Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/va/2025/hb-1897.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Master's social worker; scope of practice, regulations."
+description: "Board of Social Work; Board of Counseling; master's social worker; scope of practice; regulations. Expands the scope of practice of master's social workers to allow the provision of clinical services under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker. The bill also directs the Board of Social Work to promulgate regulations to allow master's social workers to engage in clinical services under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker and directs the Board of Counseling to amend its regulations to state that a licensed baccalaureate social worker shall not be required to (i) register with the Board of Counseling or (ii) fulfill any additional training or education requirements in order to serve as a qualified mental health professional-trainee. The bill directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to amend their regulations to deem the services provided by a licensed baccalaureate social worker to be equivalent to the services provided by a qualified mental health professional-trainee and reimbursed at a comparable rate, and directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to seek all necessary federal authority to enact such changes."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
+legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
+session: "2025"
+identifier: "HB 1897"
+citation: "Virginia HB 1897 (2025)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Rodney T. Willett"]
+version_count: 5
+action_count: 33
+vote_count: 8
+first_action: "2025-01-06"
+last_action: "2025-03-19"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a7826de7-10b1-479b-a0cc-e22d250f851c"
+source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1897"
+source_hash: "efe15b908aa806dc994aa8137ee74396e2afedab0f8f506332112f0135bbfb56"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
+---
+
+# Virginia HB 1897 (2025) — Master's social worker; scope of practice, regulations.
+
+Board of Social Work; Board of Counseling; master's social worker; scope of practice; regulations. Expands the scope of practice of master's social workers to allow the provision of clinical services under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker. The bill also directs the Board of Social Work to promulgate regulations to allow master's social workers to engage in clinical services under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker and directs the Board of Counseling to amend its regulations to state that a licensed baccalaureate social worker shall not be required to (i) register with the Board of Counseling or (ii) fulfill any additional training or education requirements in order to serve as a qualified mental health professional-trainee. The bill directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to amend their regulations to deem the services provided by a licensed baccalaureate social worker to be equivalent to the services provided by a qualified mental health professional-trainee and reimbursed at a comparable rate, and directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to seek all necessary federal authority to enact such changes.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1013561.PDF)
+2. **Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1071587.PDF)
+3. **HHS Sub: Health Professions Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1026995.PDF)
+4. **Health and Human Services Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1031170.PDF)
+5. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1061081.PDF)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Reading waived (on 2nd reading) (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
+- Reported from Health and Human Services with substitute (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower
+- Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
+- Read third time and passed House (99-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
+- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
+- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
+- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
+- Read third time and passed House (98-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Rodney T. Willett — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-01-06** Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-13-2025 25101166D `filing, introduction`
+- **2025-01-06** Referred to Committee on Health and Human Services `referral-committee`
+- **2025-01-14** Assigned sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
+- **2025-01-22** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1897)
+- **2025-01-23** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (8-Y 0-N) `substitution`
+- **2025-01-28** Reported from Health and Human Services with substitute (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2025-01-28** Committee substitute printed 25106245D-H1 `substitution`
+- **2025-01-30** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1897)
+- **2025-01-30** Read first time `reading-1`
+- **2025-01-31** Read second time `reading-2`
+- **2025-01-31** Health and Human Services Substitute agreed to
+- **2025-01-31** Engrossed by House - committee substitute `substitution`
+- **2025-02-03** Read third time and passed House (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
+- **2025-02-03** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
+- **2025-02-03** Read third time and passed House (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
+- **2025-02-04** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
+- **2025-02-04** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
+- **2025-02-07** Assigned Education sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
+- **2025-02-13** Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2025-02-17** Rules suspended
+- **2025-02-17** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading)
+- **2025-02-17** Passed by for the day
+- **2025-02-18** Read third time `reading-3`
+- **2025-02-18** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
+- **2025-03-07** Enrolled `enrolled`
+- **2025-03-07** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1897ER) `passage`
+- **2025-03-07** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1897)
+- **2025-03-07** Signed by Speaker `passage`
+- **2025-03-10** Signed by President `passage`
+- **2025-03-11** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 11, 2025 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
+- **2025-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 24, 2025 `executive-receipt`
+- **2025-03-19** Approved by Governor-Chapter 146 (Effective 07/01/25) `executive-signature`
+- **2025-03-19** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0146)
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a7826de7-10b1-479b-a0cc-e22d250f851c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).
+