The Pay for Placement (P4P) Movement in Social Work

The Pay for Placement (P4P) movement in social work, catalyzed in the past few years by students in various states, is now comprised of students and faculty pushing to pay students for their labor in field placements and make obtaining BSW and MSW degrees more economically viable for an increasingly diverse student body. This movement juxtaposes the profession's commitment to its ethical code for social, economic and racial justice with the financial realities faced by students wishing to enter the profession. Clearly, creative solutions are needed if we are to meet both the significant projected need to expand and diversify the social work workforce nationally, and the profession's stated mission for greater social justice.

The movement aptly points out that social work education is based upon an outdated model that was designed for the social work student of the past, who was typically white, middle class, and female with family or spousal support to pursue her studies. While this may be a generalization, it's not far from reality. Even as the profession has been diversifying, a 2020 NASW report indicates that 90 percent of social workers are women and just over 60 percent are white. However, the assumption that white students fit the stereotype of financial security is also naive, as a 2020 CSWE report indicates that 73% of Master's graduates in social work average $47,965 in debt, and they will typically not earn enough to pay off that debt easily with an average salary nationally of $50,390.

These economic realities make the cornerstone and signature pedagogy of social work education, a two or three day per week unpaid field placement, increasingly untenable, and the P4P movement is challenging the profession and state legislatures to find solutions.

This roundtable session will advance a dialogue on the state of the P4P movement and highlight a collaboration across schools of social work in the state of Maryland to implement solutions, ranging from federal grant approaches to a legislative agenda to achieve dedicated state funding to pay students for their placement hours. Megan Meyer and Tiesha Graham will begin the discussion with an overview of the movement nationally and in Maryland, highlighting the harms caused by unpaid placements, various forms organizing has taken in different states and outcomes of a few successful efforts. Melissa Littlefield will discuss possibilities enabled by the 2022 EPAS that allow programs to extend employment-based field opportunities. Jennifer Schermerhorn will discuss the benefits from paid placements at Salisbury University, including grant-funded behavioral health initiatives, as effective models for workforce development and community services. Wendy Shaia and Rebecca Davis will describe initial program results from a 5-million-dollar grant from the Department of Education to fund a 5-year collaboration between The University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work, Coppin State School of Social Work, and local school systems to fund field placements to meet the need for a diverse pool of school mental health social workers.