School Social Work Advocacy

The education of our nation’s children and young adults continues to be a top priority of the National Association of Social Workers.  We recognize the urgent need to better identify and provide services to immigrants and children of color and those:

  • with disabilities
  • from  economically disadvantaged households
  • who are abused and neglected
Thousands of social workers each year serve students in various education jurisdictions across the country and while this may seem like a significant amount, the distribution of social workers is uneven and inadequate; some districts have a social worker to student ratio of as much as 1:400.

Federal funds should be used to expand the workforce that supports students in schools by utilizing a multidisciplinary team model of school social workers, psychologists, teachers, administrators, and families in the identification and evaluation of students for special services.

This could be accomplished by urging Congress to approve  the “Increased Student Achievement Through Increased Student Support Act” (S. 538/H.R. 1361). This bill will have a tremendous impact on the lives of children by creating a better trained and prepared school social work workforce to address the psychosocial and emotional issues that can impede educational performance.

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http://www.socialworkers.org/advocacy/school/default.asp
1/3/2013
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