School social work: special education counseling services

The purpose of this project is to create a sustainable resource for the Lassen County Office of Education and all Lassen county school districts. In 2015, the Lassen County Office of Education recruited two school social workers to provide counseling services to students with special education needs. In previous school years, school psychologists and county mental health provided educationally related counseling services to this population of students. School social workers are new to local schools and offer a contemporary social work framework to the position of a school counselor. The sustainable resource I created is a manual that defines the role of a social worker that provides counseling services to students with special education needs. The manual was created this year however, it will be reviewed by community stakeholders and distributed to school districts in year two of the project plan.