Giving Compass' Take:

• Dawn Hankins explains how social workers are improving Bedford County School System by offering support for students that starts with encouraging attendance. 

• How can this model be scaled across school districts? What other types of support could improve outcomes for students? 

• Learn more about the value of wraparound services for students. 

There’s a slogan on bracelets and pencils found within Bedford County School System which states: “Attendance Matters.”

It matters so much in the vein of public education, two social workers’ primary jobs, since 2007, has been to help students and their families work through problems associated with what the state considers “chronic absenteeism.”

Cynthia Cox and Marie McLean have served the last 12 years as the system’s social workers — the first for Bedford County. Their jobs vary from day to day with some more difficult than others. They believe school social workers help a lot of families through some very difficult circumstances.

“We were originally hired for attendance only, K-3. As we’ve been here, our jobs have expanded,” Cox said.

The two of them now work within all 14 schools, that is, K-12, and can be called by any particular school at any given time. A portion of their work is done through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a funding mechanism aiding at-risk students the past 31 years.

In order to qualify for this program, students have to be lacking a “fixed, adequate and regular home.” That is, a place to stay at night.

Unlike social workers with the Department of Children’s Services (DCS), McLean and Cox said they’re hired through Bedford County Board of Education only. Their jobs entail meeting and counseling with families in an effort to find solutions for kids missing too much school. Through such meetings, they strive to help parents participate effectively in their child’s education.

“A lot of people think we are DCS social workers, because we do social work, but that is not true,” said Cox. “We are school-based social workers. We’re like a link between the community and the school,” said Cox.

“We mostly focus on barriers which keep kids out of school,” McLean said. “We get them to stay in school, whether it’s through basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter.”

Read the full article about social workers in schools by Dawn Hankins at the Shelbyville Times-Gazette.