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“SSWAA is the only national organization solely dedicated to promoting the profession of School Social Work.”
HISTORY OF SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK
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For the first time in modern times, the Bulletins of the National Association of School Social Workers (formerly the American Association of School Social Workers; American Association of Visiting Teachers and the National Association of Visiting Teachers) are found in one easily accessible place. The bulletins run from 1924-1955.
In the Early Era section, there are also newsletters going back to the 1930’s from the NASSW as well as other assorted publications. The bulletins and the newsletters give the opportunity to explore the early history of visiting teacher – school social work in local school districts and individual states.
The New Skills Era begins with the formation of N.A.S.W. and ends with the birth of the School Social Work Association of America. Milestones in this 40 year period include the growth of new models of school social work from primarily a casework model to include group work and system interventions. And in the middle of the 40 years, P.L. 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) became law and working with special needs students became another significant role for school social workers. During this era, the number of school social work positions grew tremendously.
The Current Era includes newsletters from SSWAA and from the International Network for School Social Work. It also lists current journals, school social work textbooks, and other resources for school social workers in print. One trend is the use of the evidence-based practice. Specific journal articles and books are not linked because of copyright restrictions.
This rich history of school social work is now available electronically for the practitioners, students, professors, historians and associations in the school social work community.
It also gives state, regional and national school social work associations a place to store and share their publications. This is a non-profit site with no charges or fees for access to this treasure trove of documents. This site is not affiliated with any association, university or publisher.
Many, many thanks to Randy Fisher for compiling, organizing and making available these historic documents contributed by school social work leaders over time.
Graphics discovered and contributed by Dr. Gary Lee Shaffer.
Founding SSWAA Members, Edwardsville, IL 1994
History of SSWAA
On July 22, 23 & 24, 1994 in Edwardsville, Illinois 64 participants from 20 states came together to form an organization exclusively representing School Social Workers. Four task forces were established to assist with the organizational structure and Constitution and Bylaws. The fall of 1994, the first SSWAA Luncheon was held at the Midwest School Social Work Conference Milwaukee, Wisconsin and named in honor of I. Lorraine Davis for her long commitment to furthering the cause of School Social Workers. In July of 1995, SSWAA's first annual meeting was held in Minneapolis and was attended by 60 School Social Workers from 26 states as we continued strategic planning. In October of 1995, SSWAA held its first elections and Randy Fisher was elected as our first President. December of 1995, SSWAA hired its first Governmental Relations person to advocate for School Social Workers in Washington, DC. The 2nd annual meeting was then held in Washington DC. After several meetings, February 23, 1996 SSWAA leadership and the NASW School Social Work Section signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the 2 organizations acknowledging the role each play in promoting the profession of School Social Workers and outlining parameters of collaboration between the associations.
Since 1996, SSWAA has continued to hold Summer Leadership/Legislative meetings to assist with leadership development as well as provide advocacy training and opportunities to "Go to the Hill" and lobby members of Congress and their staff. September of 1996, SSWAA joined with the Kentucky Association of School Social Workers and the Midwest School Social Work Council for the first national School Social Work Conference which was held in Louisville, Kentucky. The first national conference was attended by 593 School Social Workers from 34 states. In April of 1998, SSWAA hosted its own 1st National School Social Work Conference in Austin, TX . Later that year, Randy Fisher was one of 120 invited guests to the White House for the "White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence." For additional highlights of our first 10 years of development, download our 10th Anniversary SSWAA Power Point.