The Role of School Social Workers in Texas Public Schools

The Role of School Social Workers in Texas Public Schools

The role of the school social worker involves a variety of tasks. As a result of the diversity of roles played by the school social worker, some school district personnel do not understand the social worker's function or the best way to utilize school social workers. Among these personnel are special education teachers, who frequently could benefit from the services of a school social worker. School social workers in Texas were surveyed to identify the various roles they play. The results of the survey provide information to special education teachers, as well as other educators, about the roles school social workers play and how school social workers can assist students and teachers.

Methods: A group of researchers (social work, psychology, and special education professors) conducted a survey of Texas school social workers in order to define the social workers' jobs. The survey was distributed by internet to all school social workers who were a part of a University of Texas Department of Social Work listserv that was developed from the annual Texas state conference on school social work. The survey asked questions about demographic information, such as gender, racial/ethnic background, formal education and credentials, and years of experience. There were some open-ended questions that asked the respondents to list other job responsibilities, and then to rank order them in terms of the amount of time spent with each activity.

Results: Qualitative and quantitative data was collected from the school social workers (N-=37 Current caseload supervision for the survey respondents ranged from as little as 1 to 10 cases (2.8%) to over 400 (8.3%) cases, with fifty percent of respondents characterizing their current caseloads as 101+. Direct supervision was provided by the campus administrator (48.6%), a district administrator (40.0%), or a variety of other program administrators (25.7%), such as homeless projects, head start programs, student parent programs, Title 1 programs, and special education programs. Survey respondents reported that a great deal of their professional time (31-65%) was spent in community referrals and counseling (30.6%). Seventy-two percent of the respondents reported that little of their professional time (1-10%) was spent in staff development training and special education services. Thirty-six percent stated that little of their time (1-10%) was spent on crisis intervention and on home visits. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents reported that some of their professional time (31-65%) was spent working with community agencies.

Conclusions:

The results of this survey help clarify the current ways in which school social workers provide services to school districts. It is difficult for school social workers to gain visibility and to convince district personnel of their role and skills. School district personnel can use school social workers more effectively when the diversity of the school social work role is clarified. Likewise, funding for school social workers depends on state legislators understanding how children benefit from the help of a school social worker.