School Social Workers Can Help Address, Prevent Violence as Part of Threat Assessment Teams

Practice

The nation’s education system continues to experience problematic school violence.

Violence prevention that addresses mental health also is important to school safety, says an NASW Practice Perspective, “School Violence: Considerations for School Social Workers.” It is available on the Tips and Tools for Social Workers page.

Threat assessments teams are essential for developing a complete violence prevention strategy, the practice resource says. The first step is to create a multidisciplinary team. The team may include school administrators, school resource officers, social workers, teachers, and mental health personnel.

A study by Pennsylvania educators found that there are opportunities to engage in violence prevention when school social workers are a part of threat assessment teams, the perspective notes. “SSWs can identify appropriate interventions that mitigate risk and reduce the likelihood of students acting on a threat,” it says. “The team should identify student behaviors that require intervention.”

School social workers play a role in addressing school violence by using evidence-based practices and interventions to improve mental health.