Chapter News

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) are working together to ensure students have affordable access to social work education, despite the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) recently finalized rule excluding social work from its definition of “professional” degrees.

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.