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RSU 22 presentation highlights expanded role of school social workers
Summary
At an RSU 22 board meeting, Dr. Thibodeau outlined the district’s social-work staffing and services, saying the district now has seven full-time social workers and is piloting outcome measures and reengagement programs to better track student supports.
The RSU 22 school board on Tuesday heard a district-wide presentation from Dr. Thibodeau about the growing role of school social workers and how the district is trying to measure their impact.
Dr. Thibodeau told the board the district has seven full-time social workers and that the staff have shifted from contracted to district employment to expand services. “So just social workers at a glance in our 2022, we have seven social workers in the district,” she said, describing their daily work as a mix of individual and small-group social-emotional skill building, tier-two interventions, crisis response, mandated reporting and case management.
The presentation laid out differences in social-work focus by grade span: elementary social workers prioritize foundational social-emotional skill development and classroom-integrated work; middle-school staff emphasize executive function, conflict resolution and attendance interventions; high-school social workers focus on self-advocacy, postsecondary planning and reengagement of disconnected students. Dr. Thibodeau highlighted recent reengagement efforts and noted a Vocational Rehabilitation partnership at the high school that supports drivers’ education and other transition services.
Board members heard that social workers coordinate routinely with counselors, case managers and special-education teams and that they are frequently the staff contacting families for outreach. On measurement, Dr. Thibodeau described district conversations about setting goals and tracking growth for social-work services and said the district is piloting a survey tool; she also said the special-education director, Mrs. Babin, had identified a tool that may help the effort.
Dr. Thibodeau closed by asking administrators to share the slideshow and resources with the board; the presentation concluded with introductions from six social workers in attendance, who named their school assignments and spoke briefly about their roles.
Next steps described to the board included continuing the pilot measurement work, sharing resources used in the presentation and integrating social-work data into district planning and case-management processes.
