From the Annapolis Capital in Maryland:Among her many duties as a school social worker at Bates Middle School, Amy Beller said she "does a lot of glasses."
She coaches parents on which frames are covered by Medicaid - usually, she said, the "10 ugly pairs in the corner." But without her help, students often choose a far more expensive pair, their parents balk at the price, and they return to school still unable to read the chalkboard.
"Students need to be available for learning, and I remove the obstacles that keep them from learning," Beller said. "Wherever there's a need, I try to help out."
Whether it's a need for glasses, a learning disability or trouble at home that's standing between students and good grades, teachers and administrators are increasingly relying on school social workers to find a solution.
Ten years ago it was rare to find a social worker stationed in a school, but as educators push for every student to succeed, they're becoming much more common.
Unlike guidance counselors, who have to spend time on class registration and other duties, social workers can take more time to figure out what's causing a student to act out or fail a class. Then it's the social worker's job to find a solution, whether that means getting the child special education classes, counseling or an eye exam.
And these days, their services are needed more than ever. As the economy deteriorates and parents lose their jobs - and sometimes their homes - that stress filters down to their children and can affect their grades.
"Families are in a crisis," said Ivy Sheffler-Oidick, a social worker at Lindale and Brooklyn Park middle schools. "And the kids bring that to school."
There are 21 social workers in county schools, and Dr. Barbara Schwartz, coordinator of psychological services for the school system, wishes it were more.
Each year she asks school officials to add additional positions in the budget, but money is tight and the numbers aren't yet where she'd like them to be.
It hasn't stopped principals from asking. As word gets around about the positive impact a social worker can have on a school, Schwartz said, they're increasingly in demand.
Diane Bragdon, principal at Bates, is one whose request was answered. Beller arrived three years ago, and Bragdon credits the school's decline in disciplinary referrals and increase in test scores since then - last year Bates met state testing targets for the first time - in part to her.
"Social workers are that missing link," Bragdon said. "Families are struggling, and Amy can go to their home and make that connection between the parent and the school really tight."
Beller has particularly helped improve attendance at Bates, which Bragdon said is key, because students can't learn if they aren't in school.
She raised attendance partly by tracking students and chasing down parents whose children weren't coming to school. Usually a quick discussion solves the problem; sometimes it takes intervention by a pupil personnel worker.
And Beller added an incentive: an attendance contest where the winners get a half-hour party at the end of each month. At the January party on Tuesday, students jumped rope and played basketball while she passed out donut holes, telling each student who took one, "Thank you for having perfect attendance."
Not everyone understands why schools need social workers, Schwartz said, and that's probably because they've only become commonplace in the past 10 years.
They fall in with a movement in American education that calls for schools to work not only with students, but with their parents, their home life and their health to get them ready for school.One student might have a learning disability and need special education classes, while another might come from a poor family and not have paper and pencils at home. Children from rough neighborhoods can be under pressure their teachers don't understand.
For example, Schwartz said, some students "hear gunshots all night, and then we expect them to come in and do their math the next day."
Social workers can pinpoint those problems and then link families with services and help - the Department of Social Services, for instance, or the Department of Juvenile Services. They're also certified to offer their own counseling in school.
But all that is getting more difficult as the economy worsens. Linda Brice, a social worker at Central Special School and the Ruth Parker Eason School, said she's hearing more often from parents, and their calls are getting more desperate: They don't have enough food, they're getting evicted from their homes.
And "the more stress the family is under, the more stress there is in the school," she said.
Lisa Keough (pictured with Sharon Palmer) roams the hallways of Annapolis Middle School with a walkie-talkie. If a teacher spots a student beginning to "escalate" into a behavior problem, Keough, the school social worker, will come running.
In between, she has myriad other duties. On a recent Thursday morning, she followed up with a student with Asperger's syndrome who was having trouble switching into his second semester classes.
He's taking gym now, a tricky class because children with Asperger's don't always do well with large groups of people or big spaces, like a gymnasium. She had briefed his teachers before the first class, then stayed in the wings in case he had any problems. He did just fine, she said.
Later she chased down students enrolled in a new program called Check In/Check Out. It's designed to draw more adult attention to students classified with moderate behavior problems by having their teachers mark down on a "point sheet" whether they came to class on time and prepared. The 19 students "check out" with Keough at the end of the day to earn points that eventually become "Dragon Dollars" they can use in the school store.
She said it's working so far - the students are coming to class more often and correcting some behavior. To one girl who was running in the hallway, Keough issued a reminder: "You can lose points for hallway behavior, so next time, walking would be a better way of getting here."
Principal Carolyn Burton-Page said that before Keough arrived at Annapolis Middle School in the fall, students who received a disciplinary referral and were sent to the office would simply wait there, killing time as they waited for an administrator's rebuke. But now that they can work out the problem with Keough, it's less likely to happen again.
And that's exactly the point, Burton-Page said.
"Whatever it takes to keep these kids in class," she said. "These kids have more than the capability to do well, but there are social and behavioral issues that interfere with that."
