As social work educators, much of our practice involves helping students think critically about complex political, economic, and social issues. One of the most complex and contentious sociopolitical issues of our time has been civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. This teaching note considers how we, as LGBT…

This article reports findings from a national web-based survey of 250 members of the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA). This study examines the types of violent events reported by school social workers and the practitioner's perception of the problem of interpersonal violence in the school context. It identifies interventions being…

The authors begin this article by highlighting clinical social casework as a historic trend in school social work practice. They then identify two major shifts in current education policy related to school social work practice. One shift is an emphasis on a multilevel intervention approach, and the other is the differentiation between academic and…

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality are common among adolescents. School staff are often the first adults to be confronted with those behaviors. However, previous studies have shown a lack of knowledge and confidence in dealing with self-harming behaviors. Objectives of this study were to evaluate a workshop on NSSI and suicidality in…

Early delinquency has received considerably less scholarly attention than adolescent delinquency. Early delinquency is of great concern to school social workers, as it may lead to problematic behaviors in adolescence and future involvement with the juvenile justice system. Using an ecological framework, authors used data from the Fragile Families…

Mental health disorders are prevalent among children and are associated with deleterious outcomes. Yet many children experiencing mental health distress remain unidentified and do not receive treatment. Because of their frequent contact with children, schools have been identified as primary actors in identifying children with mental health…

This article analyzes school social work's history to provide perspective on current dilemmas in social work practice and research. The authors use interstitial emergence theory, which holds that practices from overlapping fields (like social work and K-12 education) can develop into new fields, as an analytic framework. This perspective extends…

Through a Whole Child lens a cross-sectional quantitative research design evaluated the impact of academic and nonacademic support structures on student reading achievement per the third grade Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA). Two demographically similar public school districts within geographical proximity in Ohio were involved utilizing…

A cross-sectional, Web-based survey was completed by 250 members of the School Social Work Association of America. This article addresses the research-practice gap in the delivery of mental health services in the school setting by examining the extent to which evidence-supported school violence intervention programs (ESPs) are known and used by…

Although school social workers are likely to intervene with victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying, almost nothing is known about their intervention techniques. This study used a national sample of 302 members of the School Social Work Association of America to gather information about training in, knowledge of, and responses to victims and…

The article describes the status of school social work in 2013 using data gathered by the International Network for School Social Work. School social work is a growing specialty around the world. There are school social workers practicing in around 50 countries. School social workers support student's educational success, especially those who are…

Response to intervention (RTI) is an approach that has been implemented in more than 90% of the states in the U.S. The purpose of the study is to advance understanding of what efforts need to be made in order to increase the likelihood that special education professionals will accept RTI. Data used in this study include individual interviews with…

In urban districts, homeless and highly mobile students are an important contributor to achievement disparities-and their numbers are rising. To date there has been little inquiry into how broader education and housing policies shape the schooling experiences of homeless and highly mobile families. Using semi-structured interviews with 132 key…

This article examines the status of certification requirements for school social workers across the United States and the policy context in which certification is embedded. The article also details findings of a study on the curriculum available at various schools of social work offering training in school social work. The article makes a case for…

After mass crises, trauma-exposed children report increased psychological distress, yet most receive no mental health (MH) services and supports. This study identifies factors associated with teachers' reports of outreach to school-based MH providers (such as social workers, psychologists, and counselors) as well as provision of informal supports…