Together, we can create a more

JUST future.

Welcome to the Workforce for Student Well-Being

Fall/Winter Newsletter! 

While we kick-off year two of our conditional scholarship program, we’ve also been working behind the scenes developing a school workforce legislative platform, creating videos to help tell our story, and welcoming Heritage University into our partnership.

The Workforce for Student Well-Being

The Workforce for Student Well-Being Video

Now, more than ever, our schools need qualified and trained school-based mental health practitioners to help turn the tide of the youth mental health crisis and confront the educational disparities impacting our students. Through the WSW Initiative, we are making the case for school social workers as one of the solutions schools and districts can capitalize on to make change. Washington ranks in the lowest tier among states for youth mental health (Mental Health America, 2022). It has approximately one school social worker for every 12,000 students (less than 1/50th of the recommended level). By training the next generation of school social workers, we will transform the approach to school mental health with qualified practitioners equipped with current evidence-based practices.

This past Spring we partnered with a skilled videographer to disseminate our project’s vision for policymakers and to help recruit new students into the project. A link to our video is here. Please share widely to help spread the word!

Inaugural WSW Cohort

Reflections on Inaugural Cohort and Preparing for Year Two

Thirteen students and field instructors in the WSW ‘23-’24 cohort completed the inaugural Community of Practice. WSW graduates have been busy securing jobs across the state in high-need local educational agencies to meet their two year service obligation. Our students work in rural districts, urban settings, and several are employed by Educational Service Districts (ESDs).  

We completed an evaluation of year one; the executive summary can be found here. 

A key finding was that our Community of Practice successfully increased the skills and knowledge of both students and field instructors by 40%.  

" Knowledge is power in this line of work. The more people you can connect with, the more resources you have available to help our students. We all need to be working smarter and TOGETHER to make real change. I am forever changed because of this experience with the WSW. Thank you for giving me this opportunity and hope there will be continued connections made throughout my future work in schools.

- Year One Field Instructor

As we expand on our successes in our first year, we added a new partner with Heritage University, bringing the total number of Institutes of Higher Education with social work programs partnering on the Workforce of Student Well-being Initiative to six, including Seattle University, University of Washington–Tacoma, University of Washington–Seattle, Eastern Washington University, and Walla Walla University.

We are excited to announce that this year’s cohort has grown from 13 to 24 

graduate students!

WSW in the Community

We had an incredible time at the Washington Association of School Social Workers Conference October 17 & 18, 2024 in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Our SMARTie Rachel Barrett, Workforce for Student Wellbeing (WSW) Program Manager, presented on the “School Mental Health Service Professionals (WA-SMHSP) Project,” funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She was then joined by Nikki York, our WSW Program Operations Specialist, who co-presented on “Recommendations for the School Mental Health Workforce 2025-2027 Biennium.”

It was fantastic to see so many of our WSW alumni and current students, as well as guest lecturers from last year: Michelle Sorensen from the WASSW Leadership Coordinating Team, Carrie Syvertsen, a social worker in Seattle Public Schools and one of the stars in our SMART Center's 10th anniversary video, and Tracey Thompson, the WASSW Distinguished School Social Worker of 2024 award winner.

Check out Rachel and Nikki's presentation decks here: https://www.wassw.org/conference-resources-2024.html along with other conference resources.

Another highlight of the conference included the SMART Center receiving the 2024 School Social Work Advocate of the Year award from the Washington Association of School Social Workers (WASSW)! 

(Pictured below)

Below is a portion of what Michelle Sorensen shared at the conference.

" In October 2022, a dedicated group came together to explore how to improve student access to school-based mental health services. Among the many ideas discussed, one stood out: expanding the role of school social workers to better support youth across Washington state. Through ongoing collaboration and, of course, the timely submission of a grant, this vision began to take shape, creating new opportunities for school social workers and, WASSW believes, fundamentally altering the profession’s trajectory in the state.

The partnership between the SMART Center and the Washington Association of School Social Workers (WASSW) brought this transformative vision to life. Together, we tackle challenges and pave the way for increased school social worker employment and broader involvement, ensuring that more students and families receive the support they need. 

This moment is a testament to the power of advocacy, partnership, vision, and leadership. The SMART Center’s work represents a turning point in school social work, in Washington state. A turning point where dedication to the social work profession and collaboration to better support youth, have aligned to create lasting systemic change.

It is with great pride that we present the University of Washington SMART Center with the 2024 WASSW School Social Work Advocate of the Year award.

There to accept the award on behalf of the SMART Center was:

Kelcey Schmitz, Director, Training and Technical Assistance, 

Rachel Barrett, Workforce for Student Well-being Program Manager and 

Nikki York, Workforce for Student Well-being Program Operations Specialist.

WSW Policy Work

WSW has been developing a policy platform on workforce development in school mental health based on what we are learning about the workforce across the state, sharing our findings with policymakers and other audiences locally and nationally. After a national presentation at the 2023 Annual Conference for Advancing Student Mental Health, we brought our findings and model to the Northwest PBIS conference in Tacoma this past April. This month, we shared our policy platform at the Washington Association of School Social Workers Conference with many of our WSW cohort members were in attendance (pictured above).

We are excited about the progress being made toward advancing policies that support the WSW and school social workers across Washington state. We are focusing on three key policy recommendations:

• Expand Workforce for Student Well-being Program by securing funding through the Washington Health Corps account to expand into other school-based disciplines including school psychologists and counselors, ensuring a whole-child approach to student well-being. This priority is being advanced by the Workforce and Rates subcommittee of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG) this legislative cycle.

• Improve ratio of Social Workers to students in WA schools by providing matching grants to rural districts and supporting the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s decision package that would add up to 130 school social worker positions statewide. This priority is being advanced by CYBHWG in the school-based behavioral health and suicide prevention for this legislative cycle.

• Improve training on BH skills and staffing roles for school staff by developing an advanced behavioral health skills certificate for Educational Staff Associates (ESAs) and offering training for school administrators to better understand the roles of ESAs and their collaboration in supporting student well-being.

We look forward to sharing updates as additional information becomes available.

If you are interested in staying up-to-date with legislative priorities that impact school social work, we suggest bookmarking the WASSW website, signing up for the SMART Center newsletter and following SMART center on X/Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn social media platforms.

Stay connected with WSW!

Visit our website or drop us an email. We look forward to hearing from you and welcome your inquiries and feedback. 

The WSW Initiative is a collaboration among the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the University of Washington School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (UW SMART) Center, the UW School of Social Work in Seattle, and the state’s four other accredited schools of social work. Additional core partners include the Washington Association of School Principals and the Washington Association of School Social Workers.

We are committed to supporting students, families, schools and communities in Washington State.Through the Workforce for Student Well-being (WSW) Initiative, skilled school social workers—school mental health service professionals—will provided much needed support

to students, families, and K-12 schools.