School social workers describe roles supporting students and families

Three school social workers described how they provide mental-health support, connect families to community resources and contribute to individualized education planning.

Hope Pete, a family engagement facilitator at the Story Gym Family Resource Center, said social workers “work with individuals, we work with families, we work with, institutions.” Pete said social work allows staff to “address those systemic issues that impact generations of people.”

Caleb Taylor, a school social worker at Saddle Ridge Elementary School, described school social work as “that mental health service in the schools, and the bridge between home, community, and the school.” Taylor said this is his third year as a school social worker and that he has worked in various capacities.

Hannah Lerwick, a school social worker at Carnegie Ranch Elementary, said social work “strives to look past just the individual and recognize all of the complex systems that are at play and that the individual exists within.” Lerwick described providing “unconditional support” to students and emphasized relationship-building.

Speakers said their work ranges from crisis response and grief support to ongoing work on individualized education plans. Pete said family engagement staff “collect information to inform the IUPs and make sure that we're looking at their that the whole kid when we're we're writing an IEP,” and Taylor and Lerwick described both short-term supports for general-education students and longer-term work tied to special-education planning.

None of the speakers proposed formal policy changes or asked for specific board actions during the remarks; they framed their statements as descriptions of practice and the value of school-based social work.