School System

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School System
A social worker entering a school for the first
time may feel a bit like Alice as she tumbled
down the rabbit hole and landed in the long
corridor, finding it lined with locked doors.
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• School social workers practice in settings where
  the focus of service is on education rather than
  social work. Social workers must cooperate with
  school personnel to achieve the goals of
  education.

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• Dealing with transactions between individuals and
  environments is called Transactions Individuals
  Environment (TIE).
• Surviving, affiliating, growing, and achieving
  form a continuum of coping.
• These categories help us set priorities for
  practice intervention.

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• Surviving
• Food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment,
  locomotion
• Affiliating
• Personal relationships
• Ability to use organizations
• Growing Achieving
• cognitive capacities
• physical capacities
• economic capacities
• emotional capacities

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• Resources- supplies that can be drawn on when
  needed or can turn to for support.
• Families, neighbors, co-workers
• Schools, hospitals,courts, police
• Churches, agencies, organizations
• Expectations- patterned performances and
  normative obligations that are grounded in
  established in societal structures.
• Roles tasks
• Laws policies- binding customs or rules of
  conduct
• Rights, responsibilities, laws, policies,
  sanctions

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Focus of School Social Work
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Empowerment

• The role of the social worker is not to change
  people, treat people, help people cope, or
  counsel people. The role is not to empower
  people. As Simon (1990) argued, social workers
  cannot empower others "more than a simple
  linguistic nuance, the notion that social workers
  do not empower others, but instead, help people
  empower themselves is an ontological distinction
  that frames the reality experienced by both
  workers and clients" (p. 32). To assume a social
  worker can empower someone else is naive and
  condescending and has little basis in reality.
  Power is not something that social workers
  possess for distribution at will. Clients, not
  social workers, own the power that brings
  significant change in clinical practice. A
  clinical social worker is merely a resource
  person with professional training on the use of
  resources who is committed to people empowerment
  and willing to share his or her knowledge in a
  manner that helps people realize their own power,
  take control of their own lives, and solve their
  own problems.
• Charles Cowger, 1994

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Systems Theory
Visibility- availability To whom is the social
worker important? In what ways is the social
worker significant? Viability- creativity The
social worker needs to be seen in ACTION. Value-
evaluation Evaluation of ones work
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• Direct services
• Advocate for specific pupils, groups whose needs
  are unmet
• Consultant to administrators in their task of
  program development and policy change
• Consultant to teachers to enhance their ability
  to create a productive climate for maximum
  learning
• Link to community services and facilitator
  between school community in obtaining services
  for pupils and their families
• Assessor of needs of individual pupils and of the
  school system as related to program development

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Ecological Perspective
Components of the Ecological System
The Ecological Environment
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• School social workers practice is not focused on
  individual problem pupils but on the range of
  social interplays that occur among systems within
  the school environment.
• The students immediate ecological environment
  consists of Microsystems, such as family,
  classroom, neighborhood, playground. The
  Mesosystem comprises the interrelationship
  between two or more of the Microsystems.

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• Confidentiality
• Standards of practice for school social workers
  require that "adequate safeguards for the privacy
  and confidentiality of information" be
  maintained. Confidentiality is an underlying
  principle of school social work and is essential
  to the establishment of an atmosphere of
  confidence and trust between the professionals
  and the individuals they serve.Information is
  communicated to school social workers by students
  and families with the expectation that these
  communications will remain confidential. An
  assurance of confidentiality promotes the free
  disclosure of information necessary for effective
  treatment

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• Most states recognize that communications between
  social worker and client are privileged however,
  this privilege is not absolute. School social
  workers as members of a team of professionals may
  be confronted with situations where disclosure of
  information is critical to providing assistance
  to the student and family. It is the school
  social workers obligation to obtain informed
  consent, i.e., explain the limitations on
  confidentiality to the student and family, prior
  to service delivery.

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• School social workers must be conversant with
  affirmative reporting requirements. All states
  now require school professionals to report
  suspected cases of child abuse and neglect.
  School social workers should be aware of school
  board policies and should ensure that such
  policies safeguard confidentiality of the
  reporting individual.
• Therapists, including social workers, are under
  an affirmative duty to warn if there is a clear
  and present danger to the student or another
  identifiable individual. The social worker must
  warn any individual threatened by the student and
  must take steps to ensure the safety of a student
  who threatens suicide.

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• 210.110. As used in sections 210.109 to 210.165,
  and sections 210.180 to 210.183, the following
  terms mean
• "Abuse", any physical injury, sexual abuse, or
  emotional abuse inflicted on a child other than
  by accidental means by those responsible for the
  child's care, custody, and control, except that
  discipline including spanking, administered in a
  reasonable manner, shall not be construed to be
  abuse.
• (9) "Neglect", failure to provide, by those
  responsible for the care, custody, and control of
  the child, the proper or necessary support,
  education as required by law, nutrition or
  medical, surgical, or any other care necessary
  for the child's well-being
• Whenever such person is required to report
  pursuant to sections 210.109 to 210.183 in an
  official capacity as a staff member of a medical
  institution, school facility, or other agency,
  whether public or private, the person in charge
  or a designated agent shall be notified
  immediately. The person in charge or a designated
  agent shall then become responsible for
  immediately making or causing such report to be
  made to the division. Nothing in this section,
  however, is meant to preclude any person from
  reporting abuse or neglect.

