Families & Children Specialization at the University of Maryland School of Social Work Chair: Caroline Burry, PhD
Social workers have always led the efforts of society to help families and children. Those specializing in service to families and children know that not only do children need protection, but families need help to change their behaviors. Social workers respond to problems within families and advocate for laws, programs, and public understanding of the special needs of children, the most vulnerable group in our society. The University’s social work faculty is nationally recognized in the areas of foster care, adoption, adolescence, divorce, child abuse and neglect, custody disputes and parental kidnapping, single parents, and African- American families. The faculty has an outstanding record of research and publication, grant funding, and community service. The families and children specialization prepares students for clinical, community organization, and/or social administration practice in a range of professional settings, including child protection and child placement, home-based services to families at risk, children’s group and residential care, school social work, child guidance, child and family services, parent education, juvenile and family courts, family violence programs, and child and family advocacy, and policy development. Coursework
During the Advanced Practice Year, students take one of two required policy courses and a related research course. Clinical students take Clinical Practice With Families and Children in Child Welfare (SWCL 727). At the same time, students spend three days a week in a range of public or private sector agencies specializing in foster care, children’s mental health services, protective services, family and children’s services, and child advocacy. Secondary Concentration Option in Families and Children
A clinical concentrator who wants to have MACO as a secondary concentration will fulfill the clinical concentration requirements and substitute SWOA 703 or SWOA 704 for an SWCL methods course, and take another SWOA methods course. A MACO concentrator who wants to have clinical as a secondary concentration will take the MACO concentration requirements, SWCL 700 or SWCL 744, and SWCL 727. top | | | | |
