This study uses a phenomenological approach to investigate elementary school teachers' perspectives on children's mental health service needs. Focus groups were conducted at two elementary schools with differing levels of available social services in a moderate-sized urban midwestern school district. Data collection centered on six prominent…

Reviews of textbooks in many fields reveal numerous errors and outdated information. Is this true in social work? The authors review content in three school social work texts in relation to research available at the time in three content areas: bullying, sex education, and externalizing disorders. We found mixed coverage of the evidentiary status…

Research has documented the educational difficulties that maltreated children face. No work exists, however, that examines how maltreated children are provided services by school social workers or how these services overlap and interface with services provided by child welfare. This article attempts to fill that gap by presenting data from the…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a solution-focused, alternative school in preventing students from dropping out of high school. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest group design was used with 85 students to examine differences in credits earned, attendance, and graduation rates. Follow-up data on students in the experimental group were…

Release time programs allow public school students to be excused from classes to receive offsite spiritual instruction during school hours. With the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools are under increasing pressure to raise test scores, which has led to questions about the advisability of allowing students to miss classes. In…

Since the enactment of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program, students considered at risk of school failure have received increasing attention. Identification and treatment of students considered at risk often emphasize the risk behaviors themselves. The traditional medical model assumes there is a disease entity or…

A school social work intervention called the "Getting Better Phenomenon" is redesigned as a curriculum resource for eighth- and ninth-grade teachers. The activities in the curriculum represent a synergy of provincial learning expectations; academic assessment and evaluation structures; teacher-guided delivery of student-generated "course" content;…

Given the growing interest in a privatized Social Security system and the lack of adequate retirement planning among many people in the United States, many households are often ill prepared for retirement. The outlook for low-income populations is even bleaker because they are often not privy to the same financial education and asset-building…

In the context of current efforts to increase student performance and to close the significant gaps in performance among student subgroups, school researchers and practitioners are paying increasing attention to schools as learning organizations. Unfortunately, the concept of the learning organization is generally vague, and school personnel have…

Schools are a primary setting for the provision of services to children with social, emotional, and behavioral problems. School social workers serve a vital role in identifying, assessing, serving, and referring students suffering from myriad mental health problems, including depression. Starting with a discussion of gathering valid assessment…

Social environmental assessments can play a critical role in prevention planning in schools. The purpose of this study was to describe the importance of conducting social environmental assessments, demonstrate that complex social environmental data can be simplified into a useful and valid typology, and illustrate how the typology can guide…

Screening for suicidality, as called for by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, is a major public health concern. As a place where adolescents spend a considerable amount of their waking hours, school is an important venue for screening adolescents for suicidal behaviors and providing preventive education and risk management.…

Research has identified a relationship between school disciplinary actions and poor academic and psychosocial functioning of students subjected to them. The ways in which school discipline is a direct contributor to students' academic and psychosocial difficulty needs to be further established empirically. Several theories, based in existing…

This randomized controlled trial evaluated a culturally representative parent engagement strategy with Latino parents of elementary school children. Ten urban schools serving low-income children from mixed cultural backgrounds participated in a large study. Classrooms were randomly assigned either either to an after-school, multifamily support…

In 1987 Congress authorized the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act to protect the rights of homeless students and to ensure that they receive the same quality and appropriate education that other students receive. This article summarizes key aspects of the 2001 reauthorization of the act, now known as the McKinney-Vento Act, outlines how…