Below are the notes from the Equity Liaison meeting, it was so full of wonderful information from our District Social workers it was hard to keep the notes brief. We At the end of the notes are links to LPS social workers website and the cookie trail and link to find information on Docushare.
School Social workers in LPS.
Presented by 3 team leaders. Susan Bond, Maureen Fowler, Kris Lewis
- Social workers in LPS work with all students not just the Identified.
- Home school and community collaboration
- Social workers approach students a little differently to reach the same goal- academic success
- Work with parents, teachers and students
History of Social Workers in LPS.
1987- No school social workers until Phil Schoo came and, since Michigan had them. Now LPS has 15 FTE. 19 social workers. All are licensed social workers
There is a school social worker assigned to every building in the district. Each social worker is assigned to 2-4 schools. Lincoln High and Northeast have 2.5 days of social workers due to a grant.
Presenting Problems
- Mental health issue currently
- Referrals for improving attendance . BE in school or be in Court!
- Bullying and Peer Issues
- Abuse or neglect issues
- family discourse
- drug and alcohol- SCIP in elelmentary
- Student parenting issues 9th grade
- families in the Homeless, Chriis Webster, Full time Homeless Specialist through Federal program
- Crisis response team, grief and crisis issues.
- Information- food stamps, rent, familes come to schools to ask for help
- maintaining web page and docushare to help with communication.
Interventions
- Community contact and referrals
- Consultation with Staff- Core team meetings to discuss students at every school
- Training for district staff- dating violence in older grades
- mental health, example teaching sign of suicide
- in contact with CPS, county Attorney
- Why try in middle school and high school for attendance
- Mental health assessments- Mourning Hope, Charlie Brown, Other screenings
- Parent contacts, meetings and PTO.
- SCIP referrals and Interventions
- SMART teams for middle and high school attendance, the county attorney is coming to the schools and checking for attendance 5 days per quarter
- Drug Court program ages 15-19.
- Grief counseling, as needed can refer to community resources for continued support and counseling.
Mental Health-
- mild depression to bipolar disorder. Aspergers, a very wide range of needs and support.
- Social workers cannot get kids into treatment, ONLY the parent. The Social worker is to educate the parent and support the parent. Encourage families to use the resources available to help them. What to expect and what will happen.
- Team Approach with in the school and outside of school. Coordinating the treatment and to offset costs.
- Give the parents information to empower the family.
Social Services workers website
The link to the school social workers website. It is under the Instruction tab
http://www.lps.org/stuserv/socialworkers/
LOTS and LOTS of Brochures.- click here to see all them!!! They are working with Federal Programs to get them translated. http://www.lps.org/stuserv/socialworkers/brochures.html
Social Work Information on Docushare. The Cookie Trail…..
look under Administrative and Support service –> Student Service –> School Social Workers