The role of the school social worker: a comparative analysis of the perceptions of teachers, counselors, psychologists, and social workers in an urban school system, 2001

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in the perceptions of teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers in the importance of the role of the school social worker. National, state, and local system job descriptions of the social worker were used to develop a survey sent to teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers. All of the subjects in this study worked in the same large metropolitan school system. The findings of this investigation suggested that the three categories of professionals, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers, appeared to be clear concerning their respective job duties and responsibilities, but elementary teachers seemed unclear concerning the differences of school social workers and school counselors. This researcher further concluded that this confusion on the part of elementary classroom teachers might also be responsible for students' failure to receive needed services from the school social worker. To alleviate the problem of teacher confusion about the job responsibilities of the school social worker and the school counselor, staff development sessions might be a part of a series of informational initiatives used by the school district to assist in clarifying duties and responsibilities. This researcher also recommends additional examination of the perceptions of other school administrators regarding the duties and responsibilities of these professionals to determine whether similar confusion exists