School Social Work


Jennifer Graf, Department Chair - Stettin, John Marshall

Megan Berger - Hewitt-Texas, Hawthorn Hills, PEER-Elementary

Laura Confer - G.D. Jones, South Mountain

Michell Dahms - Maine, G.D. Jones EC, Rib Mountain 

Lisa Hunt- PEER-Secondary, EEA

Suzanne Huss - Alternative High School, Horace Mann

Ashley Karpinsky - Grant, Lincoln

Sarah Nilles - Franklin, John Muir

Kelly Perdue - Thomas Jefferson, East High, West High

Shelly Smith-Payant - Riverview, Montessori


School social workers are a link between home, school and community. The role of the social worker is to assist students, staff and parents with a variety of home and/or school issues that affect a student’s performance at school. Social workers collaborate with other school staff to help students overcome obstacles to education by offering knowledge of social, emotional, and mental health issues.

Today’s students face many social and personal problems that threaten their ability to do well in school and inhibit their progress toward becoming productive citizens. School social work intervention promotes educational success.