Guest Blog: Making CICO Work for School Social Workers

...One of the busiest people in the building

At 8:05, you’re helping a student who just learned his brother was arrested last night. By 8:45, you’re in another classroom supporting a student who refuses to take off her backpack because “someone might steal my stuff.” Turns out, her last backpack was stolen last week. At 10:15, you’re driving across town to another school because the counselor called about a student who hasn’t spoken since Monday. By lunch, you’ve already been a listener, coach, crisis responder, and advocate, and your afternoon is just getting started.

For many school social workers, this rhythm is who you are and what you do. You might split your week across multiple sites, carry a caseload that would take three of you to manage, and still be the one everyone trusts to “run Check-In/Check-Out (CICO).” And it makes sense. You’re the person who knows how to connect. You can build relationships with kids who don’t trust easily. You notice what’s really happening behind the data.

The challenge is that you might have a whole team behind you, or you might be the only person making CICO work. Either way, CICO can be a lot to coordinate. But when CICO stays simple, rooted in connection and grounded in short, meaningful conversations, it becomes one of the most effective, protective supports a school can offer.

Why CICO Fits School Social Work

At its best, Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is a relational intervention. It’s about empathy, consistency, and skillful conversation, and these are three areas where school social workers shine.

The main thing to remember is that in any CICO framework, the intervention is the conversation, never the pointcard.  When we strip CICO back to what matters most—effective, empathetic conversations with kids/youth—CICO becomes a sustainable promise that we know we can keep to our students.

What to Focus On

Forget the paperwork; focus on the conversations. Every CICO check-in and check-out is a chance to teach, encourage, and connect. You can download the CICO Coach’s conversation guide here.

Four key ingredients for check-in conversations:

1. Name the target behavior. Keep it concrete and student-centered: “What’s something you want to notice yourself doing today?”

2. Practice and celebrate it together. A quick role play and a shared laugh sets a positive tone. You’re not reviewing rules, really. The goal is for you and the student to rehearse success. That way, you know for a fact that your student knows how to transfer the skills you’re teaching in context.

3. Predict challenges. “When do you think this will be hardest today?” helps kids anticipate moments of struggle. Note: Expect students to struggle answering these kinds of questions at first. “I don’t know,” is the most common response at first. 

4. Plan for success. Let students come up with their own solutions. The plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but it really should be theirs.

Example:

School Social Worker: Hey there! It’s great to see you! Today we’re going to focus on being responsible by getting started with our bell work right away. This may seem silly, but I’m going to hand you a fake worksheet, and I’d like you to write your name on it as soon as I hand it to you. Ready to give it a try?

Student: [Student tries.]

School Social Worker: Excellent! So sometimes, it’s been tricky to get started on our bell work right away. Why is that?

Student: I don’t know…

School Social Worker: I got you…it’s a hard question to answer at first. I wonder…is the bellwork hard to understand, or just maybe boring to do?

Student: Sometimes it's hard, and then when I don’t know how to do it, it’s boring to sit there.

School Social Worker: That makes sense to me. What would make it easier to get started?

Student: Maybe the teacher could explain it to me before I get started?

School Social Worker: Great plan. So, the plan today is to ask the teacher to explain how to do the bellwork as soon as you walk in. See you this afternoon! I’m excited to see how this works out!

Four key ingredients for check-out conversations:

1. Review the day. Ask how it went, but focus on effort and choices, not numbers.

2. Celebrate, no matter what kind of day it was. Even if things fell apart, you can honor the conversation and the chance to try again tomorrow.

3. Assess the plan. What worked? What didn’t? What can we tweak for tomorrow?

4. Preview tomorrow. End with optimism and structure: “When you walk in tomorrow, what’s one thing you’ll do to start strong?”

You’ll see three examples of how this works on the CICO Coaches Conversation Guide (download here). When these ingredients are present, CICO becomes less about forms and more about helping students transfer the skills we’re modeling.

Adapting to Reality

It’s ok to build CICO into your day, and adapt the basic framework to your reality. Maybe your morning check-ins happen while greeting students at the door, or during breakfast duty. Maybe check-out happens while walking a student to the bus. A 90-second conversation still counts. 

Also, in many middle and high schools, it’s not possible to meet twice a day, so School Social Workers might meet students once to check-out yesterday and check-in for what’s left of today.

Share the work. You don’t have to do CICO alone. Teachers, paraprofessionals, office staff, even cafeteria monitors can help. The more adults who can offer short, consistent moments of connection, the stronger the system becomes.

Finally, consider whether you really need a daily point card to make CICO work. The intervention is the conversation, not the point card. And you may already be collecting the data you need in other places.

CICO doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful.

When grounded in authentic connection, it stops being a “behavior management framework” and becomes something much more human: a daily promise we keep to show up for youth consistently with unconditional positive regard for their capacity to work on themselves to become successful learners and ever-more-capable members of their school community.

Every time we check in, we remind a student that they matter. Every time we check out, we remind them that tomorrow is another chance.

And in schools where time is scarce and needs are high, that kind of consistency is always going to be the most meaningful intervention we can offer.

By Dr. Tim Grivois

---

About the Author

I founded TGS Educational Consulting in March of 2020 because I wanted to spend my days doing what I love:

• Learning as much as I can

• Helping others learn and grow

• Building the just, equitable learning environment that I want for my own children and for every child and youth.

I earned my Masters in Education and Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Loyola University Chicago, and I live in Tucson, Arizona. In total, I’ve been an educator for over 20 years. Right now, most of my work focuses on school mental health and elevating educators’ understanding of neurodiversity, particularly around ADHD, anxiety, and improving and elevation how schools and districts approach Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS).

When I’m not keeping busy helping my clients increase the good they do (and to do so justly and equitably), you can find me reading, spending time with my partner, playing with my three kids, or hiking outside. I’m also a fan of going for long walks with my dog Orzo.

You can reach me at tim@tgseducationalconsulting.com, and on social media at @tgseducationalconsulting.