Dear School Social Work Colleagues,
The second National School Social Work Survey will be launched on February 3, 2014, and we are asking for your participation. In 2008, our team conducted our first National School School Social Work Survey and we were able to get 1,639 responses from school social workers practicing in 48 states (Kelly et al., 2010). Many of you assisted us in our efforts then; we hope that you will support our efforts again.
The second National School Social Work Survey has two broad aims. The first will be to capture data from the largest number of practicing school social workers ever surveyed, and to enrich our understanding of the daily practices, skills, competencies, and barriers faced by school social workers. This first aim will seek to inform national and state-level efforts to expand the presence of social work in school settings. Indeed, despite our profession being over 100 years old, the size and scope of school social workundefinednationally speakingundefinedis not well-known to the public or to policymakers. Our survey’s second aim seeks to inform university and state association efforts to enhance the professional development and training of pre-service and in-service school social workers so that they can provide the best services to the schools and students they serve.
We are also planning to do a second phase of this study where we will contact survey respondents to participate in focus groups related to their school social work practice. If you would like to be part of this second study, you will have an option to send us your e-mail address at the end of the survey and you will also be entered at that time in a raffle to win an $100 Amazon gift card, an Amazon Kindle Fire, and (the grand prize) an iPad.
We request your participation and ask that you click on this link if you wish to be part of this Second National School Social Work Survey:
It is our hope that you will assist us in our efforts to gain a solid national picture of the presence of school social workersundefinedand in doing so, assist our profession in clarifying and expressing the value of what we do in school settings. Thank you for your support.
Michael S. Kelly, Lead Investigator, Second National School Social Work Survey, and Associate Professor, Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work
National School Social Work Survey Team:
Aaron Thompson, University of Missouri
Andy Frey, University of Louisville
Michelle Alvarez, Minnesota State-Mankato and SSWAA President
Stephanie Berzin, Boston College
Heather Klemp, MSW Student, University of Missouri