School Social Worker

Position Overview

Position Type:
Professional Staff Student Support Services / Social Worker

Location:

Lincoln Center

Date Posted: 1/23/2026

Closing Date: 03/23/2026

Waukegan Community Unit School District No. 60 serves nearly 15,500 students in preschool through grade 12 and is located halfway between Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. The District has one early learning center, 15 elementary schools, five middle schools and a high school program divided between two 9th‑12th grade campuses. The District encompasses portions of Waukegan, Beach Park and Park City.

The Waukegan Community Unit School District No. 60 has set an ambitious agenda for change, guided by the belief that all children, regardless of circumstances, can achieve at high levels and academic gaps can and will be eliminated with the support of teachers who deliver engaging, relevant, and academically rigorous instruction that excites students and instills a love of learning in them.

The School Social Worker will be directly responsible to the Director of Special Education and Social Work Coordinator. School Social Workers are ethically driven master's level practitioners with the unique ability to improve student academic outcomes by improving students' social‑emotional well‑being and school climate, supporting teachers and administration, assisting families with their child's social‑emotional needs, and identifying local resources and intervening in crisis situations.

They have the skill set necessary to assist in all three tiers of RTI (MTSS), including working with children with behavioral challenges. Their work has a positive effect on the students they work with, leading to positive educational outcomes.

• IEP Writing:
  Provides social/emotional evaluations and social histories based on domains, writes present levels of performance and data‑driven measurable IEP goals.
• Acts as an IEP team member in meetings and in service delivery. Takes particular care to support the child and family in the IEP process.
• Provides any social work service as required by the IEP.
• Writes FBAs for students who are in the MDR process.

• Provides crisis response and threat assessment for students in critical need.
• Supports students below the 10th percentile.
• Provides confidential individual social work services.
• Takes a lead role in Wraparound plans.
• Takes a lead role in the development of FBAs and acts as an active team member in the development and monitoring of BIPs.
• Performs comprehensive formal and informal ecological assessments including academic functioning, social‑emotional and mental health functioning, adaptive functioning, and family and community interactions.
• Community liaison: to ensure adequate and appropriate resources for students and families in need.
• Is an active member of the CORE Problem Solving team and Individual Problem Solving Team.
• May assist in processing discipline referrals if appropriate.
• May be a case manager for 504 plans if social‑emotional needs are primary.
• May write social stories for individual students.

• Is an active member of the Targeted Systems Team particularly suited to the role of interpreting behavior and needed supports.
• Uses building data systems to develop skill‑based social work groups to help identified and screened students maintain personal, social and academic competencies.
• Conducts social‑emotional and behavioral needs assessments and evaluates progress monitoring of student growth in identified areas that impact academic progress.
• Serves as a liaison to families, the community and other stakeholders to ensure open communication and continuing dialogue.
• Facilitates and coordinates the delivery of educational and mental health services with and by community agencies and service providers.
• Assists team members to understand mental health and behavioral concerns of students identified as needing interventions and the potential impact of the chosen interventions.
• May write social stories for targeted groups.