What Social Work Jobs Are Available In Schools?

Social WorkIf you love children and want to help them and their families, you may be wondering if there are many social work jobs available in schools. You’ll be pleased to know that quite a few social workers end up spending some or all of their time working in an educational setting.

Generalist

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private, local and state schools employ about 15 percent of all social workers. Many social work jobs available in schools are tailored to generalists. If you become a general school social worker, you’ll probably work with all types of children. Since a lot of social work agencies are understaffed and many schools don’t need a full-time social worker, you might find yourself traveling around to different schools if you take this type of job. For instance, you might find yourself working two days per week at one school, two days per week at another school and one day per week at an office building so that you can do paperwork. Children in need of help may be juvenile offenders or children with emotional or academic issues. Some may be in complex family situations. To be as effective as possible, you’ll work with students’ parents, teachers, doctors and other important people in their lives.

Special Needs

If you’re passionate about helping kids that have disabilities, you may want to consider looking for special needs social work jobs available in schools. Children with physical, emotional and learning disabilities often need services that other children don’t. Taking this type of job means that you’ll work individually with each child and his or her parents or guardians to make sure that he or she gets the services he or she needs. These needs vary greatly. For instance, a small child with autism may need to be placed in a small classroom without any distractions. He may also need access to medication or behavioral therapy. A teenager who has dyslexia, however, may just need help finding a tutor or after-school program to help her catch up to where she’s supposed to be academically.

Foster Care

Lots of foster children don’t live with regular foster families – they live in group homes. Many of these group homes run private schools for their children. Social work jobs available in schools that are owned by group homes, or residential child care facilities, are good for people that want to help children that are in tough family situations. If you take a social work job at a group home, you’ll be there to help kids academically and emotionally, but you may also have to act as a child and family services social worker. For instance, you may sit down with a child’s parents to outline what they need to do to regain custody of their child, or you might be responsible for arranging a child’s visits with his or her parents or siblings. With all of those responsibilities, you won’t have to worry about running out of things to do.

Related Resource: MSW Degree

Once you decide that you want to be a social worker, you have to narrow down that decision even more. By looking at the different types of social work jobs available in schools, you’ll be able to decide what you want to specialize in.