Virginia Law

The school social worker program shall ensure that the candidate has demonstrated the following competencies:

1. Understanding of the knowledge, skills, and processes for direct and indirect intervention, including:

a. Facilitating integrated intervention efforts that emphasize primary prevention, early screening, and multi-tiered interventions that target multiple risk factors in various settings;

b. Identifying approaches that seek to improve individual and system factors contributing to academic success and data-informed decision making and intervention fidelity;

c. Counseling on an individual, group, or family basis;

d. Consulting with administrators, teachers, parents, and other professionals about student problems and appropriate change strategies;

e. Networking and brokering with school programs and community agencies to provide essential services for families and children; and

f. Collaborating with and facilitating collaboration among students, parents, members, administrators, teachers, and staff to identify ways to intervene early, reduce barriers to learning, and improve student outcomes.

2. Understanding of child development, psychopathology, social and environmental conditioning, cultural diversity, and family systems, including:

a. Acknowledgment of the interrelatedness of various ecological systems such as education, juvenile justice, family and children's health, mental health, and child protective services; and

b. Knowledge of social problem impact on student performance and behaviors.

3. Understanding of the knowledge, skills, and processes for effective casework practice, including:

a. Examining factors in home, school, and community that impact students' educational performance and success; and

b. Assisting in reducing identified barriers to learning.

4. Specialized knowledge and understanding of the organization and operations of school systems, including:

a. Historical and current perspectives of public school education at the local, state, and national levels, including educational reform and legislation; and

b. Identifying and conveying the impact social problems, within ecological systems of home, school, and community, have on student performance in the educational setting.

5. Understanding of the knowledge, skills, and processes involved with assessing and programming for exceptional students, including:

a. Skills in implementing systematic assessment, data gathering and interpretation at multiple levels, and developing action plans to address the areas of need;

b. Identifying and utilizing research-based interventions to enhance the educational opportunities and school performance of vulnerable and at-risk populations;

c. Providing leadership in developing prevention programs and policies with administrators that impact school climate, student learning, and academic success; and

d. Ability to facilitate team decision-making and problem-solving strategies.

6. Understanding of the school social work profession, including:

a. History and foundations of school social work;

b. Legal and ethical issues;

c. Professional issues and standards; and

d. The role and function of the school social worker to include contextual variables influencing school social work roles and functions, such as political, legal, ethical, and value-based issues that confront schools.

7. Understanding of and proficiency in grammar, usage, and mechanics and their integration in writing.

8. Understanding of and proficiency in pedagogy to incorporate writing as an instructional and assessment tool for candidates to generate, gather, plan, organize, and present ideas in writing to communicate for a variety of purposes.

9. The candidate shall have earned a master's of social work degree from an accredited institution school of social work with a minimum of 60 graduate semester hours or earned an advanced standing master's of social work degree from an accredited institution with a minimum of 30 graduate-level semester hours.

10. The candidate shall complete a minimum of six graduate semester hours in education to include six semester hours from two of the following courses:

a. Foundations of education and the teaching profession (three semester hours);

b. Characteristics of special education (three semester hours);

c. Human development and learning (three semester hours); or

d. Classroom and behavior management (three semester hours).

11. The candidate shall complete a school social worker supervised practicum or field experience of a minimum of 400 clock hours in a public or accredited nonpublic school. One year of successful, full-time experience as a school social worker in a public or accredited nonpublic school may be accepted in lieu of the school social work practicum.