School Social Worker

Qualifications: *M.S. in Social Work and Kansas License to Practice

Reports To: Director of Special Education

BASIC FUNCTION/PURPOSE

School social workers seek to be change agents in the schools they work by partnering with administrators, staff, and students around the areas of mental health, behavior, and social/emotional functioning.  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. 

CRITICAL SKILLS:

1. Ability to maintain regular and good work attendance and come to work on time. 
2. Ability to work constructively and cooperatively with others. 
3. Ability to respond to information requests in a courteous, timely and helpful manner. 
4. Ability to manage job responsibilities while meeting established deadlines. 
5. Ability to access, input, and retrieve information from a computer. 
6. 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

The candidate shall:

• Complete psychosocial assessments for initial IEPs, including completing a record review, social history, interviews, classroom observations, and standardized assessments (such as the BASC-3).  
• Complete the social/emotional section on assigned IEPs.
• Completes all necessary paperwork including, but not limited to: IEP and supporting documents, data collection, Medicaid and regular logs, assessment summaries
• Write a social/emotional goal for the IEP if providing social work services
• Attend all IEP meetings for the students on your caseload.
• Update all social/emotional goals every 9 weeks.  
• Collaborate with teachers on a regular basis to implement behavioral strategies and provide support as needed.  
• Assist/Support teachers with determining appropriate consequences based on individual student needs.
• Assist/Support the teachers with interpreting behaviors (i.e. is the behavior a manifestation of the students disability or is it due to environmental factors or a combination of both?).
• Engage students, through discussion, that are having behavioral difficulties.  
• Assist/Support teachers process with students about their behavior.
• Provide resources and information regarding mental health and behaviors to teachers and paraprofessionals that is specific to individual students in the program.
• Assist/Support teachers with the training of paraprofessionals in behavioral areas.
• Provide social work services as listed on the IEP.
• Each service should be individualized to address current student needs and the IEP goal as a whole.  
• Monitors progress systematically, and adjusts interventions based on data showing effectiveness/ineffectiveness of interventions with families
• Maintain regular communication with parents through phone calls, e-mail, parent meetings, etc.
• Work collaboratively with area agencies.
• Review progress toward IEP outcomes, re-evaluate and summarize progress, and revise IEPs within required timelines
• Demonstrate skills for accessing technology for communication and completion of job-related tasks
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor

Benefits Information

Salary Information

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