Social Worker - Special Services - MLD

SOCIAL WORKER - SPECIAL SERVICES - MLD As a School Social Worker, you will assist in the development of student's personal, emotional, and social growth to enable them to benefit from their educational program. Effective communication skills are required to work collaboratively with related service providers, coordinate with the general education staff, and work with families and outside agencies. Reports to: Special Services Director and Building Principal Qualifications: Love of the job as a proven professional with enthusiasm, passion, and a demonstrated track record of successfully working with school-age children. Applicants must be licensed as a Social Worker by the State of Maine. Must have a Master’s degree with successful experience working with students with special needs. Successful experience working with outside agencies. Demonstrated ability to work on a collaborative team, and possess strong communication, organizational, diagnostic, and interpersonal skills. Responsibilities: Student-Centered Schedules and provides individual and/or group services for identified students. Consults with school guidance counselor(s), school nurse, school psychological service providers, principals, classroom teachers, and Special Education team as needed. Assist in student crisis management and follow-up consequences/supports with staff, family, and student. (Separately established performance standards.) Communication Meet and consult with parents as needed on student-related issues. Provides identified Special Education students and their families with appropriate support and referral services. Completes family/social history as determined by the Special Education team. Participates in crisis intervention (school/district Crisis Response Team). Organized Approach Assist team in the development and monitoring of positive behavior support plans. Assist family in developing and monitoring behavior plans for home/school transition for Special Education and regular education students. Operational Excellence For identified students, acts as a liaison between the school and home/family and actively involved community services providers (i.e. hospitals, M.D. counselors, etc.) Functions as a special education team member. This includes attendance at team meetings, participation in IEP meetings, writing annual goals and objectives, and quarterly updates for social work for identified special education students. Assists with re-entry plans to school from suspension, hospitalization, or out-of-district placements for students. Assumes such other duties and responsibilities as may be assigned by the Director of Special Services. Key Competencies: Resourceful- you optimize available resources and tools (internally and externally) to enhance your impact; you network proactively, and with confidence to broaden the scope of people who can serve as a resource to your students and staff Goals-based- you set ambitious but attainable goals for students and ensure your education technicians do the same; your goals are meaningful, and attaining them will positively impact students’ progress; you monitor and report progress-to-goals with routinized discipline; you aim higher than what you think the students can achieve Analytical thinking-it excites you to identify multiple and creative ways to analyze, interpret, and showcase data sets; you let the data lead you versus acting on preconceived assumptions; you possess innate curiosity about the story behind the numbers; you develop instructional lessons based upon this data Outcomes-focus- you know how to balance respect for process with urgency of outcomes; you don’t allow processes to be disconnected from urgency of outcomes; you hold yourself accountable to measurable outcomes that make a difference in students’ lives Motivator- you inspire students, staff and family towards greater outcomes; your voice encourages others to aim higher and push harder Team player- you support your students and education technicians and have their backs; you approach your work with a team mentality to ensure collective success for your students. Effective communicator- you communicate interests effectively and professionally, internally and externally; your communications achieve desired outcome Relationship-oriented- you recognize the deep importance of student, staff and family relationships play in student progress; you build rapport and trust with students, staff and families Reasonable Accommodations: RSU 21 will provide accommodations to an individual with a disability, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or applicable law, who has made the district aware of their disability, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship to the district. Terms of Employment: Regular school year for professional teachers. Salary to be established by the Board. Evaluation: Performance of this job will be evaluated by the building administrator or team leader, in accordance with the Board of School Directors Policy on evaluation of Support Services