Child, Family, and School Social Workers

Overview

Child, Family, and School Social Workers has a national median salary of $59,550 per year, with +4.4% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the family well-being and the academic functioning of children. May assist parents, arrange adoptions, and find foster homes for abandoned or abused children. In schools, they address such problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and truancy. May also advise teachers.

Work Values

• Relationships
• Achievement
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Place children in foster or adoptive homes, institutions, or medical treatment centers.
• Maintain case history records and prepare reports.
• Recommend temporary foster care and advise foster or adoptive parents.
• Interview clients individually, in families, or in groups, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs.
• Serve as liaisons between students, homes, schools, family services, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors, and other contacts to help children who face problems, such as disabilities, abuse, or poverty.

Work Activities

• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Documenting/Recording Information
• Getting Information
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Communicating with People Outside the Organization
• Assisting and Caring for Others
• Performing for or Working Directly with the Public
• Working with Computers
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems

Detailed Work Activities

• Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
• Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
• Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
• Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished a master's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Master's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a bachelor's degree.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Child, Family, and School Social Workers:

Video Resources