Legislative Priorities 2026

Elevate and Diversify the Social Work Profession:

• Expand title protection to include social workers in county service, ensuring a county agency social worker who does not hold a baccalaureate degree or graduate degree in social work or who is not licensed under MN Statutes Chapter 148E may not be presented to the public by any title incorporating the words “social work” or “social worker,” except if that individual was employed by the county agency prior to July 1, 2027.  NASW-MN Policy Brief
• Ensure access to social work services in schools by preserving funding for school support personnel.

• Promote fair and equitable compensation for social work professionals.
  • Support efforts to obtain Federal approval or alternative funding for increased Medical Assistance mental health reimbursement rates approved by the Legislature in 2025.*
  • Ensure mental health reimbursement for clinical trainees across all health insurance companies, including Optum.

Improve and increase housing stability in Minnesota:

• Enact policies that ensure people of all types and incomes can find homes by allowing more building flexibility and expediting city approval processes.

Protect civil rights and reimagine community safety:

• Uphold the human dignity of all immigrants and guarantee their right to due process. 
• Protect vulnerable populations from immigration enforcement intrusion and safeguard the safety and privacy of students, families, and community members.

Position Statements

Professional Regulation & Development

NASW-MN believes social workers are essential to the well-being of communities across Minnesota. We advocate for laws and regulations that enhance and preserve the public and private practice of social work, protect clients and assure the highest quality of care, and create equity and transparency under the law for both consumers and practitioners. 

We support:

• Licensing to maintain high standards and enforce ethical accountability in social work practice.
• Equitable and non-stigmatizing licensing alternatives to passing the current social work licensing exams due to demonstrated bias, including the elimination of the LSW-level (bachelor’s) exam. 
• Reducing barriers to social work provisional licensing by implementing clear pathways for applicants, including allowing all applicants access to temporary licenses and eliminating unnecessary procedural obstacles.
• Expanding access to high-quality and culturally relevant social work supervision, which includes growing the supervision pool and maintaining supervision credentials as social workers transition between licensing categories.
• The recruitment, development, and retention of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color social workers through efforts such as paid internships, loan forgiveness programs, support to become supervisors, access to supervision, and culturally competent licensing practices.
• Maintain stability in the Board of Social Work licensing fees for professionals, ensuring current rates remain fixed.
• Affordable and accessible social work education, emphasizing paid field internships with clear protections to prevent exploitation and safeguard the learning experience.
• Closing loopholes that allow organizations to work around licensing laws and create new job titles with similar expectations as social workers.
• Ensuring congruence in mental health laws so that social workers are recognized as mental health providers consistently in state statutes. 
• Fair and equitable compensation for social work professionals to ensure that clients have access to appropriate services.
• The ethical use of AI while strongly affirming that it is not a substitute for the essential knowledge, professional judgment, and care provided by social workers. We support strong regulations that protect client health, privacy, and well-being. 
• Health professional programs to support social workers who are struggling with their own mental/chemical health issues that use practices and policies that align with social work values and current best practices.

Civil Rights

NASW-MN advocates for enacting policies that recognize, support, and protect the civil rights of all people.  

We support: 

• Opposition to public policies that discriminate against people by race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, ability, or other protected status. 
• Full access to participate in our democracy, and ensure census participation for historically underrepresented groups. 
• Individuals with a past felony will have access to secure and affordable housing and secure work that provides a living wage upon release into the community. 
• Policies that protect and uphold the human dignity of all immigrants and guarantee their right to due process. 
• Phase out 14(c), subminimum wage, segregated employment, and other employment-related policies that discriminate against people with disabilities.

Health & Mental Health

NASW-MN believes our community is best served by a whole-person approach to health that includes physical, mental, and social aspects of health. Substantial local, state, federal, and private investment into the integration of culturally aligned physical and mental health services is needed to address historical disparities and the chronic, complex health issues we face in our modern times. We advocate for the integrity of a person’s body as central to civil rights, and the ability to access quality health care for both body and mind as a social right. 

We support:  

• Health, dental, and vision coverage that is universal, affordable, accessible, and comprehensive. 
• Expanding public health and preventative services at all levels of government.
• Full parity within the health care system for mental health, behavioral health, and substance use disorder treatment for services delivered in-person or via telehealth. 
• Ensuring access, adequate funding, and appropriate reimbursement rates for mental health care.
• Statewide intervention to address treatment options for opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders, including expanding the use of alternative pain management treatment.
• Protecting the right to choose abortion without medically unnecessary restrictions and the right to access reproductive care. 
• The ability for transgender individuals to receive puberty blockers, hormones, and access gender-affirming surgery. 
• The LGBTQ+ and HIV Long-Term Care Bill of Rights, which updates state law to protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status in long-term care settings.
• Upholding existing policies that outlaw the discredited and unethical practice of anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy by social workers or any other individual. NASW-MN Policy Brief
• Strategies and additional funding to help implement all-inclusive care for the elderly in community-based programs.
• Legislation allowing adults who have decision-making capacity, are diagnosed with a terminal illness, and are in the final stages of their disease progression to request a prescription medication from their medical provider to bring about a peaceful death. We support including safeguards to prevent abuse of this process.
• Access to affordable, professional peer specialist services (mental health, substance use, veterans, families, forensics) as an effective, evidence-based practice when used in conjunction with more traditional mental health treatment services and support. 
• Legislation that supports the expansion of early intervention for youth and young adult mental health. 

