The social work profession is experiencing a period of introspection. Several discussions have explored its future, and more are likely to follow. The Department of Education’s exclusion of social work from its higher-loan-limit professional degree category reminded us that consequential decisions affecting social work are sometimes made outside the profession. As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous and shapes how social workers practice, document services, conduct research, and train future practitioners, we must consider how well the profession is preparing to adapt.
These developments raise questions not only about how the profession will adapt, but also about whether we have the collective capacity to influence the changes that will shape our future.
NASW’s June 2026 national conference included a plenary session titled The State of Social Work: Crisis, Opportunity, and the Future of the Profession, which addressed workforce shortages, policy threats, and the need for professional renewal. Howard University School of Social Work recently hosted a Fireside Chat on the Profession of Social Work, facilitated by Dean Sheara Jennings, featuring NASW CEO Dr. Anthony Estreet and CSWE CEO Dr. Halaevalu Vakalahi. The Center for Social Development at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis will present its fireside chat on October 26, “Challenges and Opportunities for Social Work’s Next Century.”
Social work scholars Laura Nissen, Edwina Uehara, and Nancy Smyth are spearheading several Social Work Futures initiatives to encourage the profession to take a more proactive posture by anticipating major societal changes, envisioning possible futures, and developing strategies to influence those futures rather than merely react to them.
Among the most consequential efforts to prepare the social work profession for the future is the development of the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) 2029 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS), which specify the competencies that social work graduates must achieve and are the standards by which programs are evaluated for accreditation. This process spans five years and will supersede the 2022 EPAS. The first draft of the 2029 EPAS was opened for public comment on October 13 and will be available for comment until November 20.
This latest EPAS revision has drawn criticism for removing anti-racist and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) language. The focal point is Competency 3, which states in the 2022 EPAS: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice; in the proposed 2029 version, it states: Apply Person-in-Environment Perspective in Practice. CSWE maintains that the revised standards preserve the profession’s underlying commitments, although questions remain about whether broader language will produce the same educational expectations and accountability. Because the draft was released less than a week ago, it is too soon to gauge the profession’s overall reaction.
On the webpage announcing the 2029 EPAS draft, CSWE explains why it changed the language. It notes that 19 states have codified restrictions on ADEI terminology, representing 40 percent of its accredited programs. It also says The Chronicle of Higher Education has tracked DEI-related changes at more than 440 colleges and universities in 48 states, making it increasingly complex and time-consuming to advise social work programs on navigating the legal landscape. CSWE has scheduled two sessions on EPAS at its annual conference in Atlanta later this month, where attendees can get answers to their questions.
Getting the language right matters, but the greater challenge in charting a future for social work is translating our extraordinary breadth of knowledge, skills, and practice settings into a shared sense of purpose, a coherent set of priorities, and a collective strategy to achieve them. Social work is unusual among professions because it operates simultaneously at several levels of society. Many dimensions must be considered: clinical and community practice; administration; research and education; policy and legislative practice; and political and international practice. These areas are interconnected but can produce very different priorities.
Social workers operate across nearly every institution that shapes human well-being, yet the profession has not fully realized the collective influence that this presence could provide. Its future may depend less on expanding what social workers do than on developing the capacity to connect what we already know and do to achieve meaningful, measurable change.
Perhaps we should begin by asking a different set of questions. What do we want the social work profession to accomplish over the next decade? Which outcomes should take priority? Who has the authority and resources to help us achieve them? And how will we know whether we have succeeded? Anticipating the future matters, but shaping it requires clear objectives, an understanding of the institutions that influence our lives, and the ability to mobilize knowledge, relationships, and resources toward achievable outcomes. Perhaps the most important question is not what the future holds for social work, but what role we intend to play in shaping it.