Practice Guidelines for School Social Workers: A Modified Replication and Extension of a Prototype

Based on a review of intervention studies in 13 social work journals, one group of researchers organized the targets of interventions and the interventions tested in relation to them as a first step to develop practice guidelines for social workers. The authors replicated and extended that work to the specialty of school social work by reviewing 32 school social work intervention studies published in the social work literature from 1999 through 2003. Most (37 percent) of the outcomes were in the functioning category, followed by outcomes in the symptom/diagnosis and consumer perspective categories (26 percent and 24 percent, respectively). The listing of outcomes and their associated interventions is a preliminary step to the development of practice guidelines for school social workers. Future research needs are discussed, and it is suggested that school social work researchers and practitioners take the lead to develop practice guidelines for social work in the schools.