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What is a School Social Worker?

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School social workers are individuals who work with students, families, and teachers to address problems affecting their educational success  These problems may include things like learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and mental disorders, as well as difficult or challenging situations like traumatic experiences, bullying, and truancy. If you have a desire to help children in need, a career as a school social worker could be an excellent option for you!

Plus, you’ll get summers off – what’s not to love?!

What School Social Workers Do

School social workers assist students by examining the big picture – what factors are impacting their learning and success in school? Here are a few of the tasks, roles, and responsibilities this job involves.

  1. Student evaluation and needs assessments. To start, determine what factors are impacting a student’s educational success, and what can be done to improve the situation. This information is gathered through observation, interviews, and speaking with teachers and families, and then used to create short and long-term goals.
  2. Work with teachers & staff. Work with teachers, school psychologists, therapists, and other professionals to help create special education plans tailored to a student’s needs. Meet and consult with these people often, to monitor progress and make changes to the education plan as needed.
  3. Prevention programs. Help develop policies that contribute to safe school environments, such as programs to prevent truancy, violence, and bullying.
  4. Education. Help students and their families better understand the factors that are impacting a student’s well-being, and teach them how they make positive changes.
  5. Therapy. Working one-on-one or in a group setting, show people how to overcome obstacles, deal with stress and anxiety, make effective decisions, and develop positive skills and personality traits.
  6. Counseling. Assist students, families, and staff that need advice or help making difficult decisions related to education, or any other issue impacting a student’s life.
  7. Resource coordination. Help children gain access to resources, community supports, and social programs that are relevant and useful to them.
  8. Improve learning environments. Make recommendations about how to improve learning environments by introducing new policies and programs, or by removing any factors which are inhibiting learning.
  9. Crisis intervention. Actively work to prevent emergency and crisis situations, and intervene quickly and effectively when they arise.
  10. Advocacy. Serve as the voice of students, families, and the school district. Advocate for funding, resources, and any new programs that are needed.

 Where School Social Workers Work

These people are employed wherever there are students facing mental, behavioral, and emotional challenges. The most common settings include public schools, private schools, colleges, and universities. People working in these environments may work with both special needs students as well as the general student population. Most work directly with students, while some consult with school boards and other professionals to create new policies and programs to better serve students.

School Social Worker Salary

In the United States, the average salary for this position is approximately $62,000/year. Those with more experience and certifications can reach salaries in the $75k+ range, while those with less experience earn $50k/year or less.

These figures are taken from a 2009 salary study conducted by the NASW. As you can see, school social work can be a lucrative career, ranking 3rd among the highest paid jobs in this field!

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The survey drilled down to further understand how much social workers earned in different work environments. The results showed that, on average, individuals employed in K-12 schools earned slightly more than those working in colleges and universities.

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To see school social work salary broken down by state, don’t miss this article: How Much Do Social Workers Make?

The post What is a School Social Worker? appeared first on Social Work Career Guide.


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