MSSWA SSW Services Overview (2).pdf
Commonly Asked Questions about School Social Workers 2020 (2).pdf
School social workers play a vital role connecting home, school and community in a unified effort to support students in the educational setting. Working collaboratively with other specialized instructional support personnel (SISP), school social workers provide a skilled spectrum of services ranging from engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation of outcomes related to the students, families, schools, and communities they serve. Research on school social work has confirmed that school social work interventions improve students’ emotional and behavioral problems (Allen-Meares et al., 2013; Franklin et al., 2013) and have a positive effect on academic outcomes (Alvarez et al., 2009; Franklin et al., 2013). As licensed mental health professionals and practitioners, school social workers in Minnesota are dually licensed by the Board of Social Work (BOSW) and the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) to provide evidence-informed knowledge, skills, and abilities mapped to the national school social worker practice model (Frey et al., 2013).
Evidence-Informed Knowledge, Skills and Abilities of School Social Workers
Serving General and Special Education Settings in Minnesota
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Determination of Need: Workload versus Caseload Approach
As the landscape of school-based mental health services continues to evolve, so too must the process by which schools and districts both understand and respond to the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of their students and school community. Stagnate claims that specific ratios for specialized instructional support personnel from various professional groups simply do not have the research evidence to support their claims (Hyson, Knick, Leifgren, McCoy & Ochocki, 2013). When considering the collective student support service programming needs, a school or district would be better positioned to prevent and respond to student needs by conducting a mental health needs assessment (American Institute of Research [AIR], 2017). Utilizing data-driven decision-making that incorporates multiple stakeholders and considers students needs as described below, schools and districts can transition to more flexible and responsive student support services programming driven by a workload approach (AIR, 2017; Whitmore, 2017). Workload approaches to student support staffing ensure that the continuum of activities provided within the student services program is staffed appropriately to meet the needs identified in the school or district’s mental health assessment while also ensuring compliance with applicable local, state, and federal mandates (Whitemore, 2017).
MSSWA has found the following factors are helpful considerations for schools and districts to consider when constructing their needs assessment and considering workload responsibilities for school social workers.
Percentage of students qualified/identified/experiencing:
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School or district factors such as:
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Allen-Meares, P., Montgomery, K.L., & Kim, J. S. (2013). School-based social work intervention: A cross-national systematic review. Social Work, 58(3), 253-262. DOI: 10.1093/sw/5Wt022.
American Institute for Research. (2017). Mental health needs of children and youth: The benefits of having schools assess available programs and services. Retrieved from https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/Mental-Health-Needs-Assessment-Brief-September-2017.pdf
Alvarez, M.E., Bye, L., Bryant, R., & Mumm, A.A. (2013). School social workers and educational outcomes. Children & Schools, 35(4), 235-243. DOI: 10.1093/cs/cdt019.
Franklin, C., Kim, J.S., & Tripodi, S.J. (2009). A meta-analysis of published school social work practice studies 1980-2007. Research on Social Work Practice, 19(6), 667-677. DOI: 10.1177/1049731508330224.
Frey, A.J., Alvarez, M.E., Dupper, D.R., Sabatino, C.A., Lindsey, B.C., Raines, J.C., Streeck, F., McInerney, A., & Norris, M.A. (2013). School social work practice model. School Social Work Association of America. Retrieved from https://www.sswaa.org/copy-of-school-social-worker-evalua-1
Hyson, D., Knick, T., Leifgren, M., McCoy, C., & Ochocki, S. (2013). Moving beyond ratios: A comprehensive approach to determining the need for specialized instructional support personnel. Retrieved from http://www.msswa.org/Moving-Beyond-Ratios
Whitmore, S. (2017). Workload versus caseload: Changing the conversation. Retrieved from https://schoolsocialwork.net/workload-versus-caseload-changing-conversation/
January 2019