Back to jobs
New

Director of Social Work & Family Support

New York, NY

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.

---

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.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Democracy Prep Public Schools? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Democracy Prep Public Schools’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.