Celebrating School Social Workers: 5 Q&As on their quest for proactive MTSS

Ensuring each and every student has the necessary support to thrive academically and beyond is no simple task, and few know that better than a school social worker.

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In educational settings, social workers collaborate with administrators, teachers, families, and community resources to help provide services like family support, crisis intervention, student advocacy, and so much more. Due to the incredibly vital role this profession plays in addressing challenges impacting students’ overall well-being, they are surely deserving of a special time to celebrate their profession. 

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To commemorate School Social Work Week 2025, Sown To Grow’s Kelsey Aijala reflected back on a key conversation with our valued partners from Northwood Middle School in North Shore School District 112, located in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

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The following five-point Q&A with the school’s three social workers offers valuable insights on their commendable day-to-day tasks. They also shared how Sown To Grow enables their team to deliver the most proactive, consistent, and quality support to students.

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Q1: I’d love to start by learning about Northwood in your own words: the students you serve, and any programs, initiatives, or other features of your school.

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Alivia: Northwood is a 6-8 middle school of about 530 students. About 48 percent of our population identifies as Hispanic or Latino and about 42 percent identify as white. We are a low-income school that receives Title I funding. We have a lot of ESL students, and newcomers to the country from South America and Central America.

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We also have a large population of students with a parent or parents in the military given that there is a military base close by so sometimes we have new students moving in throughout the entire duration of the school year. We also have students with IEPs and 504 plans. Our role as social workers, along with the psychologists, is to support these students, as well as our general education students. Whether they just need to see us one time, or as more of an ongoing check-in, we’re here to make sure that they all feel supported.

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Q2: Fantastic, I appreciate that context. To elaborate on that, can you offer some background on Northwood’s student support journey, and how it’s evolved?

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Vanessa: Previously, we used a PBIS system. So for years, we had a universal behavioral expectation, and then tier two and tier three supports. This included check-in, check-out, and some social emotional groups, but we changed directions last year to move towards the more actionable approach of MTSS using Humanex as a screener, which did a better job of identifying kids and their needs.

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Once we started the universal screener, we wanted to have an accompanying program to use in the groups providing services for internalizing behavior, that sort of thing. Sown To Grow was the program offered to us by the district. At that point, we weren't doing the check-ins, we were just pulling lessons from the Sown To Grow curriculum to run our groups. That's how it began for us, and then this fall after the 4th of July tragedy, the district wanted more check-ins in place in addition to the SEL screener. So that's how we began doing the Sown To Grow weekly check-ins with our advisories. It really helps support our proactive MTSS.

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Q3: Given those circumstances, obviously and very unfortunately, there was a clear need to have check-ins with every Northwood student at scale. When the social work team learned that Sown to Grow was selected as the platform for this, what were the initial thoughts, and how was the implementation process?

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Alivia: I think at first, perhaps we didn't know necessarily how it was going to be received from students, but after getting in the flow of things, it really is part of the routine, and I think a lot of kids really actually enjoy it. They don't always have to say what they're feeling or thinking, they can type it, but for some kids who don't even feel like typing, they can just use an emoji.

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There are so many different options and ways of expressing what's going on and it's really helped build relationships and maintain some of those connections. So I'm very pleased with how Sown To Grow has been running, I think it's gone very, very well.

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Q4: That’s great to hear. Along with the student perspective, can you elaborate on what the experience has been like for the social work team, as well as the teachers? 

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Mary: For us, the value has really been two-fold. First, just having Sown To Grow’s foundational curriculum is so helpful. Previously, I recall every Sunday night, having to start from scratch and Googling to pull together presentations, so to have this is huge. You can also be more thoughtful about how you take each lesson to the next step, and how you customize it. The three of us social workers all use the curriculum a little bit differently, depending on the makeup of the group, the age, how often we're meeting, etc. So that's one piece of it. 

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The second piece is, I'm really happy that the kids are doing Sown To Grow’s weekly check-ins, and that the teachers are expected to respond, ideally during their advisory. That has been really valuable.

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There are teachers who are absolutely phenomenal at responding, and there are some that need a little bit of support, but overall, it really feels like a transformation.

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Previously, if a student’s mood felt off or they were upset, the teacher might automatically refer them to social work. But now, I think the student’s check-in gives the teacher a little bit more context and starts to build that relationship. This way, the teacher can really be almost a first line of defense, and then when a student comes to social work, we know that they need another level of support. This is the direction we’re looking to continue going forward.

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Q5: Thank you, that's all really helpful, and I’m so happy to hear about the program’s positive impact so far. I’m sure one of the reasons for its success is due to Northwood’s very high rate of teacher responses to the student check-ins. You mentioned how your team helped make time for this during advisory. Can you explain how this system works, and what else helps Northwood prioritize student support?

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Vanessa: The advisory meets every day for just eight minutes, except on block days, and we also have our grade level meetings on Tuesdays. Since the kids complete their Sown To Grow that same morning, the Tuesday advisory agenda provides a few minutes for teachers to review the check-ins and enter responses. So that's really how it's done, it all happens on the same day. 

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Mary: In terms of the response rate, I give credit to our supervisor for really emphasizing and encouraging this. Our social work team followed that by gently reminding teachers that the expectation was to respond. Everybody's day is busy, which is understandable, but I think giving them the time to do so—not just monitoring it and holding them accountable—showed its importance. 

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Another reason why the teachers have a higher response rate is they see the connection between each of our initiatives better, whereas before, I think things potentially felt a little ad hoc, or ‘just another flavor of a month.’ Now they see we're monitoring, we've got a screener, the weekly Sown To Grow, the social work groups, and they can see the connections, which I think is helpful. From our perspective, it's been fun to see how the teachers have improved, and to see the progress in the sanctity of those growing relationships with students.

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While school social workers surely deserve a dose of gratitude on a daily basis, we hope this particular week is extra special and filled with due appreciation for the profession. We appreciate all you do for students, schools, and communities across the country.

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Finally, a special thank you to the Northwood Middle School social workers team for setting aside the time to talk and contribute to this piece!

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^{🌱 Are you a social worker interested in learning more about Sown To Grow for your school or district? Click below to connect with our team! 🌱}