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Do Missouri's LCSW's have Privileged
Communication?

• Yes.  Missouri supports the legal definition of
  Privileged Communication between LCSW's and
  clients, except where there is a risk of public
  danger or a threat to the public good. 
  "Privileged Communication" is defined as the
  premise and understanding between a professional
  and client that the information revealed by the
  client will not be divulged to others without
  expressed permission.  Reference provision
  337.636 and 337.639 of the State Licensing
  Statute.

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• Missouri Revised Statutes
• Chapter 337 Psychologists--Professional
  Counselors--Social Workers Section 337.686
  Confidentiality requirements, exceptions.
• 337.686. Persons licensed pursuant to the
  provisions of sections 337.650 to 337.689 may not
  disclose any information acquired from persons
  consulting them in their professional capacity,
  or be compelled to disclose such information
  except
• (1) With the written consent of the client, or in
  the case of the client's death or disability, the
  client's personal representative or other person
  authorized to sue, or the beneficiary of an
  insurance policy on the client's life, health or
  physical condition
• (2) When such information pertains to a criminal
  act
• (3) When the person is a child under the age of
  eighteen years and the information acquired by
  the licensee indicated that the child was the
  victim of a crime
• (4) When the person waives the privilege by
  bringing charges against the licensee
• (5) When the licensee is called upon to testify
  in any court or administrative hearings
  concerning matters of adoption, adult abuse,
  child abuse, child neglect, or other matters
  pertaining to the welfare of clients of the
  licensee or
• (6) When the licensee is collaborating or
  consulting with professional colleagues or an
  administrative superior on behalf of the client.

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Records

• Education records are all records which contain
  information directly related to a student and
  which are maintained by the educational agency or
  institution. Parents have the right to inspect
  and review education records. Social workers
  personal notes kept for use by only those
  individuals are not considered education records
  and are confidential.
• A social worker's clinical records can be
  his/her best defense in malpractice litigation or
  court. A typical court case relies on the content
  or lack of content in the record to determine if
  malpractice has occurred.

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Accountability

• By the 1990s, the goals and functions of record
  keeping have changed dramatically.  The audience
  for the clinical record is no longer the social
  worker, supervisor, and colleagues. The new
  "wider audience" (Kagle, 1993) includes
  third-party payers, clients themselves, their
  families, and the courts. Increasingly, the
  central  function of record keeping is monitoring
  and accountability. Accountability means that the
  record confirms that the social worker is
  providing the service claimed and that the
  service is done in a professional, competent
  manner.
•  
• Jay Callahan (1996). Documentation of Client
  Dangerousness in A Managed Care Environment,
• Health Social Work, 21-3,202-207.

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FERPA

• FERPA was enacted by the United States Congress
  to guarantee the right of students and their
  parents access to academic records to review
  their educational records in a timely manner,
  make objections to the information contained
  therein, and obtain copies of said records at a
  reasonable cost.
• It also guarantees the privacy of a student's
  records, ensuring that such information not be
  released to anyone other than the student,
  parents or other educational agency with a
  legitimate need for the information, such as a
  school in which a student is attempting to
  enroll.
• In addition, student's records are to be made
  available to all school personnel with a
  legitimate need to know the-information contained
  therein. Those who have such a need and obtain
  such information are obligated to treat it in a
  confidential manner. This means that a student's
  current teachers, counselor and principal have
  the right to see a student's records and that
  they should share the contents of those records
  only with other staff members with a need for the
  information.

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• The following people may have access to student
  records under FERPA
• Parents- if student is under 18 or claimed as a
  dependant. Students- if they are 18 or older.
• School Personnel- ONLY if legitimate educational
  interest in viewing the records.
• Transfer School Officials- only if parents are
  notified of transfer.
• Authorized Persons- through written consent.
• Persons Entitled to Disclosure through Court
  Order or Subpoena.
• Appropriate Person in the Event of a Health or
  Safety Emergency.
• Persons Listed as Emergency Contacts- Even if a
  parent lists someone as an "emergency contact",
  schools may not provide that person with
  information subject to FERPA unless the parent
  has signed a written authorization specifying the
  records may be disclosed.
• Independent Sources of Information- If an
  independent source discloses information, the
  disclosure is not subject to FERPA.
• Divorced or Separated Parents- Unless a valid
  court order is on record, both parties have
  access to the students records.

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Places to Turn

• http//www.sswam.org/
• http//www.sswaa.org/
• http//www.socialworkers.org/
• http//www.dese.state.mo.us/