Special Education Social Worker

Job Description

Job Description

Summary/Objective:

School social workers assist students with academic learning by providing strategic services that identify and address the social-emotional-environmental issues that interfere with the educational process. Working with parents/guardians, teachers, school principal/principal ’s designee, and community-based resources, the school social worker implements strategies that promote students’ positive school adjustment. 

Essential Functions:

• Provide social work service time for students receiving special education.
• Counsel individual students and student groups, regarding issues including mental health, poverty, substance abuse, physical abuse, rehabilitation, social adjustment, and childcare.
• Interview students individually or with families, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs.
• Serve as a liaison between school and students, homes, family services, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors, and other contacts, to help children who face problems such as disabilities, abuse, or poverty.
• Consult with parents, teachers, and other school personnel to determine causes of problems such as truancy and misbehavior, and to implement solutions.
• Participate as members of the IEP, IAT, PBIS and other school-based teams to develop interventions for promoting students’ academic success.
• Counsel students whose behavior, school progress, or mental/physical impairment indicate a need for assistance, diagnosing students’ academic success.
• Address legal issues, such as child abuse and discipline.
• Demonstrate a relentless drive to improve the minds and lives of students in and out of school.
• Provide consistent rewards and/or consequences for student behavior to ensure that students observe the school’s core values, high expectations, and code of conduct.
• Implement activities to help students meet academic and social expectations.
• Provide crisis intervention and behavior management to build students’ ability to meet the school’s high expectations.
• Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental issues.
• Understanding of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, ethnicity, and cultures.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

There are no supervisory responsibilities with this position.

Competencies:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Ability to serve as a liaison .
• Multitasking skills.
• Time management.

Work Environment:

This job operates in a professional home office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

Summit Management Consulting, LLC provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Summit Management Consulting, LLC complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. Summit Management Consulting, LLC expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of Summit Management Consulting, LLC’s employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.

Required Education and Experience:

• Master’s degree in School Social work and LMSW required. Must possess or be eligible to possess a valid State of Michigan Certification and Approval as a School Social Worker. 
• Experience as a school social worker preferred. 
• Familiar with the basic concepts of positive youth development and experience working in diverse communities.

Physical Demands:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. This position can be highly active and requires standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, crouching, crawling, and climbing. The employee may need to lift and/or move items over 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. 

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.