Hawaii Children More Needy, But Fewer Social Workers At School To Help

Katherine Poythress/Civil Beat

As more Hawaii students and their families struggle financially through the recession, the number of social workers to help them is dwindling.

The United States Department of Education recommends that school districts maintain a ratio of one social worker for every 800 students. But last year, the Department of Education laid off six of its 69 school-level social workers, bringing the ratio down to one for every 2,698 students.

The number of social workers in Hawaii schools is now less than two-thirds what it was 10 years ago.

The immediate effect of the layoffs has been that the remaining social workers have a difficult time keeping up with their caseloads.

"We're not sure how all the schools are reacting, because the action was recent," said Debbie Shimizu, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers' Hawaii chapter, at a Board of Education committee last September. "I know they're having a really hard time following up on the students they need to follow up on. I'm not sure how they're keeping up with trying to do all that, but I know they're having a really hard time."

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