MAY 2004
Randi Weingarten, UFT President
LEADER OF TEACHERS UNION TALKS ABOUT SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKERS
Randi Weingarten heads one of the most powerful unions in New York City – the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), representing over 140,000 members, including 74,000 teachers. Given her position and vantage point, she has a unique perspective on the role of the 1,200 school social workers that she represents.
It is precisely this perspective that we sought as we interviewed her about school social work.
Contrasting Views – Safety Net vs. Compliance
Ms. Weingarten launched into our discussion with her thoughts on the differing views of social workers held by the union and the Department of Education. She said that she sees them as the critical link for the schools with parents, families, and community, and as a “safety net” for kids.
In contrast, she said that the Department of Education's view of social workers is quite limited, as part of a “compliance arm” of the system, doing the minimum to satisfy requirements in law. “I have had this fight with the school system for as long as I can remember”, she said.
Learning From Experience
Ms. Weingarten recalled a story from her earlier years as a classroom teacher. She related that she had numerous experiences where she required the expertise of the school social worker in order to better serve her students.
“I remember…all the ad hoc work the school based support team used to do in Clara Barton High School where I used to teach. There was one full-time social worker and one half-time psychologist. This was at a time when the social work job was almost totally compliance-driven.
“It was often that the teachers would …bop down to the tiny crevice that the social worker had as an office. We would try to get help with how to approach a kid…or we would try to sneak in a child on the sly…I'm sure this happened in hundreds of schools.
“I remember one kid, an 11 th grader, whose father was murdered. She had been absent several days. On the day she walked into my class, I saw hollowness in her face, and I knew something wrong. I gave the class a group activity, brought her out in the hall and tried to get her to talk. I did not have the skills needed to deal with the situation I then heard about. I raced to get someone to cover my class; I had to get the social worker to help this kid. She'd suffered a terrible trauma.”
A Limited Job Description
According to Ms. Weingarten, the social worker's job description did not list “counseling a teenager on the death of her father”. In an atmosphere of compliance-only work, Ms. Weingarten reported, a social worker may have minimized time spent with such a teen, despite the crisis.
As Ms. Weingarten observed, “if you only operate based on job description, or productivity quotas – you never get the needed help for kids. We have 1.1 million kids – many grow up in adverse situations – with many challenges and obstacles. It is the elasticity of services, at a professional level – that is invaluable – but people don't get to do this. You can't put a quantitative measure on this; so it's compliance-driven. In qualitative measures – it's worth its weight in gold, silver and any other metallic substance.”
“The problem is that even under reorganization, even with Educationally Related Services money – we still can't do this. These sorts of ‘elastic services' are not ensconced in the fabric of the schools. Social workers have other demands made on them – besides what they can do for kids. This demonstrates that we haven't gotten it yet.”
What are Schools Like Without Social Workers?
In reply to an inquiry about what school conditions would be like in the absence of social workers, Ms. Weingarten observed that social workers and other professionals who are devoted to the best interests of the kids are firmly rooted in the tradition of “breaking the rules” to do the work needed with kids.
“We're supposed to do X, but we do Y – to benefit kids. We provide some needed resources – without those resources – I shudder to think what it would be like inside schools if this were NOT the case!”
Ms. Weingarten offered a commentary about the most current concern for school social workers. She said that they are fearful about their job security. She recounted that the school system recently forced out 1,200 educational evaluators by merely saying that their jobs were no longer needed.
She interpreted the message of that action for other non-classroom-based professionals – primarily social workers and psychologists – as one demonstrating that even if you work hard and play by the rules, you no longer have a commitment from the Department of Education to be protected in your job. She said that the UFT has been assuring social workers that the UFT is fighting for them; however, she sees that social workers still express their concerns based on the Department's behavior.
A Possible Role for the UFT and NASW
Ms. Weingarten offered that the UFT and NASW could play a role in facilitating the improved understanding of social workers' critical role in schools. She said that the public has a clear understanding about the role of the primary and kindergarten teacher and what they do to help a child learn social skills and to develop the building blocks for literacy and numeracy skills; but that the public does not clearly understand the role of social workers.
This must occur, she declared, so that the public will speak out on behalf of social workers to ensure that the lifeline they often provide is not severed due to any political or budgetary machinations. The UFT and NASW can and should facilitate the public's education and understanding of the role of school social workers. This must happen BEFORE kids fall through the safety net!