Social Welfare Office Opens at Neungdong Elementary School

A 'social welfare office' has opened at Neungdong Elementary School in Hwaseong City.

On the 7th, Hwaseong City's Dream Start Center and Neungdong Elementary School signed a memorandum of understanding regarding school social work services, and established the office on the fourth floor of the school's main building.

The program will have professional social workers take proactive preventive measures and support school adaptation in cases involving school violence, delinquency, poor academic performance, parental neglect and abuse, and emotional and behavioral disorders.

A social worker will be stationed at the school from Monday through Friday, and will establish and operate various educational programs including case management, individual counseling, group education, and home visits for students who have difficulty adapting to school.

A center official stated, "Students' various problems are not individual issues but results of interactions with their surrounding environment, and to resolve these issues, students, schools, families, and the local community must work together."

Lee Kyung-gu, principal of Neungdong Elementary School, said, "The school social worker will play a role in sharing problems with students and solving them together through case counseling and home visits, and we will do our best to maintain close cooperative relationships with teachers for this purpose."

Meanwhile, Hwaseong City's Dream Start Center plans to expand and operate the social welfare counseling office program to other schools based on the results of the school social work services at Neungdong Elementary School.