School Social Workers
School Social Workers |
|
The uniqueness and diversity of school social work as a specialty practice area affirms the value of school social work in enabling students to achieve maximum benefits from their educational experiences. Who Are We?School social workers act as the liaisons between the school, home, and the community, facilitating services and advocating for students in order to ensure academic and personal success. Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) employs eight (8) school social workers; each school in the county has an assigned school social worker. School social workers are trained with a broad knowledge base and have expertise in family dynamics, child development, and systems theory. They are skilled in crisis intervention, assessment, and resource and policy development. They are also leaders or members of interdisciplinary teams and coalitions. School social workers seek to enhance the capacity of families to address their own needs. Social workers also seek to promote the responsiveness of organizations, communities, and other social institutions to families' needs and social problems. Each school social worker holds a Master of Social Work and is certified via the Georgia Department of Education. Our school social workers have a multitude of professional experiences that enable them to assist RCPS students to achieve their best. What Does a School Social Worker Do?School social workers extend services to students in ways that build students' individual strengths as well as empower families to gain access to and effectively use formal and informal community resources. School social workers provide assistance to those students who are experiencing difficulties in the school, home, or community. This may include emotional, health and/or family problems, attendance, behavior problems, academic failure, underachievement, and substance abuse. School social workers use a clinical approach to identify, assess, intervene, and evaluate barriers that hinder student success. Annually, RCPS school social workers average 2500-3000 referrals, 1600 student conferences, 2000 parent conferences, 600 home visits, 300 child abuse cases, 1600 family/social cases, 1200 attendance cases, and an increasing number of self-injury cases. They provide child abuse, suicide, and homeless training to school staff each year.
|
|