School Social Workers are the link between home, school, and the community. As members of the educational team comprised of teachers, administrators, school support staff, and parents, school social workers provide and support student's academic success by providing specialized services. The goal of each school social worker is to promote daily school attendance with a positive attitude towards learning.
School Social Workers are highly trained professionals with either a bachelor's or Master's Degree from an institution of higher learning. Each Lee County School or program is served by a school social worker on an itinerant basis. Each school social worker services anywhere from three to six different schools or programs either daily, weekly, or in an on-call capacity.
What Does A School Social Worker Do?
- Assist with early identification of patterns of nonattendance along with analyzing causes of nonattendance
- Enforcement of compulsory school attendance
- Consults with teachers, administrators, etc. to provide insight and understanding regarding a child's needs and behaviors
- Completes social development histories to assist with a student's psycho-educational evaluation
- Serves on the Child Study Team at each school to assist students experiencing attendance, academic, social, emotional, and/or health problems
- Refers and helps families access community, medical, mental health, and social welfare services & coordinates services to develop a comprehensive service delivery system within a multidisciplinary team setting
- Serves on community agency committees/boards to promote educational policies and strengthen department alliances within the community
- Advocacy for students, parents, and the school system.
- Conducts home visits and provides outreach services to students and families
- Active participants of the school based MTSS, mental health & threat assessment teams.
School Social Workers Help Families To
- Participate more fully in their children's education
- Identify and meet their children's social and emotional needs
- Access programs and use school and community resources more effectively
School Social Workers Help Students To
- Increase academic success and maximize educational opportunities
- Improve interpersonal relationships, resolve conflicts, and cope with crisis situations
- Develop self-discipline and build self-esteem
- Improve school attendance
- Learn problem-solving and decision making skills
School Social Workers Help Educators To
- Develop and implement plans to enhance students' school success
- Collaborate with community agencies and organizations
- Understand better how factors such as family, culture, socioeconomic status, and physical and mental health can affect students' performance
- Identify and report child abuse and neglect situations
- Obtain community resources to meet students' needs
- Coordinate services for individual families