School Social Work Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 978, a resolution to recognize the week of March 3-7 as National School Social Worker Week.

School social workers have long played a critical role in schools in the community as a whole. They are professionals with training in social mental health intervention who work with youth to address their emotional, social, and developmental needs. For example, students in elementary school are just beginning to develop their academic self-concept and their feelings of competence. School social workers help students build their confidence as learners.

In middle school, many new challenges arise. During this passage from childhood to adolescence, middle school students are characterized by a need to explore a variety of interests connecting their learning into the classroom to its practical application in life. For these students, school social workers provide proactive leadership that engage all stakeholders in the delivery of programs and services to help students navigate the challenges and achieve success.

And in high school, students begin separating from parents and exploring and defining their independence. They face increased pressure regarding risk behaviors involving sex, alcohol, and drugs, while exploring the boundaries of the more acceptable behavior and mature, meaningful relationships. School social workers help make them concrete and compounded decisions.

On top of this, school social workers must be responsive to the range of challenges that young people face every day such as poverty, disability, discrimination, abuse, addiction, bullying, divorce of parents, loss of a loved one, and other barriers to learning.

School social workers are also on the front lines when disaster strikes, such as the Southern California wildfires or Hurricane Katrina, as well as other traumatic incidents such as the atrocities on 9/11. There is a documentation of the growing need for school districts to expand mental and student support services in schools. The numbers indicate that only 1 in 5 of the 17,500,000 children in need of mental health actually received those services.

Many students go underserved primarily because the national average ratio of student-to-school social workers is far beneath the 400-1 ratio recommended by the School Social Work Association of America.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution serves to recognize the treasure that is the school social worker and acknowledge the priceless role that they play in guiding our students' success in the ever-changing world of the 21st century.

I urge my colleagues to resoundingly pass this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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