Integrating the National School Social Work Practice Model: The Chicken, not the Egg

The role of school social work (SSW) practitioners is more important than ever as schools grapple with increasing student needs and fluctuating roles and responsibilities. A lack of clear articulation of the school social worker role often hinders the ability to effectively advocate for positions; expand responsibilities; manage workloads; and maximize the impact on students, families, and school communities. This column aims to provide a comprehensive strategy for integrating the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) National School Social Work Practice Model 2.0 (hereafter National Model; Tan & SSWAA, in press) across the profession, encompassing policy, research, education, and practice. Given our ethical responsibility in conjunction with the historical and longitudinal prevalence of educational inequities that disproportionately affect racially minoritized youth (Crutchfield & Eugene, 2022), the model should guide practitioner efforts to target and ameliorate these inequities. The fragmentation of the profession, varied SSW practice guidance, geographical differences, divergent school and youth needs, state certification standards, and training may facilitate role ambiguity, fraught working conditions, and deep inequalities in the professional viability of SSW (Lucio, Souhrada, et al., 2024). Depending on the state of practice (e.g., certification standards; Mitchell et al., 2021), geographic location of schools (e.g., urban, rural, suburban; Rodriguez et al., 2020), and administrative leadership (e.g., perceptions of SSW; Stalnecker et al., 2022), SSW practitioners may face substantial role variation, ambiguity in practice, and competing professional guidance.