Emerging Trends in School Social Work Practice: Responding to Rapid Change in Educational Ecosystems

With the complexity of change that PreK-12 schools are facing, frameworks are needed to understand what the 2020s and beyond will require of the school community. While some educational stakeholders are calling for a return to the "three R's" (reading, writing, arithmetic) most educational scholars and futurists envision public schools expanding comprehensive service delivery systems that meet multiple educational, behavioral, and social needs of students and their families. This vision of expanded service delivery includes community partnerships that address students' resource and mental health needs, educational collaborations that bring learning from the community into the classroom, and wellness initiatives that emphasize health and wellbeing for all stakeholders.

Concurrently, social work as a profession is adapting to the increase in online mental health services, re-examining its history, practices, identity, and complicity in oppression, and revisiting its roots of community-based practice and activism. The profession has increased its footprint in policy advocacy and support for segments of the population targeted by certain policymakers such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) populations and the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) populations. The profession is still tentatively advancing toward full technology adoption, including utilization of technology-supported social work interventions.

With this background of change facing society, Emerging Trends in School Social Work Practice focuses on the challenges and opportunities to further develop the professional specialty of school social work. The book examines 13 different emerging trends through the lenses of school social work practitioners and academic scholars working in partnership for each chapter. The book's editors, former school social workers and current social work scholars, worked with a national team of authors to write the chapters on the new landscape for this micro-mezzo-macro career. The information in this text will help school social workers prepare, plan, and develop their existing knowledge into accelerated skills needed to meet these demands. The book concludes with a chapter written by school social work leaders examining their burgeoning role in the PreK-12 educational landscape and leaving breadcrumbs for others to follow their path to greater influence.

Tory Cox is the Assistant CA Title IV-E Project Coordinator for the CSULB School of Social Work, manages the Title IV-E grant budget, teaches practicum education, and oversees the school's distance education program. He is interim Co-Editor for the International Journal of School Social Work and Coordinator of the school-based program "Strengthening Youth Resilience." He is lead editor for Emerging Trends in School Social Work and was lead editor for The Art of Becoming Indispensable: What School Social Workers Need to Know in Their First Three Years of Practice, which won the 2022 SSWAA National Book Award.

Annette Clayton has thirty years of school social work practice experience and recently retired from full time academic work as a tenured Associate Professor of Social Work. She is a self-described semi-retired practitioner-scholar who teaches, consults, conducts research, and writes about school social work practice. Her scholarship to date has focused on school social work practice, the overarching issue of practice efficacy, and the influence of risk and protective factors on adolescents' educational outcomes. In addition to presenting at numerous state and national conferences, Dr. Clayton has published manuscripts in Children & Schools, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, and the Journal of African American Studies.

Sarah Caliboso-Soto is the Assistant Director of Community and Clinical Programs and an Associate Professor in Practicum Education at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Dr. Caliboso-Soto has taught practicum, research, policy, and diversity courses on campus and virtually and has worked as an LCSW in Los Angeles for the past 20 years. She also led the development and implementation of a 0-5 assessment and intervention program and an intensive community-based program working with chronically mentally ill and transitional-aged youth. As a school social worker, she provided virtual mental health services for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Lisa Wobbe-Veit has spent over 25 years promoting resiliency among youth and families, particularly those impacted by trauma. Her commitment to trauma-exposed populations spans roles as a Medical Social Worker, Therapist and School Social Worker. A Parkland resident, she serves as a Recovery Consultant, providing ongoing support to the school community and families profoundly impacted by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy. She is a Professor of Social Work Practicum Education at the USC Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work, as well as a Curriculum Developer and Trainer for the Center for Safe and Resilient Schools and Workplaces.