Anyone have a career as a school psychologist or social worker?

[pinkmomagain]

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up (please don't tell my parents who put me through college and grad school). One thing I think about sometimes is becoming a school psychologist or school social worker? Can anyone tell me about it? Do you enjoy your work? Do you have summers off? Any insights would be helpful. TIA

ps. Or maybe some teachers have some thoughts based on school psychologists/social workers who they have worked with?

[brittone2]

I have worked with social workers through early intervention and a special needs preschool, so it is a bit different as compared to a traditional-aged school. My comments may or may not apply to the traditional-aged school setting.

In the case of the preschool where I worked, I know the social workers spent a lot of time on the phone in the evenings w/ parents, because not all parents can take calls at work during the day (some work in factories, Walmart/retail, etc. and just aren't permitted to take any major time to talk on the job).

The other thing is that it can be very emotionally draining. I'm not sure about how the mix works out in a regular traditional-aged school, but social workers really need a good way to de-stress because they are often faced with some tremendously difficult cases.

My SIL just started last year (went back as a 2nd career) as a school counselor. I think she has most of the summer off? She seems to really enjoy it overall. She was in a hospital for a brief while when she first graduated, and she did *not* enjoy that setting.

[vludmilla]

I work as a school psychologist. I love my work, however, I have an unusual school psych job. I do primarily counseling and consultation work. The cognitive and neuropsych testing that I do are approximately 15% of my total job duties and although I like testing too, I wouldn't want it to be the bulk of my job. I work in a district with a high number psychologists and specialized programs so I have a lot of opportunity to work with colleagues whereas many SP's work alone in schools. I think my love of my job is in large part because I have the time and freedom to do good work, I am not overworked as I hear that so many SP's are. Of course, in the metro NY area, there are many "good" school districts and these jobs are often more like mine.

If you decide to go for this career, pick a very good program as NY is very, very competitive for SP jobs. The metro NY area is especially competitive and if you don't go to a good program (Fordham, Pace, Columbia, LIU, CUNY Brooklyn, Yeshiva) it will be much harder to nearly impossible to get a good job. Also, there are many doctoral level SP's in the metro NY area and top school districts often prefer PhD's.

Another consideration is that many of the better training programs require you to attend full time and do a full time, year long internship. It is a 3, maybe four year committment of time and this is for the master's + 30 credit degree, not the PhD which is a bare minimum of 5 years but more like 6 or 7 most of the time.

I do have summers off and it is wonderful. I am home today also because of a "snow" day so time off is a great thing in school jobs. I will say though that the job often requires me to stay late. I suppose I could leave at 3pm but if I did, I wouldn't be doing my job very well. I also tend to write all my reports at home, so that is something to consider with having three children.

If you don't have that much familiarity with the mental health field or school psych, I would recommend shadowing someone in their job. Confidentiality will be an issue for some, but if you know a friend of a friend, or something, you might be able to get into a school for a day to see what the job is like.

HTH a bit. Feel free to ask me more questions.

[WatchingThemGrow]

I've been an elementary teacher for 13(I think) years and I've got a master's in counseling as well. Some contact with the psych and soc. worker in each position. ITA about the emotionally draining part of social work, including the evening kind of stuff. Reaching out to the families can mean seeing them after hours.

The psych has typically several schools where they service children for testing. They don't actually (IME) provide "services" as much as they do ADHD, gifted, and other learning tests. They seem to work with a couple kids a week maybe, and spend a lot of time scoring the tests, writing reports.

Both the soc. worker and school psych. attend all Individual Education Plan meetings - like all day every Thursday or whatever day each school does the parent notification meetings or IEP meetings.

The counselor's role is much more kid-centered, since they are the first line of defense away from the classroom. Creating learning and behavior plans with the teacher, the child, and the parent is a big part of that job as is classroom guidance lessons and running groups for kids in similar situations/with similar difficulties. The counselor is involved in the IEP meetings as well as they have more immediate contact with the children. Oh, wait...you weren't asking about the counseling part. sorry.

[vludmilla]

I've been an elementary teacher for 13(I think) years and I've got a master's in counseling as well. Some contact with the psych and soc. worker in each position. ITA about the emotionally draining part of social work, including the evening kind of stuff. Reaching out to the families can mean seeing them after hours.

