Family Support Specialist (School Social Worker)

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Coordinate, develop, and implement support systems to meet students’ social, emotional, behavioral, medical, financial, and life skills or other needs in alignment with the School’s vision and mission.
• Use counseling strategies or ensure that on-site providers use counseling strategies to help students so they can be emotionally and socially prepared to maximize their instructional time.
• Build and maintain positive, cooperative, and effective relationships and conduct skill-building seminars with students, families, community, and colleagues
• Secure MOU’s with local colleges and universities to establish ALS schools as clinical internship sites for students in the schools of Social Work, Mental Health, School Counseling and any other related programs. Perform all required tasks relating to the supervision of clinical interns.
• Support the student orientation process
• Stay abreast and informed of current trends, research, and community agency providers and keep teachers, staff, and administrators informed of same
• Perform all other duties as deemed necessary, which are aligned in accordance with Company’s policies and procedures to ensure student educational and behavioral goals and objectives are achieved.

 REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Counseling and/or social work theory and practice
• School, local, state, and federal policies and laws relevant to student services, including Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), child abuse, and bullying/harassment
• Community social and family resources, trends, and opportunities
• Correct English usage, grammar, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary
• Record-keeping techniques
• Oral and written communication skills
• Telephone techniques and etiquette
• Apply knowledge of adolescent and young adult learning theory, including styles, modalities, and multiple intelligences
• Counsel individual students and small groups of students using appropriate theories and techniques with respect to each diverse learner
• Supervise graduate level interns
• Collect and analyze data
• Organize, maintain, and operate high school student support services
• Provide specialized assistance and information concerning social, educational, financial, and vocational services
• Work with community agencies to establish Memoranda of Understanding for providing services to students and families
• Establish and maintain cooperative and effective working relationships
• Meet schedules and timelines
• Plan and organize work
• Use various office productivity software applications
• Read, interpret, apply, and explain rules, regulations, policies, and procedures

 EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCED REQUIRED:

• Master’s Degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in counseling, social work, sociology, psychology, or related field is required with credentials required to supervise clinical interns in Social Work and Mental Health as defined by local and state post secondary institutions.
• License in counseling or social work preferred
• Minimum of three (3) years experience working with overage and/or at-risk youth is preferred
• Experience in education, social services, and community services that will utilize all skills necessary to assist students to become high school graduates and to acquire 21^st Century skills to become productive and participating members of their communities is required
• Valid driver’s license required
• Effective oral and written communication skills required
• Computer literacy required
• Bilingual preferred