Chapter News

NASW submitted comments to the Department of Education in response to the Reimagining and Improving Student Education Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. NASW argued that social work should be considered a professional degree for the purposes of student loan limits and that the Tiered Standard repayment plan should be eligible for PSLF.

Thank you to the over 500 social work students and social work professionals who joined us last week at our annual 2026 NASW-Illinois Chapter Advocacy Day on Wednesday, April 15, 2026! This year's brought participants to the Illinois Capitol Building to meet with their direct legislators and advocate for key issues affecting the social work profession this session.

Senators John Barrasso, MD (R-WY) and Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) and Paul Tonko (D-NY-20) have taken steps to increase the Medicare reimbursement rate for clinical social workers (CSWs) for the first time since the 1990s.

Conversion ‘therapy’ is not therapy. It is abuse, and it causes documented psychological damage. No ethical social worker or mental health clinician should be engaging in this practice, full stop, regardless of what any court decides. We stand with the legislators and advocates who have spent more than a decade fighting to protect LGBTQ+ youth in this state, and we will keep fighting alongside them.