and technology requirements separately. HHS advises checking the participant’s location and obtaining consent before an appointment. Cross-state options depend on the jurisdiction and can include a full license, a permitted temporary route, registration, or an operational compact privilege where applicable. [9]

In Georgia, use the licensing pathways described above to verify the worker’s authority for the actual location and service. Then check Georgia Medicaid and any other payer’s current service and modality requirements. Keep a licensing approval, a clinical supervision arrangement, and payer permission distinguishable in the program’s records.

Design the remote workflow for a failed connection, lack of private space, interpreter or accessibility needs, and a person requiring in-person support. Record the actual modality and relevant service facts. Permission to use video or telephone for one benefit does not establish coverage for every activity, and permission for remote clinical care does not establish that remote licensing supervision is acceptable.

How should directors set caseloads and staffing capacity?

Build capacity from the work required, not only the number of assigned people. An active case can include contact, outreach attempts, travel, coordination, documentation, supervision, and coverage. Review the mix of service intensity and barriers before applying one productivity expectation to every social worker.

A practical workload review separates new referrals, active service episodes, people awaiting an external resource, and transitions or closures. Identify which assignments need urgent contact or a supervisor’s decision. Protect time for required supervision and records. Use the governing contract or program standard when one applies; this guide does not prescribe a universal safe caseload ratio.

Use a program adding clinical services to an existing community-support caseload in a workload review. Count the coordination, review, and follow-up needed to finish the work, including time spent waiting for another service. The result should identify a staffing or process decision, not simply assign a higher case target to the same worker.

How do you start or expand a social work program in Georgia?

1. Define the population and need. Specify who can access the program, what it will provide, and what it will refer elsewhere. Include the people who will use the service when setting priorities.
2. Separate service pathways. Map clinical treatment, case management, advocacy, group work, and macro activities to the appropriate roles, credentials, supervision, and funding.
3. Confirm organizational authority. Check facility or agency approvals, payer enrollment, contracts, and site requirements for the selected pathways before committing a launch date.
4. Design the referral-to-closure process. Assign an owner to intake, consent, eligibility, assignment, service planning, documentation, review, escalation, follow-up, and transition.
5. Budget the whole operation. Include protected supervision, nonbillable coordination, travel, reporting, training, implementation, and ongoing support. Test the plan against realistic staffing and payer assumptions.
6. Pilot one complete pathway. Include a routine service, a missed contact, an urgent concern, a corrected record, a staff absence, and a report. Repair the handoffs before expanding volume.
7. Review performance and changes. Monitor access, unresolved work, participant-defined progress, record quality, workforce needs, and changes in licensing or funding rules.

Which outcomes and reports should a social work program track?

Separate activity, access, quality, and outcomes. Contacts delivered describe activity. Referral-to-first-contact time describes access. Required reviews completed describe a process. Progress toward a participant’s chosen goal describes an outcome. A dashboard should not turn those into one undifferentiated service count.

For each measure, specify the population, numerator, denominator, period, data source, and responsible owner. Decide how to count a reopened episode, unsuccessful outreach, group attendance, and a referral that is still pending. Keep grant, payer, and internal reporting definitions visible so the same contact is not interpreted three different ways.

Use a short review meeting to act on the data: which referrals lack an owner, which follow-ups are overdue, which records need attention, and which external barriers recur? Pair those operating questions with participant experience and goal progress. Collect a field because it supports care, an actual obligation, or a decision the team will make.

When does purpose-built social work software become necessary?

Evaluate a system when staff repeatedly re-enter the same information, supervisors cannot see what needs review, referrals lose ownership between teams, or reports require reconstructing work from several sources. The immediate cost is the work your team can observe: an unresolved referral, a returned note, a missed supervisory milestone, or time spent reconciling a report.

Purpose-built software should reflect the service model. Test distinct clinical and community records, staff qualifications, assignments, permissions, participant goals, review, corrections, and reporting. A flexible form builder is useful only if the surrounding workflow also works for the people delivering and reviewing services. Ask the vendor to demonstrate what is available today and identify configuration, integration, or product gaps.

