December 1, 2025

Some important changes are being proposed in the way that loans for MSW and DSW social work degrees are funded by the Federal government. Under current rules, students can borrow the full amount of the cost of the program they are attending. With new limits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA; P.L. 119-21), federal loans for “graduate degrees,” which now includes degrees in social work, will be capped at $20,500 for each academic year or a total of $100,000 over a lifetime.

Changes were made by the Department of Education to the categorization of numerous previously designated “professional degrees” that are now designated as “graduate degrees.” Social work is one of the degrees that now falls in the “graduate degree” category and will only qualify for a lower level of Federal loan funding than “professional degrees.” Other degrees that are being classified as “graduate degrees” include accounting, architecture, audiology, business Masters, counseling and therapy, education, engineering Masters, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant, public health, speech and language pathology. Graduate programs for professional counselors and marriage and family therapists, while not mentioned by name, would also be seen as conferring graduate degrees. 

For more information, please visit https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/21/what-considered-professional-degree-explained/87396245007/.

This will impact the affordability of social work and other graduate degrees, by decreasing the Federal loan amounts students can qualify for, and will create a barrier to students being able to afford graduate social work education, including for clinical social work practice (it does not affect being licensed as a clinical social worker, as licensing is in the purview of the states). The irony of the exclusion of clinical social workers, counselors, and MFTs from having professional degrees, as we do now, is that it comes at a time when there is clearly a rapidly increasing need for mental health services.

Action Needed

Please send the following message to your members of Congress to educate them about the serious harm these decisions would have to educating clinical social workers and promoting access to behavioral health treatment at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative for your representative and https://contactsenators.net/email-addresses for your senators.

Here is suggested language but you can use your own as well:

“I am a licensed clinical social worker, a constituent, and a member of the Clinical Social Work Association. I am writing to let you know about a potential threat to our citizens who need to access mental health treatment. The Department of Education is currently developing a plan to limit Federal loan funding to clinical social workers by claiming they are not “professional” degrees.

LCSWs have received a Masters Degree, have 4-5 years of training in supervised mental health treatment and have passed a national examination to become licensed. We are the largest group of mental health providers in the country, at over 400,000 currently (CSWA, 2025). Cutting funding and arbitrarily saying that clinical social work graduate degrees are not a professional degree is simply wrong and needs to be stopped. To see what the Department of Education is proposing, please go to https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-concludes-negotiated-rulemaking-session-implement-one-big-beautiful-bill-acts-loan-provisions.

If the new regulations go into effect, loan limitations for graduate social work education will prevent many students from attending school and receiving their Masters Degree and will prevent them from providing mental health care. The Department of Education will be voting on the final regulations under the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand (AHEAD) Committee, scheduled to meet on December 8–12, 2025.

Thank you for your attention to this potentially harmful attempt to limit access to clinical social workers and to addressing the US mental health crisis. I would be happy to talk with you further.”

Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice will keep members posted on further developments. As always, please let her know when you have sent your messages by emailing lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org.