At Little Friends, What We Do Matters!
At Little Friends, we empower individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities to thrive in their community. Our programs and staff provide lifelong opportunities for growth, so the people we serve can work, learn, play, and experience the joy of life’s everyday moments. We can only achieve this through the hard work and dedication of our staff. We’re committed to creating an environment that enhances employees’ lives by making time spent at work meaningful and fulfilling. Little Friends is an equal-opportunity employer committed to service excellence. We offer competitive wages, extensive paid training, and an excellent benefits package to qualifying employees – including vacation, paid sick leave, medical/dental/life insurance, retirement savings, and more.

Job Summary:

The Mansion High School and Krejci Academy, therapeutic day schools of Little Friends, are looking to add a School Social Worker to their team. Academic, emotional, vocational, and life skills are supported by our skilled and dedicated staff to provide a program that is tailored to meet each student's unique needs. As a social worker, you will provide services to assigned student caseloads through individual, peer pair, and group modalities where the primary task is to facilitate social-emotional learning and to help students meet their IEP goals.

Your responsibilities also include collaboration in staff meetings and consultations, attending IEP meetings, and providing written and verbal reports of progress and recommendations regarding your caseload of students. You will also be responsible for the data-tracking of student behaviors and other data as it relates to IEP goals. In this role, you will also assist in behavior plans and agreements created for individual students. Ideally, you have familiarity with the following modalities: crisis intervention, solution-focused, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and mindfulness.

Shift Schedule:

Monday-Friday: 830am - 4pm

Other duties as assigned:

• Participate on committees and teams, as assigned by supervisor.
• Obtain school bus driver licensure to drive students in an agency van as necessary.
• Other duties as assigned by the Program Coordinator, Educational Coordinator, and/or VP of Educational Services 

Qualifications:

• MSW with Illinois State PEL or LSW
• Experience working with children with autism and other special needs preferred
• 1-2 Years of experience with Emotional Disabilities, Autism, and/or Trauma in a school or clinical setting

Required Abilities:

• Must be capable of speaking English clearly and fluently to communicate with staff, students, and parents. Writing skills must be clear, concise, grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors.
• Must be able to respond to client emotional and/or behavioral problems, including significant, personalized, and/or verbal abuse.
• Requires sufficient emotional and cognitive strength, agility, and sensory acuity to be alert to client mental health and/or behavioral emergencies and to implement Safety Care protocols effectively, with clients weighing 75 pounds.
• Must consistently act in a professional manner that reflects positively on themself, Krejci Academy, the Mansion High School, and Little Friends, Inc. This includes demonstrating a high commitment to client services and satisfaction of all internal and external customers of Little Friends, Inc. (i.e. Little Friends’ families, school district personnel, etc).
• Must educate self on and follow school and agency policies and procedures.