Use a proposed new clinical assignment as a staffing review. Confirm the worker’s actual credential and applicable conditions, define the professional oversight and identify the appropriate record and payer pathway. Retain the history when the credential later changes. A personnel title update should not retrospectively recategorize old encounters. Ask the vendor to show the before-and-after workflow, including who can review the record and what appears in program reports.

What should you ask vendors to demonstrate?

• One referral through eligibility, consent, assignment, service, review, follow-up, and closure, including an exception.
• The difference between a clinical record and a nonclinical service record, including who may view, edit, sign, and review each.
• A supervisor’s queue and a staff handoff when a worker is absent or leaves, with preserved authorship and access controls.
• A report tied back to the underlying service facts, with useful exports and definitions the organization can explain.
• The implementation work, responsibilities, migration checks, training, support, and total recurring and one-time costs.

Professional technology standards address competence, informed consent, privacy, access, records, and organizational responsibilities. Use them alongside your actual service requirements when evaluating the system. [10]

Explore Smores Health’s platform and program workflows

Smores Health brings staff assignments, scheduling, documentation, review, participant engagement, and reporting into a connected workspace. For a social work organization, use a walkthrough to establish fit for the proposed services and identify requirements needing configuration, integration, or another system. Product selection does not determine a worker’s scope or a service’s payment eligibility.

What should implementation prove before launch?

Implementation should translate your organization’s specific service model into a workflow workers can use and supervisors can trust. Agree on the operating problem and acceptance criteria before migration or training. A configured system is ready when the team can complete and review the work, handle exceptions, and produce the needed evidence.

1. Discovery: map services, staff roles, forms, reporting, funding, privacy boundaries, and the first workflow to improve. Include frontline workers, supervisors, and the person accountable for reports.
2. Configuration and migration: define permissions, records, review steps, integrations, and exports. Check the source data, reconcile a sample of migrated records, and assign an owner to unresolved requirements.
3. Pilot and validation: complete the ordinary pathway and the exceptions. Test an incorrect assignment, a missed contact, a returned record, a supervisor change, and a report. Confirm that users see only the information and actions appropriate to their roles.
4. Training and launch: train each role on its daily tasks, establish support contacts, and name the person making the launch decision. Do not make staff invent workarounds during their first live service.
5. Follow-through: review adoption, unresolved work, record quality, and reporting against the starting point. Adjust the configuration and process when the real service model changes.

See Smores Health’s setup and training approach

What renewal and continuing education should directors track?

Track the issued credential’s expiration, the current renewal instructions for that category, required subjects, acceptable learning formats, and retained evidence. Associate, candidate, provisional, or conditional credentials can have different limits from the full license. A completed course or submitted renewal does not by itself prove that the renewed status is active.

Georgia requires 35 continuing education hours within the two-year licensing cycle, including five in professional ethics. The rules distinguish qualifying ethics instruction and other credit categories. Check the current delivery-format and first-renewal provisions before approving a course, especially when a worker advances from LMSW to LCSW during the cycle. [11]

Give workers a way to see their own milestones and resolve missing evidence early. Recheck supervisor eligibility when a license changes and review role permissions after advancement. Before a supervisor leaves, preserve signed experience records and agree on a qualified replacement. That checkpoint is more useful than discovering a gap when the next license application or payer review is due.

Can an already licensed clinician skip the Georgia application?

The Board's clinical application guide distinguishes examination from exam waiver. A person who already passed the required national examination may select the waiver route if all other requirements are met, but must still submit the required application and evidence. The page expressly says clinical licensure is not offered by blanket endorsement or reciprocity. Georgia clinical application guide.

The Board reviews complete applications and describes a 60-day deficiency deadline before an incomplete application may be withdrawn. Treat recruitment timelines as contingent on actual Board issuance, not merely an applicant's existing out-of-state license. Georgia application review process.

Frequently asked questions about social work in Georgia

Which social work credentials are used in Georgia?

Georgia publishes master social worker and clinical social worker pathways through the Composite Board. Use the professional license category rather than treating the MSW academic degree as the issued credential. [1]

Which credential permits independent clinical social work in Georgia?

Georgia’s clinical social worker license is distinct from the master social worker license. Master’s-level clinical practice is subject to the current Board conditions. Check the professional rule and the actual service arrangement before assigning independent treatment. [1]

What should a Georgia employer check before approving supervision?

Georgia’s rules include conditions for private practice by a master’s social worker and an application timing provision once clinical experience and supervision requirements are met. Do not let a worker’s employment arrangement or growing caseload substitute for checking those conditions. [12]

How does Georgia Medicaid relate to a social worker’s license?

Georgia Medicaid service participation depends on the benefit and provider arrangement. Community behavioral health rehabilitation and CCBHC services have program-specific requirements; DBHDD certification is required before CCBHC Medicaid billing. [3]

What should a school hiring social workers in Georgia verify?

GaPSC Rule 505-2-.147 describes the School Social Work P-12 service certificate and the routes to its issuance. Check the applicable preparation, professional certificate, and employment conditions. A professional social work license and a school service certificate address different parts of the position. [5]

Is case management the same as clinical social work?

No. Case management can include assessment of needs, service planning, resource coordination, monitoring, and advocacy. Clinical treatment can involve diagnosis, psychotherapy, and treatment planning under the applicable professional authority. Some workers do both. Define the activity and credential for each service rather than treating every contact by a social worker as therapy.

Does every social work service qualify for Medicaid reimbursement?

No. Payment depends on the covered benefit, participant eligibility, organization and rendering-provider qualifications, authorization and other service conditions, and the actual documented activity. Grants and contracts may fund work outside a Medicaid benefit. Keep the service model and the funding model connected without assuming that a professional license creates a covered service.

Can one system support clinical and nonclinical programs?

It can if the permissions, records, review, coordination, and reporting fit both pathways. Test the difference using a clinical encounter and a community referral. Confirm any setting-specific requirements, required integrations, and export needs. The right answer comes from a demonstrated workflow and an implementation plan the organization can carry out.

Which software costs should a social work program compare?

Price the actual scope: users, programs, records, migration, configuration, integrations, training, and support. Separate one-time implementation work from recurring fees and clarify what your team must supply. Compare the total cost with the observed work you are trying to improve, using your own baseline rather than an assumed savings percentage.

Bring one Georgia workflow to a Smores Health demo

Before adding a service or replacing your software, test one complete workflow. For Georgia, use this scenario: a program adding clinical services to an existing community-support caseload. Review the record, handoff, supervision, and report together in a Smores Health walkthrough. Agree on the requirements that fit today and the configuration, integrations, training, and support your organization would need.

A 20-minute walkthrough for your program. Bring a blank form, a fictional referral, and a reporting requirement. Ask to see the proposed workflow, the gaps, and the implementation work for your organization.

Request pricing for your organization

Official Georgia social work and program resources

The licensing and payer sources below serve different purposes. Use the professional regulator for credentials and scope, the responsible agency or payer for covered services and participation, and education authorities for school roles where applicable. Professional standards support practice design and do not replace state law or a payer contract.

[1] Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists: licensing and scope

[2] NASW and ASWB Best Practice Standards in Social Work Supervision

[3] Georgia Medicaid: current provider manuals

[4] Georgia DBHDD: CCBHC program

[5] Georgia Professional Standards Commission: School Social Work rule

[6] HHS: FERPA and HIPAA guidance

[7] NASW Standards for Social Work Case Management

[8] NASW Practice Standards for Clinical Social Workers

[9] HHS: Licensing across state lines

[10] Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice

[11] Georgia Composite Board: licensing and continuing education rules

[12] Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists: supervision requirements

Editorial information

Smores Health prepared this guide from the cited licensing, agency, payer, education, and professional sources. Requirements vary by credential, service, population, setting, and funding arrangement. Confirm the current controlling source for an organization-specific decision. General operating recommendations and fictional examples are identified as such; they are not additional state mandates.

Last reviewed November 6, 2026. This guide is educational information, not legal, clinical, credentialing, or billing advice.