Social Worker

School Social Worker

Classification: Certified Division/Department: Special Education Job Category: Social Worker FLSA: Exempt Title: School Social Worker

Basic Function/Purpose: School social workers seek to be change agents in the schools they work in by partnering with administrators, staff, and students around the areas of social/emotional functioning, behavior, and mental health. School social workers provide a variety of services for students and staff, advocate for the needs of students, and address system and environmental factors that could be contributing to negative academic outcomes. This position works cooperatively as an interdisciplinary team member to devise an appropriate individualized education plan for students with disabilities.

Critical Skills: Ability to maintain regular and good work attendance and come to work on time. Ability to work constructively and cooperatively with others. Ability to respond to information requests in a courteous, timely and helpful manner. Ability to manage job responsibilities while meeting established deadlines. Ability to access, input, and retrieve information from a computer. Ability to maintain confidentiality of student and staff information.

Physical Requirements: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee performing the duties of this position is frequently required to walk, sit, talk, hear, bend, stoop, and reach. The employee may be occasionally required to manually lift, move, or carry up to 50 pounds. The employee is required to interact with staff and meet the demands of several different people. The employee is responsible for the work output of others. The employee occasionally works extended hours. Vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Performance Responsibilities: Provide direct or indirect social work services as listed on the IEP. Social work services can be provided individually or in group sessions to address specific social/emotional, behavioral, and current needs of students. Provide services to students who are having behavioral difficulties as they occur. Complete psychosocial assessments for initial evaluations and re-evaluations, including completing a record review, social history, interviews, classroom observations, and screeners when applicable. Serve as a member of a multidisciplinary team and work as a team member in making placement decisions, developing intervention plans, and planning programs to meet the needs of students. Utilize knowledge about the student, their family dynamics, and identified social concerns to address the scope of the environmental problems children face and what existing community/cultural barriers inhibit effective social/educational programs. Collaborate with IEP team members to complete social/emotional section on the IEP for students who receive direct social work services. Assist team with completing all necessary paperwork including, but not limited to: IEP and supporting documents, data collection, Medicaid and regular logs, assessment summaries. Collaborate with IEP team to determine how much social work service time each student needs based on professional judgement. Use that Kansas SECD Standards, to write a social/emotional, and or behavioral goal for the IEP if providing social work services. Attend IEP meetings for the students on your caseload. Provide progress updates on social emotional, and behavioral goals as required, for students on caseload. Collaborate with staff to implement behavioral strategies and provide positive behavior support as needed. Aid in developing and implementing a Positive Behavior Support Plan for students who are on an IEP. Provide resources and information regarding mental health and behaviors to teachers and paraprofessionals. Assist and provide information and training to teachers and paraprofessionals in social/emotional, behavioral, and mental health areas. Maintain communication with parents/guardians. Work collaboratively with area agencies Review progress toward IEP outcomes, re-evaluate and summarize progress, and revise IEP's within required timelines. A member of the school and district crisis team to provide crisis intervention to students and staff as necessary. Perform other related duties as assigned by supervisor or designee.