Social Service Specialist​/Statewide

This opportunity is for a Social Service Specialist – Adoption, Safety, Licensure, Wellbeing/Permanency with a statewide work location.

Job Title:

Social Services Specialist / Adoption, Licensure, Safety, Wellbeing/Permanecy

40+ hours a week

Typically requires a Bachelor's Degree and 0‑2 years of experience. Appointing authority may require a social worker’s license. Agency preferred qualifications: a Bachelor's Degree from an accredited four‑year college or university in social work, social services, psychology, educational psychology, sociology, nursing, criminal justice, counseling, marriage and family therapy, family studies, or a related field.

In this position, the salary may be based on education and qualifications.

• Professional commitment to and caring about clients and the larger profession of child welfare.
• Personal resilience and strong self‑efficacy beliefs about the ability to work with clients to produce positive client outcomes.
• Efficient organizational and time‑management skills.
• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Positive work morale.
• Ability to be flexible in thinking and problem solving.
• Realistic expectations about the difficulty and challenges of the work.
• Ability to handle an often‑unpredictable work environment.

• Create and maintain case files for children in care; document in MDCPS online database program.
• Visit children in care in foster homes, facilities, and hospitals.
• Complete investigations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
• Complete ongoing safety and risk assessments.
• Participate in scheduled county conferences/meetings for assigned children‑in‑care.
• Make referrals for children‑in‑care to receive services including dental, vision, and medical.
• Transport children‑in‑care to appointments and destinations.
• Arrange for visitation with siblings and parents.
• Attend staff meetings with supervisor (normally) and all‑staff meetings.
• Assist with new hires by being a "shadow buddy".
• Make copies of documents for case files.
• Be on‑call for after‑hours situations (rotating responsibility with other staff members).
• Attend court for hearings.
• Attend conferences and training to maintain continuing education hours.
• Communicate with families, service providers, parents, foster parents, and the public.
• Schedule and attend Family Team Meetings.

Incumbents receive training related to job content, and must pass a comprehensive test prior to continued employment and/or advancement.

• Recruit adoptive families for special‑needs children in need of placements.
• Assist children whose primary permanency goal has been changed to adoption and/or who are legally free for adoption.
• Prepare the child and birth family (if known) for the adoption process.
• Facilitate Adoption Status Meetings to review progress toward achieving adoption.
• Complete a Family Assessment and Preparation Process for foster parents who have applied to adopt a particular child.
• Assist the foster family in determining their readiness to adopt.
• Present child at regional, multi‑regional, and statewide Placement Committee Meetings.
• If the child is in a therapeutic or residential setting, assist with step‑down placements into therapeutic foster/adoptive family.
• Present information about the child to potential adoptive families.
• Coordinate and assess pre‑placement visits between the child and the potential adoptive family.
• Facilitate the placement of a child with the adoptive family and obtain required placement documents.
• Provide supervision of adoptive placements and document each visit in MDCPS online database program.
• Assist adoptive parents in completing the appropriate Adoption Assistance forms.
• Assist in post‑adoption services (if needed): finalize ICPC adoptions and link families to post‑adoptive services.
• Create and maintain case files for adoptive families.

• Receive investigation assignments and conduct historical checks of records to determine if individuals in the reports have had prior agency involvement.
• Recognize signs and symptoms of child maltreatment (Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation).
• Investigate reports of child maltreatment (Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation) of children that are…