Abstract:

In the Covid 19 pandemic crisis, social workers were essential in the school, such was the increase of new needs of students, families and communities and of new social inequalities. The realization that equity is at risk and that inequalities are increasing, forced a greater intervention of these specialized technicians. Because only an ecological approach, centered on the multiple interacting ecosystems that influence educational and life paths, has the potential to integrate everyone and promote each one. This was visible in the intervention developed in which the student was understood in his family and local community with certain protection and risk factors. The intervention involved the creation of conditions to provide food support to children/young people and families in vulnerable situations, but extended to the mobilization of computer resources, internet access, support in the work of teachers, the mobilization of social support for families and in the identification, signaling and social monitoring of risk/danger situations. Schools and local authorities proved to be important resources in this monitoring and their specialized teams were prepared to intervene at a distance and in person, making voice and video calls, home visits and face-to-face assistance, whenever justified. The government wanted respond to the problems of child poverty, intra-family violence and mental illness, which were aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, giving guidance to managers, teachers and technicians to reinvent the role of the school in times of isolation. In this reinvention, emphasis was given to the identification, signaling and monitoring of risk/danger cases for children and young people and the articulation with the competent authorities, such as the Commissions for the Protection of Children and Youth (CPCJ) and the Multidisciplinary Teams for Technical Support to Courts, in the promotion of rights and social protection. The school as a first-line entity in terms of protecting children and youth at risk/danger is one of the entities that signalizes the most cases. In the first confinement, in addition to the care and home visits of protection commissions being reduced to "strictly necessary and urgent", neither the school nor the leisure activities centers or other entities with competence in matters of childhood and youth had the same ability to look closely at risk and danger situations. In each grouping of schools the teachers signaled to the Multidisciplinary Team students with whom it was not possible to establish contact and/or who did not participate in teaching or support activities (synchronous or asynchronous) and, when the situation was not resolved, these teams communicated it to the CPCJ. Before the second confinement, the government decided that children and young people at risk/danger should return to school for protection and surveillance in situations of greater danger, where social workers intervened. These were children accompanied by physical or psychological abuse, serious negligence or domestic violence and any new risk or danger situation identified by the school, including the risk of dropping out of school, was communicated to the CPCJ in the area. The schools organize reception and school work dynamics, in order to provide children and young people with the conditions to promote their safety, training, education, well-being and integral development.

Keywords:

Covid19, social work work, school, equity, risk/danger.