cially in the assimilation and future success of immigrants. The schools came to be viewed as the main method of Americanizing the new arrivals (Allen-Meares, 1996, pp. 24-26).
The push towards increased school social work slowed considerably during the Depression, then picked up again as the 1940s dawned. From 1940 to 1960, school social work changed its emphasis from a broad-based neighborhood approach to clinical. Social workers became caseworkers, trying to help individual children overcome learning difficulties and problems at home. By the 1960s, the pendulum swung back again to a broader approach that tried to correct community problems (Allen-Meares, 1996, pp. 27-30).
The combination of the broad approach and the clinical approach emerged in the 1970s. Scholars identified four models of practice that continue to this day. The traditional clinical model remains the most widely used method by school social workers. The school change model emphasizes institutional changes. In that instance, social workers try to help students by changing the policies and practices of a school or a district (Allen-Meares, 1996, p. 33).
The community school model focuses on disadvantaged communities. In this model, social workers try to educate communities about their school and what it has to offer while also trying to improve the school. In the social interaction model, the social worker serves a mediator and tries to bring together students, parents, educators, and the rest of the community to work together to solve problems. The unified action lifts not only the school but also the community (Allen-Meares, 1996, p. 33).
No matter which model they adopt, today's social workers face a myriad of state and federal regulations that place substantive limits and obligations on their job. The importance of social workers in the American educational system is reflected in the fact that every state has a law requiring social worker...