Social Work in School Settings

Each non-credit course is the concentrated version of a three-credit graduate course. In order for these courses to count toward a recommendation for approval as a school social worker in Michigan, you must complete certain course requirements including attendance at all seminars and successful completion of written assignments with a passing grade.

Course fees include registration, and some course materials. Overnight accommodations, meals, and textbooks (where required) are not included.

Mental Health and Mental Disabilities in Children and in Youth
This course will focus on psychological, behavioral, and developmental disorders of childhood and adolescence. Emphasis will be placed on psychosocial and ecological processes that create and maintain symptomatic functioning.

Psychological Testing
This course will focus on the specific issues of knowledge needed by the social worker to evaluate and utilize psychological reports. Participants will acquire familiarity with the most frequently used instruments in personality, intellectual, and neurological assessment. The course will place particular emphasis on the use of testing in educational settings and the use of behavior rating scales in the educational team evaluation process. The course will also examine the social and cultural frameworks within which tests are created, administered, and interpreted.

Social Work in Educational Settings
This course will focus on social work practice in public school systems and children in the state of Michigan, with particular reference to work with handicapped children. Five topical areas to be covered include: 1) overview of educational programs and policies in the U.S. 2) structure and policies for educational institutions at local and state levels 3) issues and needs arising from economic and social discrimination 4) issues related to the educational rights of oppressed and special populations, and 5) the role of social work in enhancing educational opportunity and performance.

School Social Worker Approval: Refresher Course
This course is open to social workers who would like to renew their school social work approval, who received their temporary approval within the five years prior, but who have not met the requirements for employment in the field. Temporary approval in the State of Michigan lapses after five years. This course will renew your temporary approval for another five year period. This four-day seminar will focus on best practices in school social work. This course will focus on Functional Behavioral Analysis and Behavioral Intervention Plans now required by the IDEA special education law; incorporating the use of therapeutic adventure in assessment and intervention plans for students; and a review and update in all areas of school social work approval, including psychological testing in school social work, mental health and mental disorders in children and youth, and the status of social work in schools.

Information on Social Work in School Settings for Current MSW Students