On February 10, 2024, IL SB 2222 was filed by Senator Laura Fine to amend the Board of Higher Education Act. When passed, it would require social workers in schools to be paid during internships. From my knowledge, I don’t think there are other policies that require the same for other types of social worker students, or if it is different for BSW, MSW, and other degree level social work students. As a social work student, I would like for policies to require all social work students to have paid internships. IL SB 2222 is a good first step toward achieving this.
The main reason I believe that paid internships for social work students would be good is to raise the quality of living for these students. Often, social work students have to live in literal poverty when interning since they do not have a source of income. This limits what they invest into their well-being, such as food, doctors appointments, hygiene, and other basic necessities. If a social worker’s wellbeing is being compromised because of their unpaid internship, then they are not likely to put their best effort into their internship. This can cause their “employers” to either 1) be less likely to hire these students after they graduate and/or 2) for the student to lose their passion and interest for social work.
Also, the state has an insufficient supply of school social workers, so the financial incentive encouraging students to pursue a school social worker track and do an internship in a school social work setting will help address the difficulties school districts are having in hiring a sufficient number of qualified school social workers.
Internship employers are less likely to hire these students after they graduate because these students – as mentioned before – might not have been putting in the effort they could have if they had had the money to get the resources they needed to improve their quality of life. The low quality of life, along with the stress that comes with most if not all social work jobs, could increase the likelihood that students will lose their passion for the field. On top of an internship, social work students might also be taking classes. Many students feel pressured to complete their degree in a short time span if they are depending on scholarships or other time-limited financial aid that would prevent them from doing the internship separate from classes. Perhaps they want to get working in the field as soon as possible to start making money as soon as possible. