Jesssica Deckard, MSW, CSW

As part of a clinical social worker (which in KY means you are licensed with a Masters degree) you are required to complete a certain number of CEU's and renew your license every 3 years.  As a clinical social worker, my requirements include:

1) A minimum of 30 CEU's every 3 year renewal period
2) 3 of these CEU's must be in Ethics
3) Every 3rd renewal period must include 2 CEU's on HIV/AIDs
4) Three CEU's must be in the area of domestic violence training in the first 3 year cycle following initial licensure
5) Once every 6 years, you must include 1.5 CEUs on pediatric abusive head trauma

It reminds me of a high school math question.

Ridiculous.

Anyway, when I transferred my license to Kentucky, it was issued 1/22/11, meaning I was due for renewal 1/22/14. As you can imagine with an agency who requires the above to meet criteria for renewal, they also make you do a song and dance as far as WHEN you can renew.  You cannot renew more than a month prior to your deadline, however, you must allow up to 2 weeks for processing.

Ridiculous.

I had the day after Christmas off work and since this falls in the tiny window of opportunity, I decided I should get it done and cross it off my to-do list.  As is typical of my generation, I opted to renew my license online.  My first issue is trying to figure out which CEU's to send..mainly because instead of 30 I have 118.5. (Overachiever).   I filled in all the little blanks, entered my credit card information ($125 for a SOCIAL WORKER to renew their license) hit next, next, next, next, next, FINISH.  At this point I was certain I had secured my spot as an overachiever who sent it double the CEU's required and went about my life.

About 3.5 weeks later (January 19th to be exact), I'm briefly skimmed over my lower-than-expected credit card statement and finally determined what was missing. SHIT.

I got online, checked the status of my license.  Active.  Expiration? 1/22/14. No, no, no, no, no. I renewed online.  Again.

Naturally, it was Sunday.  The next day...Martin Luther King, Jr day.  You've got to be kidding me.

So on Tuesday (the day before my license expires), I call the KY Board of Social Work, hoping to be told I've paid twice. No such luck. She reviewed my information and informs me she does not have my Approval Numbers off of my certificates.  Uh, your website didn't ask for them.  There were no boxes to enter them.  She decides she needs me to fax copies of my certificates in and she will review them that day.  They're at home.  I'm at work.  Time to tell my boss.  I email my boss from a meeting, run home on my lunch and fax all 118.5 CEU's in, just to be safe.  She didn't review them that day.  She says she'll look at them in the morning.  I ask for clarification if I can work the next day.  I can...up until midnight. Safe!

I call the next day.  She did NOT review them in the morning as I was told.  She didn't review them that afternoon either.  She states "maybe later in the day" the next day.

I ended up getting my approval the next day but not before having to take half a day of work off (unpaid) because I wasn't licensed.

I'm pretty certain the woman at the KY Board of Social Work (who is clearly not a social worker) wanted to prove a point, but it's not my fault their website is crap, and the only thing I learned is that 3 years from now my renewal certificates are being mailed certified mail, signature required, delivery confirmation and insured with a tracking number. Twice.