Author: mauricevann
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Rhode Island’s New Chatbot Safeguards Expose Social Work’s AI Governance Gap
August 23, 2026 Rhode Island enacted two laws on June 23 that regulate artificial-intelligence chatbots and their use in mental health care. One requires developers to build protocols for users who express suicidal ideation, self-harm, or threats of harm. The other addresses AI use in mental health treatment and reflects concern that automated systems can…
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The $20,500 MSW Financing Cliff Is Here—and Private Credit Is Becoming an Admissions Requirement
August 24, 2026 For students beginning graduate social work education this fall, July 1 changed the meaning of admission. The federal government eliminated new Grad PLUS borrowing and placed most graduate programs under an annual Direct Loan limit of $20,500 and an aggregate graduate limit of $100,000. Programs classified as “professional” receive much higher limits—$50,000…
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New York’s $4,500 Field-Practicum Bill Is a Start—not a Wage
August 23, 2026 A New York bill now before the Legislature would create a four-year paid field-practicum pilot for MSW students. Assembly Bill A9379B, amended June 1, would provide a $4,500 stipend for the first 450 hours of required practicum to students attending CSWE-accredited programs in the state. The arithmetic is clarifying: $4,500 divided by…
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Nebraska’s Medicaid Work Rule Turns Social Workers into Eligibility Infrastructure
August 24, 2026 Nebraska is now the first state implementing the new national Medicaid work-requirement framework, and the consequences will become visible during this summer’s renewals. Since May 1, many adults covered through Medicaid expansion have had to demonstrate qualifying work, school, apprenticeship, training, or volunteer activity. Existing members with coverage periods ending on or…
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Social Work Put All Its Eggs in the Therapy Basket. Now What?
We Devalued the BSW For decades, social work has increasingly organized its professional identity around the MSW, clinical licensure and psychotherapy. In doing so, we have allowed something remarkable to happen: the bachelor’s degree bearing the actual name of our profession has become insufficient for social work licensure in jurisdictions such as New York. Think…
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Launching The Social Work Reformer
More than three decades ago, Harry Specht and Mark E. Courtney published Unfaithful Angels: How Social Work Has Abandoned Its Mission. Their central argument was deliberately provocative: social work was drifting away from its historic responsibility to poor and vulnerable communities and increasingly embracing psychotherapy, private practice, and individualized solutions to problems that are often…