Coordinator of Social Work Services

Reports To:Assitant Superintendent of Early Childhood Elementary Education and Support Services

Supervises: Social Workers

Position Purpose:

Children are affected by many social forces that impact their role as students. Families can be in a state of change or be experiencing economic and employment pressures; personal safety may be at risk due to drug/alcohol abuse violence or poor health. Unmet physical and emotional needs of children affect their abilities to learn and participate in school. Social workers employed byTopeka Public Schools assist students in becoming more available for learning by providing services that address those unmet needs. Services include Clinical Therapeutic and Systemic Interventions Psycho-social Assessments and Crisis Interventions. TPS social workers are mental health professionals licensed at the highest levels of licensure through the State of Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board.

The role of the Coordinator is to train and support the Social Work Staff and facilitate Best Practice services to students their families and school personnel.

Qualifications:

• Kansas social workers license required through the State of Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board.
• Masters degree in school social work required.

Physical/Emotional Requirements: (The incumbent may be required to use the skills and abilities outlined below during any part of the working day.)

While performing the duties of this job the employee is frequently required to walk sit talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to stand and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision distance vision depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. The employee is required to interact with staff and to meet demands from several people.

General Responsibilities:

Personnel Management:

• Review applications interview and recommend social workers for employment
• Provide supervision/orientation for staff members new to the practice of social work in a school setting
• Supervise and train social work staff as individuals and in groups
• Collaborate with building administratorsand provide feedback regarding job performance
• Provide clinical consultation and professional development to the social workers (Note: principals remain their supervisors and do their evaluations.)
• Assign social workers to buildings and special purpose duties with assistant superintendents approval
• Ensure that licensure of the social workers remains current in keeping with BSRBauditing requirements
• Track and report the logging of social work time to satisfy conditions of the BSRB/KSDE categorical aid audit
• Train supervise and track online billing of Medicaid to maximize district revenue

Comprehensive Evaluations:

• Read process and assign social workers to comprehensive evaluations - typically500 evaluations and reevaluations per year
• Audit eligibility staffings and written reports to monitor the quality of these assessments
• Conduct limited number of psycho-educational comprehensive evaluations to keep own knowledge current
• Maintain Spanish-speaking social workers on staff to conduct culturally and linguistically diverse evaluations

Professional Development:

Provide training for staff to enhance the following:

- skills for working with exceptional students and families

- knowledge base and continuing education hours required by the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board to maintain licenses

- technical methods necessary to maintain social work services on IEPs

- technical methods necessary to bill Medicaid for direct services

- knowledge of changing community resources

- clinical supervision program to raise skill level of social workers wishing to attain specialist (LSCSW) license

District-wide Programs:

• Provide ongoing training and consultation to SIT Teams
• Maintain a cadre of social workers psychologists and SLPs with training in Traumatic Brain Injury to consult with IEP Teams district-wide and to manage reintegration of students from rehabilitation settings
• Serve in collaboration with Coordinator of Psychology on district Crisis Team as Mental Health representatives
• Promote and actively engage social work in the initiative to build a tiered system of support for all students including the vital components of positive behavior intervention supports and social-emotional character development
• Member of the Consulting Teachers Leadership Team
• Member of special education policies procedures and practices (PPP) Manual Authorship Team
• Facilitate the Districts annual Suicide Prevention Awareness Training program
• Co-coordinate Districts Suicide Prevention Response Team

Community Liaison:

Serve as district representative to:

- (statutorily-mandated) Shawnee County Multidisciplinary Child Protection Team

- Emergency Aid Council

- School Attendance Coalition

- Community mental health agencies providing services within TPS

- University Social Work departments

- State and local children services and mental health agencies and individual mental health professionals to ensure open dialogue regarding their programs and services as well as the educational services we provide to their clients

Social Work Internship Program:

Manage a quality practicum program within TPS for graduate level social work students (8-12 per academic year) from local universities. This involves:

- Recruitment

- Training

- Assignment and supervision for comprehensive evaluations

- Trouble-shooting placement issues with interns and field instructors and (when necessary) with the field placement liaisons from the universities.

Advocacy:

Monitor social work IEP commitments to ensure direct services are appropriately provided while allowing sufficient time for other indirect but essential social work duties that are:

- preventive

- programmatic

- consultative and

- advocational

• Research best practices for school social work
• Assess effectiveness of social work practice in the district by analyzing data from programs and individual goals
• Consult with social work staff and school personnel to facilitate identification of school and community systemic factors in the life of the exceptional student that may be presenting barriers to their education
• Advocate as needed for an increase in Social Work FTEs in the district for broader and more equitable service coverage
• Develop programs within the Special Education and General Education Departments in collaboration with other TPS personnel to benefit students and staff
• Stay current with federal state and district statutory or regulatory changes affecting education and child welfare which are germane to the practice of school social work

Supervision of Social Work Staff

Social work services are related to the social emotional and developmental adjustments of exceptional students within the context of their community. As mental health providers the school social work role at the building level requires clinical expertise. It is the responsibility of the Coordinator to supervise individual practitioners and provide the staff with direction in providing these services.

Family Contacts-which may include interviewing the family to discuss their childs educational adjustment identifying with the family the resources they might access to alleviate family stress working with parents to facilitate support of their childrens school adjustment and serving as liaison between the home and school.

Individual Interventions-which may include crisis intervention regarding suicide/hospitalization working with an exceptional student in a therapeutic goal-directed process and working with school staff to find ways to respond more effectively to a students needs.

Group Dynamics-which may include forming groups of exceptional students and non-identified students to work toward specific goals; consulting with teachers of exceptional students about classroom management techniques and offering group support opportunities for parents of exceptional students interested in enhancing their parenting skills.

School-Community Liaison-which may include linking and/or coordinating school and community resources to better serve the families of exceptional students and helping schools obtain appropriate support from social and mental health agencies for students who are clients of these agencies.

Problem Solving-which may include identifying problem areas and (in conjunction with other staff members) planning and implementing school-based programs for exceptional students (such as those at risk for dropping-out or those needing help with transitions) formalizing information gathered during parent interviews in a manner helpful to the understanding of that student in an educational setting and continually updating mental health knowledge base in order to refer families to community agencies as appropriate.

Professional Development Programs-which may include providing information to social work peers and other school personnel in a formal presentation or through consultation with small groups.

Terms of Employment:

9 months; salary and work year to be determined by the Board of Education.

Evaluation:

Performance of this position will be evaluated in accordance with provisions of the Board policy on evaluation of Support Service Personnel.

Significant associations:

The performance responsibilities are not limited to those outlined in this description and may include any other responsibilities as assigned by the administrator/supervisor.

Required Experience:

IC