Evaluation of the Impact of Social Work Services in Rural School Districts

Author

Breanna Heinrich, Abilene Christian UniversityFollow

Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

Spring 4-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Social Work

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Tom Winter

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Stephen Baldridge

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Lisette Spraggins

Abstract

Students in rural communities are often subject to unique barriers and challenges that impact their holistic emotional, cognitive, physical, and social success in school. Because these factors have a strong impact on school attendance, behavior, and overall success, educators have begun to implement social work programs within both rural and urban school districts across the nation. While existing research affirms the effectiveness of school social work, very little research has been conducted to determine the effect in rural school districts. This paper evaluates the impact of a newly developed social work pilot program in two West Texas school districts implemented with students who have been identified as having one or more of the following characteristics: poor school attendance, behavior referrals, or crisis situations. Results indicated that students who received any social work intervention had significantly fewer behavior referrals and improved progress in crisis situations compared to data collected prior to start of social work services. Results further indicated that students specifically targeted for attendance, behavior, or crisis interventions had significantly fewer absences, behavior referrals, and improved progress in crisis after the start of targeted interventions. Overall, the results of this study suggest that school social work is effective in improving attendance, behavior, and crisis outcomes of students in rural school districts.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Heinrich, Breanna, "Evaluation of the Impact of Social Work Services in Rural School Districts" (2017). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 56.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/56