The psych has typically several schools where they service children for testing. They don't actually (IME) provide "services" as much as they do ADHD, gifted, and other learning tests. They seem to work with a couple kids a week maybe, and spend a lot of time scoring the tests, writing reports.

Both the soc. worker and school psych. attend all Individual Education Plan meetings - like all day every Thursday or whatever day each school does the parent notification meetings or IEP meetings.

The counselor's role is much more kid-centered, since they are the first line of defense away from the classroom. Creating learning and behavior plans with the teacher, the child, and the parent is a big part of that job as is classroom guidance lessons and running groups for kids in similar situations/with similar difficulties. The counselor is involved in the IEP meetings as well as they have more immediate contact with the children. Oh, wait...you weren't asking about the counseling part. sorry.

I think this is very region-dependent. In the metro NY area there are many districts in which SP's do a lot of counseling and consultation. In my district, the guidance counselors and social worker only do the topical, brief counseling. I and the other SP's do the bulk of long-term of difficult case counseling. I have ten students that I see for weekly counseling and many more for group or twice monthly counseling. We do specialized cognitive-behavioral counseling and we have small case loads, so definitely not the kind of job you described. The OP is in the NY area so I think her experience would be somewhat more like mine.

[gordo]

I am a school social worker. I LOVE my job. I work in a middle school in the chicago suburbs. Most of my job is seeing students individually, small group or even whole classrooms. I do a lot of crisis intervention in my area as well as working with special ed students. I also use to be the coordinator of special ed for our building, before we had a director for the whole district.

I have teacher hours (so yes, summers off) and all the same benefits as the teachers (same union, tenure, same pay scale, etc).

It definitely can be emotionally draining, but also very rewarding. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions. In the schools near me, social workers are the ones doing counseling with students and psychologists do a lot of the educational testing, but that will differ by region and district.

[wolverine2]

I'm a social worker and currently work as an elementary school counselor. An MSW is a great degree. It provides lots of broad opportunities, and the chance to change areas down the line. I originally worked as a clinical therapist in an outpatient clinic with children/families, but maintained school certification because I knew that was where I wanted to end up. I LOVE my job. I love having summers off, and it's not nearly as stressful as when I was doing outpatient work. I work partly in special ed and part general ed and have a lot of freedom.

Requirements for working in a school as well as the actual jobs themselves vary greatly by state/district. My job as it is set up would never exist in Michigan, where I went to school. I'd be doing all special ed, and probably in more than one school.

Feel free to PM me with more questions.

[pinkmomagain]

Wow, what great information! Thanks for all who responded. Yes, I am in the NY suburbs and, if I pursued this, would want to try to score a job in my area. I've always been interested in psychology. I've dealt with psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, neuropsychologists, and all kinds of therapists, both outside of and inside the school setting due to issues with my own children. I also sat as a parent member on the district's CPSE board. So I have some idea of the various roles. My kids don't have severe cases, but I guess I have some concern about whether or not I have the stamina to deal with more difficult cases, horrible home conditions, etc. I don't know how I would determine that.

It sounds like social work would require a MSW and school certification? And presumably much less schooling than SP?

[vludmilla]

I think the masters level social work and school psych programs would be about equal in length, three years if you are industrious and go full time, four years or more if you go part-time.

[wolverine2]

I don't know about school psych. programs, but MSW programs are generally 2 years and the school certification can be done as part of your program (you have to do a practicum in a school, and then it varies by state from there).

[gordo]

An MSW is a 2 year full-time program. The licensing will be different in different states, but in IL I had to get my MSW, do one of my internships at a school for an entire school year, take two specific classes (social work in a public school setting and the exceptional child) and sit for a licensing exam.

[vludmilla]

An MSW is a 2 year full-time program. The licensing will be different in different states, but in IL I had to get my MSW, do one of my internships at a school for an entire school year, take two specific classes (social work in a public school setting and the exceptional child) and sit for a licensing exam.

Well, then the school psych degree will definitely take longer. No school psych program can be done in less than three years full time.