Structural inequities continue to play a role in the manifestation of educational inequities, with school social work practice often oriented in reaction to these conditions. School social work effectiveness is further complicated by overlapping professional, training, and role ambiguities, obscuring both the origins of structural challenges and the appropriate targets for reform. In pursuit of inequity-targeting school social work, we present emergent findings pulled from a broader qualitative study. In the main study, we examined school social worker efforts and capabilities to target inequities in practice and the relationship to structural challenges, training, and role variations. The current paper reflects data gathered from interviews with 17 school social workers practicing in the US, with emergent findings presented in three themes: (1) Gaps in National Leadership, (2) Gaps in Educational Preparation, and (3) Role Complexity to Ambiguity. Practitioners illuminated the connections and inequities across these levels, with the implications drawn to multi-level ambiguity and the direct impact on role clarity and practice efficacy. The complexity of roles, responsibilities, alongside severity and time-intensive tasks confounded the scope of practice. The discussion and implications explore the intersection of professional ambiguity, training ambiguity, role ambiguity, and contextual influences that affect inequity-focused practice

Abstract University educators play a pivotal role in ensuring that school social workers (SSWers) are consistently and effectively prepared to meet the unique demands of their profession by aligning their curricula with the National Model for School Social Work Practice 2.0 (National Model for SSW Practice). Varying state standards for education and certification create inconsistency in SSWer roles and functions. The National Model for SSW Practice provides a framework of essential knowledge and skills. This chapter explores recommendations to integrate the National Model for SSW Practice into higher education by aligning the National Model for SSW Practice with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Competencies, which is important to ensure that social work programs prepare students to meet both accreditation requirements and the specialized demands of school social work. A “crosswalk” was developed that aligns school social work–specific components (knowledge and skills) with the National Model for SSW Practice’s elements and domains, as well as with the nine CSWE competencies. This alignment provides a tool for university educators to track the distribution of National Model for SSW Practice elements throughout their curriculum, including courses, certificates, and practicum placements. This approach also helps in designing assessments and can be shared with practicum supervisors to ensure students receive consistent training that bridges theoretical knowledge with practical application. By using the National Model for SSW Practice to guide curriculum development and collaborating with state departments of education, higher education institutions can prepare SSWers equipped with the knowledge and skills needed for the challenges of working within the school setting.

This paper describes the relationship between student identity, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and risk for receiving calls home for problems in school. Data are drawn from the 2017 to 2018 National Survey of Children's Health ( n = 4,579). Critical race theory and QuantCrit were used to frame the study and analysis. Findings reflect that ACEs were associated with a call home for all students, that students of color with ACEs were 1.24 times more likely to receive a call home for problems at school, and that specific individual ACEs were associated with calls home for each student group.

The beginning of 2020 marked the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a new reality. Mainstream learning loss discourse emerged as young people faced new social challenges and rising inequities. However, how we define some of these challenges may pose new barriers to equity promotion. Deficit-based narratives often negatively construct youth identities and intertwine with neoliberal forces and systemic inequities. Out-of-school time (OST) spaces offer hope and opportunity for a re-envisioned environment to centralize youth voice and provide critical time for leisure and reconnection. In this article, authors explore the strategies that can exist between youth workers and social workers in cultivating OST spaces for young people to engage with complex social justice development in humane, nurturing, and respectful environments. Authors center the argument for shifting away from extractive neoliberal models that commodify youth, the importance of becoming cognizant of OST’s impact on young people’s development, and raising awareness of the possibilities within OST spaces through youth-focused frameworks.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated incidences of domestic violence (DV). The framing of DV within media sources contributes to the public's understanding of DV. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper explores representations of safety within newspapers' reporting of DV during the pandemic. The sample included newspaper articles (n = 31) from U.S. newspapers. The analysis involved multiple rounds of coding and employing "structured questions." These articles depicted limited courses of action for DV survivors and represented safety as unattainable. Safety was constructed in four ways: homes are unsafe, social services are overburdened, government failures, and the elusiveness of safety. These discursive formations provide insight regarding "idealized" social responses to DV.

As the need for school social work (SSW) practitioners increases, more research may be useful to understand how roles and practices are shaped and how this differs from their perceptions of essential practice. To understand the roles and functions of SSW, a survey of nine critical components was developed through an evaluation of national association’s standards that offer guidance for SSW practice. Survey respondents ( N = 318) consisted mostly of SSW practitioners (85%), evaluated nine critical components: advocacy, building capacity, home-school liaison, multi-tier system of support, navigating school settings, professional values, service delivery, social work theory, use of data and evidence, and suggested the addition of new essential components. The results focus on which practices are deemed essential and the frequency of performing these tasks. We conclude with implications of practice essentiality and frequency discussed across the nine critical component domains, offering suggestions for future research, education, training, and professional development of SSW practitioners.

