From March 2002 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2002, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

California Schools' Expansion Possible

Integration of paraprofessionals into social work field is urged.

By John V. O'Neill, MSW, NEWS Staff

If funds were available, California's 13 graduate schools of social work could produce an additional 900 master's-level social work graduates yearly in addition to the approximately 1,500 now graduated, according to witnesses at a hearing before the California Assembly's Human Services Committee in November.

There are two problems associated with this rosy projection:

• The state is undergoing a severe budget constriction, so money won't be available to hire additional faculty and beef up infrastructure in the near future.
• Even if funds were available, 900 more social work graduates wouldn't solve what the committee calls "alarmingly high vacancy rates" for social workers and other human services workers.

The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better for the beleaguered agencies in California, where one legislative report said the approximately 7,000 child welfare workers would need to double in number to adequately do the job and a recent report from the California Mental Health Planning Council found 700 social work vacancies in mental health alone.

Still, it is good to know that the state's social work graduate schools could raise graduation rates by more than 50 percent if funding were available, said Janlee Wong, NASW California Chapter executive director. The governor is vetoing most new spending initiatives, but most economists expect California's economic downturn to be reasonably short-lived, and funding is possible in future years, he said.

The November hearing was the third on California's social worker shortage chaired by Assemblywoman Dion Aroner from Berkeley, herself a social worker. At the first hearing, in February 2001, program administrators reported "alarmingly high vacancy rates" and major difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff [April 2001 News]. At the second hearing, the possibility of a statewide recruitment campaign for social workers, similar to the CalTeach campaign for teachers, was discussed [October 2001 News]. Wong said the same budget problems that will retard immediate expansion at graduate schools of social work will preclude a recruitment effort anytime soon.

Prepared by Ben Barr, a doctoral student, and Alison Neustrom, a post-doctoral fellow, both at the University of California at Berkeley, the report on social work school expansion contains startling projections of human services worker shortages in the near future.

While national figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate a 36 percent national growth in the demand for social workers by 2008, data from the California Employment Development Department project a 40 percent growth in the estimated demand for social workers by 2005. The category of "social work" in the report included caseworkers, child welfare workers, family caseworkers, social group workers, delinquency social workers, medical/psychiatric social workers, school social workers and community organization workers. Demand for medical and psychiatric social workers was projected to grow by 43 percent from 1998 to 2008.

The projected growth for human services workers is 72 percent for the period 1998-2008, according to the report. Human services workers in the report are those with some college training in human and social services — preferably a degree in human services — and work in jobs like gerontology aides, child abuse workers, drug abuse counselors, neighborhood workers, community organizers and life-skills counselors.

In addition to the severe shortage of child welfare workers, the California Employment Development Department mentioned an aging population and increased services for the disabled and mentally ill as reasons for increased demand for human services workers. "It is clear that the demand for both human service and social workers in the state of California will dramatically increase in the near future," said the Berkeley report.

Among findings of the telephone survey done by the University of California-Berkeley was that all 13 schools said enrollment expansion would be possible with the infusion of new funding, although there were mixed responses as to whether the enrollment would occur at the master's or bachelor's level and in full- or part-time enrollment. The schools said they could increase undergraduate social work slots by 645, in addition to 900 more master's-level students, if funding were available.

A couple of interesting themes emerged in the interviews with deans of the 13 schools of social work done from Berkeley.

Deans said it is important for public-sector agencies to help alleviate the social worker shortage. One dean said it is important for all sorts of agencies — public, private and nonprofit — and the universities to put pressure on legislators at the state and local levels so they will know it is a "crisis." "I do not see any organizing taking place to any appreciable degree," said the dean.

A primary recommendation of the interviews was the "integration of paraprofessionals into a career ladder for the field of social work." Said one dean: "We need to look at the nonaccredited programs, the human services programs, the undergraduate sociology programs and a range of pre-professional or paraprofessional programs that could be articulated with the professional MSW program. It is the only way we will be able to meet the shortage — by bringing in people, articulating career ladders for them."

Back to NASW NEWS Contents