Hello all!
It is hard to believe the leaves are already starting to turn! The return to fall for school social workers is always a mad dash, and I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on the past couple of months.
I went to a really incredible conference this summer, hosted by the Family and School Partnership Program of Loyola University at Chicago. I learned about being the school social worker I want to be, and was given incredibly valuable tools to add to my skills and practice. I also started work on a fun new project, but more about that below.
A lot has changed at my school, with a brand new principal and some restructuring of special education. I have had the chance to put into place a number of new practices to better collect data, build my caseload and serve students. Here are the top four things I'm working on incorporating in my second (kind of third?) year of practice:
1. Work smart not hard when it comes to data collection. I feel like as school social workers, we are frequently preoccupied with proving our worth or success with data. This can feel harrowing for those of us who feel like we are constantly looking for the right kind of data, and so we search for just the right assessment instrument to show exactly how and what we are doing is helping. It is important, however, to employ secondary data appropriately to demonstrate one's success. Did your student's attendance or grades improve after you started working with them? Did he or she have fewer office referrals? These are excellent ways to show how your work is affecting your students. I intend to look for more data that is already being collected and use it to show my efficacy, rather than relying solely on what information I personally can glean.
2. That being said, a helpful assessment is a helpful assessment. Sometimes, you just want a clear picture of what is going on with your students, and you want to know if your work is concretely carrying over to the classroom or at home. I have started using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or SDQ. It's a reasonable length (25 questions plus an optional supplement), it's evidenced based, and it's free. What's not to love? Oh, and there are versions that cover children from age 3 to 16. And it comes in almost every language imaginable. Check it out.
3. Give kids a chance to prove their need to be on your caseload. I did a thing this year that I probably should have done last year and simply released all my non-IEP students off of my caseload at the beginning of the year. Some (about a half dozen) have already come back, but now there is an official referral process I have put in place with quantitative and qualitative data required in order for students to become a part of my official caseload. For those of us who have students who genuinely just need outside counseling and aren't adequately served by seeing the school social worker, but are functional in the school building, this one is for you. Take care of yourself and your practice, and move those kids off your caseload until there's proof that they need to come back.
4. Finally, stop pretending that you need to operate on an island. I am trying to embrace teamwork more this year than I have in the past. If something needs to get done for a student in the classroom, I start by consulting with teachers instead of jumping right in. It is hard for social workers of all stripes to walk the line between being helpful and being saviors. We are always a resource and a help; in the words of one of my best graduate school professors, however, we can't fix anyone. If something needs doing, try to grab some colleagues before getting it done.
To this last point, I may not post again for quite a while. I am going to start writing and editing with Professor Michael Kelly from Loyola University Chicago over at www.schoolsocialwork.net, which was created by Illinois school social worker Scott Carchedi. We are looking for contributors to write about school social work and school mental health. If you or someone you know may be interested, please reach out! I would love to hear from you. I will be writing reviews of new programs and tools for practice that I implement, reflecting on practice and bringing together more resources for all of us to use in schools.
Until later,
Ms. OJ
