School is officially black in session and School Social Workers most definitely have a full caseload! Often times, many people do not really know or understand what school social workers do. Well…lets find out!
School Social Workers work with students to help ensure there success in the educational environment. They tend to take an ecological perspective. The ecological perspective is the belief/idea that there are many factors from our environment that come together to make us who we are. So school social workers assist children and their families by looking closely at factors at home, school and/or in the community that may be impacting their performance and are becoming barriers to their learning. Some of these barriers include mental health issues, family issues, abuse and neglect, lack of basic family needs (food, shelter, clothing), and learning disabilities.
However, School Social Workers do not just work with the students; they actually work to support the parents and help them to understand their child’s developmental and educational needs. They are advocates for the children in their school. They also work with teachers to make sure that they have the appropriate tools and resources to help their students learn.
Here are some great resources for school social workers:
1. SSWTools
This is an online tool that helps you record work tasks and generate reports regarding your work/progress. This is one great for any social worker!
2. Instagram Community
- @SyrianCali.SchoolSocialWorker
- @TheSchoolJusticeWorker
- @SSWThings
- @LetsSchoolSW
- The association provides many resources like evaluation documents, violence prevention resources, practice tools, research, and more!