Social Worker, School Social Worker

School Social Worker

The School Social Worker promotes and enhances the overall academic mission by providing services that strengthen home, school, and community partnerships and address barriers to learning and achievement. The School Social Worker should be knowledgeable in the role and duty of a social worker, child development, learning theory, and special education procedures and services to significantly contribute to the development of a healthy, safe, and caring environment.

Such an environment is achieved by advancing the understanding of the emotional and social development of children and the influences of family, community, and cultural differences on student success along with the implementation of effective intervention strategies. Working with parents/guardians, teachers, school principal/principal's designee, and community-based resources, the school social worker implements strategies that promote students' positive school adjustment.

Essential Functions:

• Identifies and assesses academic problems through analysis of factors impinging on student adjustment through the use of a variety of appropriate formal and informal tools and techniques including observations and interviews to evaluate the progress and performance of students and families.
• Serves as a liaison between families and the school to positively promote collaborative processes in educational planning for students by encouraging parent/guardian participation in the school setting.
• Completes psychosocial assessments to assist in the determination of special education services, identify needs that affect student learning, and to develop appropriate interventions for students, families, schools, and communities to include developmental histories, adaptive behavior scales, and classroom observations in accordance with family and student rights.
• Develops long-term and short-term intervention plans consistent with curriculum; students' needs, strengths, diversity and life experiences; and social and emotional factors.
• Provides services to students in ways that build upon individual strengths and offers students maximum opportunities to participate in the planning and direction of their own learning experience.
• Provides parent/guardian educational workshops on identified issues related to child development, stress reduction, discipline and safety, and teacher/parent/student communication.
• Collaborates with school staff and other school system personnel in implementing strategies to promote student learning.
• Participates as members of the IEP, student support team, and other school based teams to develop interventions for promoting students' academic success.
• Serves on both school-based and system-wide committees to address educational issues, adjustment problems, safety issues, and program development for students.
• Provides crisis intervention services.
• Provides social work case management for students and families that support students' learning experience within the context of multicultural understanding and competencies.
• Provides staff consultation on behavioral-emotional-environmental issues affecting student participation in the learning process.
• Conducts staff development on issues related to social-emotional-environmental factors that impact learning.
• Develops and provides training and educational programs that address the goals and mission of the educational institution.
• Conducts classroom meetings, psycho-educational social skills groups, and classroom presentations on identified areas of concern for the students.
• Maintains required records and submits appropriate documents for statistical reports with adherence to program standards in school social work.
• Conducts home visits related to establishing communication and positive connections between the parent/guardian and school setting around identified issues.
• Completes risk assessments on referred students.
• Completes functional behavior assessments on identified students.
• Completes classroom observations.
• Advocates and facilitates change that effectively responds to the needs of students, families, and school systems using appropriate statutes, case law, policies, and procedures.
• Serves as liaison with community agencies and assists in fostering communication between schools, parents/guardians, and community leaders.
• Promotes collaboration, localization and mobilization of community resources to facilitate student access to these services and support the educational program.
• Attends meetings and professional…