Housing

NASW-MN values safe, affordable, and accessible housing for all people as a basic human right. Housing should be offered within individuals’ communities of choice. We believe that while emergency shelters save lives, ending homelessness requires long-term, affordable housing options grounded in eliminating systemic barriers and increasing equity. 

We support:

• Sustainable, predictable, and ongoing funding that supports emergency shelters, rental opportunities, home ownership, and community stability. 
• Amending the Minnesota Human Rights Act to clarify that housing discrimination based on a person’s source of income is illegal.
• Enacting policies that ensure people of all types and incomes can find homes in any community.
• Ending the racial homeownership gap and racial disparities that exist in housing access. 
• Stable funding for supportive housing and shelter services. 

Child Well-Being & Family Services

NASW-MN advocates for policies that support every child growing up in a nurturing and safe environment. We oppose the system of racialized and ableist surveillance, separation, and punishment and instead advocate for trauma-responsive policies that foster participation, restoration, safety, and resilience. Transforming current practices is necessary to prevent harm within families and recurrent trauma in foster care. 

We support:

• Policies and programs that address social and economic root causes of neglect. 
• Early childhood investment and affordable childcare options. 
• Supporting parents from a relational strengths-based perspective, including structures that support their

Fair participation in the child welfare system.  

• Child welfare policies that prioritize permanency options with parents or other family members.
• Public policy to end racial disparities within the child welfare system.
• Legislation to support and expand positive mental health for students in K-12 schools, as well as in higher education institutions.
• Community-based response to educational neglect cases. 
• Legislation to expand community-based programs and treatment-focused residential facilities that support youth with complex mental health needs, reducing youth boarding in juvenile detention and hospitals, decreasing inappropriate child protection referrals due to mental health issues, eliminating racial disparities in access to mental health services and placements, and increasing reimbursement rates to attract and retain qualified staff.
• Full inclusion of trans people in sports at all levels, recognizing and honoring everyone’s right to self-determination and gender expression. NASW-MN Policy Brief
• Ensuring families have access to the supports they need to maintain safety. 

Reimagining Community Safety

NASW-MN acknowledges the social work profession’s role in upholding oppressive criminal justice and government systems, and we recognize our individual and collective power to reimagine and transform society to become racially just. We recognize that racism threatens the health and safety of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in both urban and rural communities. Reimagining community safety involves radical creativity, community-specific solutions, and courageous action. 

We support:

• BIPOC coalitions’ leadership in creating and sustaining policies that impact their communities. 
• Creating supportive non-police response services to respond to non-violent crisis situations.
• Increasing police accountability for actions while on duty.
• A multipronged approach to the public health crisis of gun violence. Social workers respond to the devastating impact firsthand, and at times risk their personal safety. Meaningful action requires stronger gun control, expanded access to mental health care, addressing other contributing societal factors, and the safety of all social workers. NASW-MN Policy Brief
• Policies that address the economic harms created by discriminatory criminalization.
• Policies that protect vulnerable populations from immigration enforcement intrusion and safeguard the safety and privacy of students, families, and community members. 
• Juvenile justice reform to ensure a holistic, trauma-responsive approach that prioritizes rehabilitation, promotes long-term positive outcomes for youth, eliminates racial disparities, and reduces the risk of future involvement in the criminal justice system.

Environmental Justice

NASW-MN advocates for environmental justice. We value sustainable decisions that allow all people to hold confidence that their community and natural environment are safe and productive.

We support:

• Clean drinking water for all Minnesota residents. 
• Ending inconsistent or unregulated policies that result in higher pollution levels in low-income communities. 
• Prioritizing clean energy transit routes and clean energy buses, including school buses, especially those serving low-income neighborhoods. 
• Protecting sovereign rights and native lands.

Fiscal Policy, Tax, and Economic Security

NASW-MN advocates for fiscal policy that promotes a public budget derived from progressive tax collection and just government spending. A democracy can only function if the benefits and burdens of society are equitably distributed. In a democracy, all people deserve state support to avoid poverty and to obtain living wage work. 

We support: 

• Sufficient revenue to pay for basic human services.
• Solutions to the State of Minnesota budget challenges that do not focus merely on funding cuts and deferring responsibilities to the counties, cities, and other local entities. 
• Tax credits and other tax policies that support low-income families and are based on a progressive system.
• An adequately resourced safety net that includes ongoing cost-of-living adjustments to meet needs in a changing economy. 
• Programs that support economic security and access to employment. 
• Food security. 
• Investments in families to move out of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency that does not discriminate against status as a citizen, refugee, or documented/undocumented immigrant.