School Social Work Advocacy and Learning Opportunities

NASW and NASW-NC are working hard to support the school social work profession both at the state and federal levels. We wanted to provide you with information for two advocacy opportunities and two learning opportunities below.

As an update to this original post, we wanted to share this information with a new opportunity to participate in research: 

NASW is partnering with the American Psychological Association’s Violence Against Educators and School Personnel Task Force to conduct a research study to assess your experiences and concerns regarding school violence and your recommendations to improve school safety. This survey is a follow-up to the original one distributed in 2020-2021. This study yielded a congressional briefing to advocate for more resources, staffing, and training for school personnel. You can read a press release about the findings here and find more information on the APA website.

The current survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. If you provide your email at the end of the survey, you will be entered into a drawing to win one of 186 gift cards ranging from $25 to $100. If you have any questions or comments about this survey, please contact the APA’s Center for Psychology in Schools and Education: Maha Khalid, Associate Director, mkhalid@apa.org , (202) 336-5977.

Click Here to Complete the Survey

If the link above didn’t work, copy and paste the following in your browser: https://bit.ly/APA_TF_SURVEY

Advocacy Opportunities 

Advocate on the Federal level! Legislation was recently introduced to support school social workers! H.R. 7037 The School Social Workers Improving Student Success Act will amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a grant program to secure and retain school social workers. NASW has created an action alert with two steps: One will send an email to legislators thanking them for cosponsoring this important legislation. The second will send an email directly to your own legislator asking them to sign on as a cosponsor. Both emails can be edited to include your own personal touch. Click here to take action today.

Advocate on the state level! Right now, North Carolina House members are meeting in a special committee called House Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina’s Future. They are asking for public comments to help answer the question, if today there was no education system in North Carolina, and we were charged with establishing a new one, what would you like to see in a new education system, or not see in a new education system?  Click here to make public comments.

We want to help you make comments. Feel free to edit these comments to reflect your own thoughts and opinions but if you don’t know how to get started, we hope this will help!

Dear members of the House Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina’s Future,

Thank you for taking the time to incorporate a thoughtful redesign of our education system in North Carolina.

As a school social worker, I see the importance of student support services every day. The state should provide more direct mental wellness support services and activities in schools as a whole population approach and not just for identified students. To do this, we must support and sustain school social workers across the state.

Social workers have long been an essential workforce in North Carolina's preK-12 schools, providing a broad range of services aimed at helping students succeed in school and life. We help students, families and educators address their social, emotional, and practical needs- something that is needed now and will continue to be needed in the future. 

The nationally recommended ratio is one school social worker per 250 students (1:250). Currently, North Carolina’s ratio is closer to one school social worker per 1,1025 students. We must provide for more school social workers in the design plan of our future education system.

Additionally, school social workers need more support. Currently, we are paid on the teachers pay scale. Despite many counties asking for a master’s degree when hired, school social workers are not paid equitably for our advanced degrees. We must restore master’s pay for school social workers. Doing so will help recruit and retain the workforce.

Thank you again for your support of North Carolina’s schools and the school social work profession.

Learning Opportunities

Join the NASW School Social Work Specialty Practice Section (SPS) Webinar: Grace Under Fire - Partnering With Parents Who Are Behaving in a Hostile or Obstructive Way in a School Setting

April 22, 2022 | 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Et
Credits: 1 Social Work Contact Hour
Fees: SPS Members: Free | NASW Members: $20 | Non-NASW Members: $30

Presenter (from North Carolina!): D. Natasha Scott, Ed.D., MSW

In this webinar, Dr. Scott will review best practices for school social workers working with challenging parents and explore parents' perspectives on working with school social workers. The session will also review the NASW Code of Ethics for guidance about work with challenging parents.

https://naswinstitute.inreachce.com/Details/Information/31f4fe40-437f-4f0b-ad0f-080b13f5bf5f

Join the NASW-NC Virtual Clinical Social Work Institute, May 9-10!

Join us live or later recorded from the comfort of your home or office! 13 Hours of LIVE CE and the ability to watch all recordings for a total of 31 Hours of CE!

Sessions relevant to school social workers:

• M1: Visible, Viable, & Valuable: Using Data to Advocate for School-Based Student Support Services
  Presented by: Summer Woodside, PhD, LCSW, LISW-CP; Chiquita Harrington, BSW; Josh Peele, MSW, LCSW
  School districts are experiencing increased levels of need for the support services provided by school social workers and school-based mental health practitioners, yet funding for these services is often limited. The use of data can facilitate advocacy efforts with education administrators and policy makers who are often making funding decisions related to the recruitment and retention of new and continuing school social work and school-based mental health practitioners. Guided by an equity framework, this workshop will present two example data collection tools, as well as other data sources, that student support practitioners may consider.

• M4: School Social Work During a Pandemic
  Brittani Wilson, LCSW, CTRP
  The presenter will be discussing the topic of the trauma tsunami that has hit our public school system since 2020 and the issues it has created or that has become more apparent to our staff, and students. Proactive SEL strategies within an MTSS framework will be discussed as well as necessary conversations that have to be had with school staff members, and district leaders. A comprehensive trauma informed program will be discussed as one districts way of addressing student needs.

• M7: Evidenced-Based Treatments for K-12 Students Who Have Experienced Trauma
  Jessalyn Pedone, LCSW, CCTP and Christi Lowe, LCSW, ACSW, CCTP
  This presentation will discuss how the use of EMDR, TF-CBT and other evidenced-based treatment approaches are being utilized in working with students who have experienced trauma in the K-12 setting.  Attendees will gain a broader understanding of trauma presentation and triggers, and supportive measures in working with this population.

• T1: Screentivity(TM) Getting Screen Smart
  Mary Affee, LCSW, Ed.D, LCSW, RPT-S
  Screen time technology is not just a passive educational device. Digital media addiction is real. Technology is affecting the neurodevelopment of our children and changing our children's brains-not for the better. This workshop is designed to offer psycho-education related to how compulsive technology usage can neurobiologically damage the developing brain of our children, and how being informed can aid in saving the innocence of our children.

• T4: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Amid COVID-19: Reflection, Response, and Resiliency
  Amy Levine, MSW, LCSW
  Key mental health indicators suggest that the global pandemic has significantly impacted children and families in NC. In this presentation, we will review important data about the current state of child mental health and will link this to policy and practice applications for our everyday work as social workers. We will explore how the pandemic exacerbated existing racial and socioeconomic disparities for families and link this to a need for policy advocacy work within NC. We will also highlight how to implement lessons learned from the pandemic to drive practice innovations aimed at supporting child and family well-being for all.

• T7: Youth Meaning-Making during Trauma Narration and Processing
  Sarah Ascienzo, LCSW, PhD
  The trauma narrative and processing components of TF-CBT are often considered key mechanisms of action responsible for symptom reduction. Discussions of these components tend to focus on the importance of gradual exposure and cognitive restructuring during this process. Yet, these components also engender a meaning-making process that is important to youth’s wellbeing and adjustment. In this presentation, we discuss trauma narration and processing from a meaning-making perspective, and present findings from a qualitative study that explored this process among youth. We conclude by offering clinical considerations and strategies to promote productive meaning-making during trauma narration and processing.

Learn more and register today! https://www.naswnc.org/page/60