Job Description

General Overview

The Director of Social Work & Family Support leads the vision, design, and execution of social-emotional wellness, clinical supports, and family engagement systems across Democracy Prep Public Schools (K–12). This role is central to building and sustaining safe, joyful, and emotionally supportive school communities where scholars feel seen, supported, and able to thrive academically and personally.

The Director ensures that every scholar has access to high-quality, consistent, and equitable mental health and family support services. This leader strengthens restorative practices, builds coherent network-wide systems of care, and serves as the bridge between schools, families, external providers, and the broader Democracy Prep network.

At its core, this role exists to ensure our schools are not only academically rigorous, but also safe, joyful, and deeply human places where scholars and staff can grow together.

Who You Are

You are a mission-driven clinical leader and systems builder who believes deeply that safe, joyful school communities are the foundation for academic success and life opportunity—especially for scholars facing significant social, emotional, and environmental challenges.

You are:

• A licensed mental health professional (LCSW or PhD required) with a Master’s degree in Social Work or related field
• A practitioner and strategist with deep expertise in mental health assessment, intervention, prevention, and systems of care
• A school-based leader with at least 4 years of counseling experience in K–12 settings with a record of strong student outcomes
• A builder of adult systems who ideally has at least 2 years of experience leading, coaching, or supervising professionals
• A collaborative partner who thrives across school leadership, special education, scholar support, and external community organizations
• Grounded in urgency, clarity, and care—able to support both crisis response and long-term systems design that strengthen school culture, safety, and joy

What You’ll Do

Build Safe, Joyful, and Supportive School Communities

• Strengthen school-based systems that promote emotional safety, belonging, and joy alongside academic rigor
• Support schools in building consistent, restorative approaches to discipline and student behavior
• Ensure that social work and counseling systems actively contribute to positive school culture and climate

Build and Strengthen Network Social Work Systems

• Oversee and support social workers to ensure high-quality clinical and social-emotional supports
• Establish consistent, network-wide systems for documentation, communication, and sharing of social work and wellness resources
• Ensure strong implementation of Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) in partnership with school teams

Develop and Lead Clinical Excellence & Adult Learning

• Design and facilitate a monthly professional development scope and sequence for social workers and counselors
• Provide supervision and clinical guidance for social workers pursuing licensure hours
• Coach social workers and counselors on crisis response, intervention strategies, and student case management

Lead Restorative & Social-Emotional Strategy

• In partnership with the Director of Scholar Support, lead the vision for SEL programming, restorative practices, and student wellness systems that reinforce safe and joyful school environments
• Collaborate with special education teams to design SEL and executive functioning supports for specialized student populations
• Support schools in building environments rooted in safety, accountability, healing, and belonging

Crisis Response & Family Engagement

• Support school-based teams in high-level student and family crisis, including direct intervention when necessary
• Strengthen family engagement systems and improve connectivity between schools, families, and external providers
• Build and maintain a strong network of community-based mental health and social service partners

Build Talent Pipelines & Partnerships

• Formalize and strengthen a Social Work internship and pipeline program aligned with NASW standards and Democracy Prep HR
• Expand and sustain partnerships with mental health and youth development organizations
• Serve as a key connector between internal teams and external clinical/community resources that support scholar wellness and school culture

Reporting Structure

This position reports to the Chief Schools Officer and works in close collaboration with:

• Deputy Superintendents
• Director of Scholar Support
• Managing Director of Special Education
• School Leadership Teams

Compensation

Salary is $140,000-$155,000 and commensurate with your experience. Democracy Prep employees are provided with a benefits package that includes medical, vision, and dental insurance, 403b retirement matching, parental leave, a smartphone, and a laptop. Salary range is competitive and commensurate with your experience.

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Democracy Prep is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, domestic violence victim status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. Our mission is to educate responsible citizen-scholars who will change the world. We strongly believe that by building a DREAM team that represents numerous perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, we can achieve this goal together. This is a value we highly support and strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply.