Results from a National Study of Social Workers Sanctioned by State Licensing Boards (Report‪)‬

Information about unprofessional conduct of social workers--including ethics complaints, malpractice claims, and regulatory board sanctions--is useful to state regulators, policymakers, educators, managers, and members of the profession. Published studies about the unprofessional conduct of social workers come primarily from two sources--ethics complaints (for example, Berlinger, 1989; Strom-Gottfried, 1999, 2000) made through NASW, and malpractice claims made through the NASW Insurance Trust (Reamer, 1995). Many state regulatory boards publish fists of sanctioned social workers, and a few occasionally publish reports of trends in their cases. Although the federal government tracks sanctioned health professionals from various disciplines, including social workers, descriptive statistics about disciplined social workers across the nation are limited. This article synthesizes the actions of state regulatory boards against social workers for unprofessional conduct. It adds to the published literature by providing information about sanctioned certified and licensed social workers and their unprofessional behavior and provides information about the policies and practices of state regulatory boards. LITERATURE REVIEW