School Social Work Field Placement Requirements

The field placement must meet the following criteria:

• If you interned at a school during your MSW program or worked at one after you graduated with your MSW within the last seven years (2009 or later) and your hours were supervised by a qualified person holding a PPS certification in California, your fieldwork hours may count. Fieldwork hours cannot be verified until after you are admitted to the program.
   
• If you are using fieldwork hours from your MSW program, we will only accept fieldwork hours from the second year field placement. We also do not accept fieldwork hours from BSW/BASW programs.
   
• If fieldwork hours are not complete, you should be in the process of obtaining a field placement or completing your fieldwork hours through employment or volunteer work in a public school setting. You are responsible for securing your own field placement.
   
• A qualified person holding a PPS certification in school social work, school counseling or school psychology in California must provide field instruction supervision. If this person does not have a PPS certification in school social work, we ask that you find an MSW who is willing to verify your fieldwork hours in addition to the person above.

This field instructor must be willing to sign off on written documentation of the fieldwork hours completed, to verify the type of settings, and to provide a copy of their valid PPSC.

If you completed a field placement while in an MSW program, you will also need to provide a copies of your MSW field evaluations.

If you have not completed your fieldwork hours, you will be required to develop a learning agreement with your field instructor and meet with our Field Faculty Advisor to review goals and learning objectives.

• The field placement must consist of 450 clock hours of school-based practice under the above person’s supervision. The field placement must take place with at least two age groups (preschool, elementary school, middle school or high school) with a minimum of 100 clock hours at each setting, not to exclude district services and programs or alternative school settings. You must also complete a minimum of 100 hours with at least 10 pupils of an ethnic background different from yourself. These hours can be included in the required 450 clock hours.
   
• You must successfully complete your fieldwork hours within three years of enrolling in our program in order to be eligible to apply for the PPS certification.
   
• You will need to check to make sure you are covered under your school district’s liability insurance for its personnel or volunteers. If you would like to obtain your own insurance, you can do so through NASW.
   
• Fieldwork hours must be completed in the state of California. We do not accept out-of-state fieldwork hours. No exceptions.