School Social Workers work with Students, offering academic, emotional and social support. They work with families, providing resources and strengthening relationships with their children and with the school. School Social Workers also work with the school staff, including teachers, administrators, counselors, psychologists, and nurses to provide important resources, consultation and information about the students, families and outside resources. They are the liaison between the school, the family and the community.
They can help with…
- School issues--including discipline, adjustment problems, attendance problems, and peer relations problems
- Home issues--including abuse or neglect, porce, serious illness or death, mental health and medical issues, family financial problems and homelessness.
- When community issues such as violence, teen pregnancy, drug addiction or homelessness hit close to home, school social workers are available to help connect students and families to valuable resources outside of school.
Assessment, Assistance, Crisis Intervention, and Referral are the critical tasks of the school social worker. School social workers help to pinpoint needs, identify strengths and assist with solutions.
Primary Reasons for Referrals:
- To assist families in accessing outside resources and providing referrals for such outside agencies. (Including mental/behavioral health referrals, inpidual and family counseling referrals, public assistance referrals, etc.)
- To act as a liaison between the school and those outside agencies
- To act as a liaison between the school and the parents, especially when there is a chronic lack of parental involvement.
- To assist families who are in transtion - with housing needs
- To act as a liaison between the district and Children and Youth Services (CYS)
- To assist in making the referrals and maintaining communication with CYS
- To assist families in applying for Medical Assistance, CHIP or other health insurance
- To assist families- helping to solve their immediate needs and guiding them towards long-term self sufficiency
- To assist principals and/or teachers with students who have blatant truancy issues or questionable residency
- To attend court hearings as the school representative for such cases when necessary
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