It’s National School Social Work Month, and we begin by celebrating you.

School social workers hold a powerful place in a child’s world. You step into complex moments with steadiness and perspective. You help young people make sense of what feels overwhelming. Your influence often extends far beyond what can be measured.

For adoptive, foster, and kinship families, you can be an essential part of the circle of care.

For our children, permanency is not a finish line, it is ongoing. Their past moves with them into classrooms and friendships. Permanency is the daily work of strengthening attachment, building regulation, and helping a child learn what trust feels like in real time.

In counseling offices, IEP meetings, team conversations, and quiet hallway check-ins, you have the opportunity to reinforce what families are building at home. With communication and partnership with families, children can begin to trust and experience connection, love, and hope.

That is the heart of the Adoption and Foster Friendly Schools movement, a national effort inviting schools and school social workers to become healing environments so every child can experience belonging, stability, and the opportunity to thrive.

Our gratitude goes to Barb Moore and Amy Frederick at the University of Illinois Center for Excellence in Child Welfare for hosting our launch webinar. We are equally thankful to Brenda Lindsey, Executive Director of the Illinois Association of School Social Workers, and to foster care advocate and Advisory Team member Jocelyn Fetting, MSW, for stepping forward as founding Champions.

You can be part of the movement by reading how to become an Adoption and Foster Friendly School or Champion. Together, we can build school communities where students grow with connection, stability, and confidence.

That same belief in the leadership of school social workers is what inspired a special commitment this month. We are especially grateful to Kate Shanahan, adoptive mom and founder of Sweet Peach Tree Market, who is funding two Adoption and Foster Friendly Schools Social Worker Champion Scholarships in honor of this work. Her generosity reflects a deep conviction that when school social workers lead, students thrive.

If you work with adolescents, especially students ages 12 and up, we encourage you to read this month’s featured article, “The Quiet Power of Partnership: Supporting Teenagers with Disrupted Attachment Histories.” It explores how attachment continues to shape development in middle and high school, and why partnership between home and school becomes even more essential during these formative years.

Healing is a team effort. Connection is a group project.

Thank you for the role you play in helping to make our world one where children grow, trust, and thrive.