A nationwide thrust to deliver a variety of social, psychological and health services to socioeconomically deprived children in inner-city schools across the United States. Not formally organized as a national program, the movement is actually made up of a variety of independent efforts, with some data-based technical coordination provided by the United States Department of Education.
In 1992, Kentucky mandated establishment of social service centers in every school (a total of more than 300) with more than 20% of its students from families living below the poverty level. New Jersey started a program in 1987, mandating social service centers in at least one school in every county. Iowa did the same two years later. Some cities, such as Denver, St. Louis, Chicago and Miami Beach, have acted independently of the state and established social service centers in their inner-city schools. In California, several foundations set up a partnership with the state to establish school social service centers. New York, borrowing on the California model, established the largest citywide, inschool social service program, in partnership with the CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY and a number of private foundations and corporations. Called the Beacon Program, it comprises social service centers, each operated by the Children’s Aid Society and funded almost entirely with grants from foundations and businesses, in more than three dozen schools. The programs operate before, during and after school and, in many cases, on weekends, offering comprehensive dental and health care and social and psychological services for abused, neglected, violent, addicted or otherwise needy children. Beacon schools also operate before-and-after-school classes and recreation programs. Offering “everything you need outside your house,” Beacon schools social service programs are far less costly than conventional social service programs available from hospitals and government social welfare agencies. Indeed, costs per child average only $950 a year, with delivery of services absorbing 90 cents of every dollar, compared to only 65 cents for conventional out-of-school social services. The savings accrue largely from the rent-free basis of Children’s Aid Society facilities. Utilizing otherwise idle school space, they pay no rent, utilities, insurance or maintenance, which are all part of the normal costs of operating each school. In-school social service dates back to the 1890s, when the journalist Jacob Riis (1849– 1914) published photographs of the intolerable conditions in New York City’s slum schools. In the 1920s and during the Great Depression of the 1930s, many doctors, dentists and social workers set up offices in schools across the nation to treat economically deprived children. Extended, widespread prosperity saw the social service movement all but disappear after World War II. It did not stage a revival until the mid- 1980s, when a variety of government studies indicated social and medical neglect as a primary cause of low academic achievement and high dropout rates among inner-city school children.
The social service movement has not been free of controversy. In late 1994, the Committee for Economic Development, an organization of executives at some 25 major American corporations, called for an end to social services in public schools. It urged abandonment of efforts to incorporate mentally and physically handicapped children in regular classrooms and called for an end to social services such as pregnancy counseling, AIDS information and even driver education classes. “America’s public schools are being spread too thin,” agreed Richard W. Riley, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION at the time. Presenting a report titled “Putting Learning First,” Riley contended that schools were failing the business sector. Employers “feel that a large majority of their new hires lack adequate writing and problem solving skills.” Even Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers, agreed that “you should not get into college just because you’re breathing and you’re 18.”
The report charged that “communities, states and the national government are asking those who manage our classrooms to be parent, social worker, doctor, psychologist, police officer and, perhaps, if there is time, teacher. It seems that whenever a social crisis, such as AIDS, child abuse or drunk driving is perceived, the government looks to the schools to solve it.” The report urged schools to limit their services to education and force government to shift social services to better equipped agencies. The report had no effect.
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