Since 2020, a network of actors and organizations have united in the implementation of education censorship—posing school-wide implications and impositions on the practice of mental health practitioners. States have outlined race and diversity curricula bans, sports and restroom bans, anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion legislation, and laws to undermine Social–Emotional Learning. In this paper, we explore the impact of education censorship and anti-Social-Emotional Learning legislation in relation to school mental health. To discuss the responses and advocacy of school mental health practitioners, we provide an overview of education censorship, noting the scope, prevalence, and evolution of topics to explicate a deeper understanding of the legislative action imposed over the last few years. Next, we delineate three non-exhaustive explanations of the legislation: the evolution of education censorship, education governance and corporate curricula control, and the shift to transformative Social–Emotional Learning. To strategize on how to respond to these trends we provide two alternative response pathways, offer implications, and discuss aspects of advocacy, resistance, and action. In conclusion, we provide a discussion to extend each response pathway, providing additional considerations, implications, and outline calls for action.

Early intervention efforts have been effective in reducing disruptive behaviors and the probability of poor developmental outcomes. Early interventions include common practice elements to improve social functioning and decrease problem behaviors that disrupt the teaching-learning process. The First Step Next intervention has been well validated across early childhood and early elementary settings. In the present article, we provide a best-evidence synthesis of five randomized controlled replication studies between 2009 and 2021. Collectively, these studies show the intervention has resulted in small to large effect sizes and statistically significant improvements, compared with students randomized to control conditions, on multiple indicators of prosocial and problem behavior. The current synthesis focuses on a range of outcomes across elementary and preschool populations, as well as implementation fidelity and social validity ratings, to help school professionals in determining whether First Step Next might be useful in their efforts to support students at risk of school failure.

Learning loss due to the pandemic has become a significant global concern. The purpose of this paper is to understand the newspaper coverage of the COVID-19 learning loss. Critical discourse analysis is utilized to analyze (N = 38) newspaper articles. Results include: constructions of youth identities, racialized constructions of youth identities, factualized portrayals of learning loss, and the neoliberal narrative. The pandemic crisis narrative was used to promulgate fear and reinforce the deficit-based portrayals of youth learning. Generalized learning deficiencies and disproportionate impact led to racialized portrayals of loss, stigmatizing youth through de-contextualized and ahistorical representations. Factualized portrayals of learning loss took shape through linguistical structure, word choices, data-based emphasis, and an expert narrative. Discourse depicted as fact undergirded the neoliberal narrative and justified the need for increased testing and reform in schools. Implications of the analysis and recommendations to elevate support and strengthen youth voices are discussed.

Conscientization is the process of learning to perceive sociocultural, economic, and political oppression to such extent one is moved to act against it. This transformative and liberatory pedagogy has momentous implications for social work education; as its outcome is an increased critical consciousness for both students and faculty. However, the process of conscientization and its foundational mechanisms are understudied. We therefore conducted a descriptive phenomenological study on professors whose teaching or research combat systems of oppression. We provide a composite structural definition of conscientization, and a composite textural-structural description of its catalysts. We discuss how our study builds on the current liberatory education empirical base, as well as the implications of our findings on education and practice.

In April 2020, the discourse surrounding the COVID-19 learning loss began. Researchers predicted student learning loss due to school closures, with estimated declines in math and reading during the pandemic (Kuhfeld & Tarasawa, 2020). To follow, hundreds of billions of dollars have been allocated to address learning loss (Jordan, 2022). To be clear, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been extreme and omnipresent. However, the stigma of labeling a generation of students from a deficit-based lens does not offer the support sorely needed in school systems (Zhao, 2021). As social workers, we must be cognizant of the ramifications of yet another stigmatizing label cast on students. Although results varied—not all were negative—learning loss has been inconsistently defined as student learning deficits in math and reading during the pandemic (Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarasawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Lewis, 2020; Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarasawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Liu, 2020a, 2020b; Kuhfeld & Tarasawa, 2020; Kuhfeld, Tarasawa, et al., 2020). Education consulting groups led the dissemination of learning loss discourse by providing data, funding reports, and promoting reform through in-house services (i.e., increased testing and tutoring; Dorn et al., 2020a, 2020b; Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarasawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Lewis, 2020; Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarasawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Liu, 2020a, 2020b; Kuhfeld & Tarasawa, 2020; Kuhfeld, Tarasawa, et al., 2020). As reform ensues to address learning loss, social workers must help mitigate the harm caused by the deficit-based portrayals of youth.

Background Over 50% of new AIDS/HIV diagnoses are older adults and disproportionately African American people. Longstanding health inequities, driven by the enduring nature of systemic racism, pose challenges to obtaining optimal HIV services. Patient experiences and identities shape the health care experience, yet patient voices are often minimized, including their assessment of quality HIV care. Understanding these markers of care, including facilitators of and barriers to care and engagement, may help enhance the patient voice, potentially improving service delivery and eradicating HIV healthcare disparities. Method Using a convergent mixed method design, our study identifies patient-identified markers of quality care among older African Americans (N = 35). Measurements of global stress, HIV stigma, and engagement in care were collected, and in-depth qualitative interviews explored the symbols of quality care as well as facilitators of and barriers to care. Results We identified widespread participant awareness and recognition of quality care, the detection of facilitators and barriers across individual, clinic, and community levels. Facilitators of care include diet, health, relationships, community support, and compassionate HIV care. Barriers to care include health comorbidities, economic, food, and housing insecurity, lack of transportation, and structural racism. Conclusion Our findings illuminate how the prominence of barriers to care often uproot facilitators of care, creating impediments to HIV service delivery as patients transition through the HIV care continuum. We offer implications for practice and policy, as well as recommendations for reducing structural barriers to care by enhancing the patient voice and for aligning services toward compassionate and inclusive care.

School-based mental health practitioners can offer enhanced support to schools and students; yet their training, roles, and expertise vary. The roles of these professionals are often conflated, misunderstood, or marginalized in their utility throughout the school system. The purpose of this manuscript is to enhance the capacity of educational leaders to make informed hiring, contracting, and role assignment decisions that best fit school and student needs regarding school mental health services. We clarify the landscape of two distinct groups of qualified school mental health professionals-those who are education certified and those who are independently licensed; each group represents professionals from multiple disciplines. We illuminate similarities and differences of these professionals and juxtapose the utility of traditional mental health versus school-based mental health. We then discuss the similarities and differences of qualified school mental health professionals described within the context of traditional and school-based mental health preparation and service delivery. We conclude by contributing three resources for educational leaders to support the process of engaging school-based mental health practitioners. First, we offer a planning guide to understand state variations in certification requirements across professionals. Second, we provide a hiring guide primer that summarizes education requirements and delineates role orientations for school mental health practitioners. Third, we provide an interview guide to help clarify a candidate’s experience and skills useful to contemporary school needs. We conclude by offering recommendations for educational leaders to become more effective consumers of school-based mental health services.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience a multitude of barriers to healthcare access, particularly in highly stigmatising contexts, such as Jamaica. Access to a regular healthcare source can contribute to uptake of health knowledge and services. Yet social-ecological factors associated with access to a regular healthcare provider among LGBT persons in Jamaica are underexplored. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with LGBT persons in Jamaica to examine socio-demographic and social-ecological factors associated with having a regular healthcare provider. Nearly half (43.6%) of 911 participants reported having a regular healthcare provider. In multivariate analyses, socio-demographic factors (higher age; identifying as a cisgender sexual minority man or woman compared to a transgender woman) were associated with higher odds of having a regular healthcare provider. Socio-demographic (living in Ocho Rios or Montego Bay compared to Kingston), stigma/discrimination (a bad past healthcare experience), and structural factors (insufficient money for housing; reporting medication costs as a barrier; no health insurance) were associated with decreased odds of having a regular healthcare provider. Findings support a multi-level approach to understanding and addressing barriers to having a regular healthcare provider among LGBT people in Jamaica.

Sarah Jen University of Kansas Erin Harrop University of Denver Colleen Galambos University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Brandon Mitchell University of Louisville Claire Willey-Sthapit University of Washington Heather L. Storer University of Louisville Odessa Gonzalez Benson University of Michigan Christine Barber University of Illinois at Chicago Jessica C. Kim University of Pennsylvania Yuanjin Zhou The University of Texas at Austin

This study aims to explore the experiences of family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic-imposed visitation restrictions at formal care settings (FCS) such as assisted living centers and traditional nursing homes. Participants (N = 512) were recruited from an international caregiving social media site that was developed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive data was collected on the family caregivers, the care recipient and facility. Respondents also provided a single feeling word describing their experience and an open-ended question allowed for further exploration. Caregivers were predominantly daughters (n = 375). The most common reported feeling words were sadness (n = 200), trauma (n = 108), anger (n = 65), frustration (n = 56), helplessness (n = 50), and anxiety (n = 36). Thematic analysis revealed four overarching themes: 1) isolation 2) rapid decline 3) inhumane care and 4) lack of oversight. This study highlights the importance of addressing the mental, emotional and physical needs of both care recipient and family caregiver during this challenging time. Caregiver visitation policy reform that includes the care recipient and family caregiver is also discussed.