Job description last updated: March 7, 2022

Position Summary:  The School Social Worker provides direct and indirect social work services to enable students to achieve optimal learning outcomes and experiences. The School Social Worker supports students experiencing social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges that impact their performance in school and facilitates communication between the school community, the student’s home, and community providers at large. The School Social Worker collects, interprets, and synthesizes information about students’ social histories, community environments, and crises that influence academic and behavioral functioning and works cooperatively with interdisciplinary teams to provide services and create and implement appropriate services plans for students and their families. 

District Summary

The William Penn School District is Located in southeastern Delaware County and serves approximately 5,000 students who reside in Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon Boroughs. We share a collective vision to educate, nurture and empower all students to become career and/or college ready.

Key Responsibilities & Essential Duties: 

• Use data to establish goals and activities to close the achievement, opportunity, and information gaps among different groups of students
• Develop, implement, consult with school and related community regarding brain-based research and evidence-based interventions
• Conduct classroom, individual, group counseling and guidance activities
• Use evidence-based practices to develop positive, safe, affirming school climates
• Communicate with families and community stakeholders about the available resources that support learning and development, including effective counseling interventions
• Use evaluative data on an individual, cohort, or district-level to identify and implement intervention and/or programmatic revisions for quality improvement
• Conduct student home visits as needed

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Knowledge/awareness of own cultural identity and how this influences behavior, and desire to learn about the cultural identity of others. 
• Ability to establish and nurture an environment that promotes cultural competence and equitable treatment of staff, students, and patrons of the District. 
• Ability to understand and hold self and others accountable for promoting and attaining the goals as outlined in Focus Forward 2025. 
• Ability to recognize that each person is a unique individual even as we celebrate their group cultural heritage. 
• Knowledge of PA Core Standards and Eligible Content 
• Knowledge of Instructional Planning Guides as it relates to the instructional block 
• Knowledge of Digital Curriculum components 
• Ability to courageously lead conversations focused on equity, closing opportunity gaps, and equal access to technology-infused lessons of rigor. 
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with District staff and administrators, students, parents or guardians, outside agencies, and the public, in a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual environment. 
• Ability to receive and implement feedback to improve practice and systems.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree from accredited college or university
• Valid Pennsylvania Certification: School Social Worker PK-12

Pre-employment Paperwork Requirements:

• Pennsylvania Criminal Background Check, FBI Fingerprinting Background Check, Pennsylvania Child Abuse Clearance
• Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Release (Act 168) forms 
• School Personnel Health Record and TB test

Working Conditions & Physical Requirements:

• Work scheduled hours on a consistent basis
• Indoor office environment is subject to frequent interruptions
• Pushing, moving and lifting objects with a strength factor of light work
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a variety of standard office equipment
• Clarity of vision at varying distances
• Verbal, auditory and written capabilities to effectively communicate in an articulate manner
• Sitting and standing for extended periods of time
• Frequent sitting, standing and walking
• Reaching overhead, above the shoulders and horizontally to retrieve and store files and supplies
• Lifting objects with a strength factor of light work
• Occasional bending, reaching and stretching
• Occasional kneeling, crouching and squatting
• Occasional pulling, pushing

Level of Compensation: $49,674 - $100,607 (dependent on Step and Track placement as determined based on collective bargaining agreements)

Disclaimer:

The preceding list is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary. The statements contained herein reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the scope of responsibility, and the level of knowledge and skills typically required, but should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements, skills or duties so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside their normal responsibilities from time to time as needed.

All employment open positions are made available on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability, or veteran status.

Job descriptions are written as a representative list of the ADA essential duties performed by the entire classification. They cannot include and are not intended to include, every possible activity and task performed by every specific employee.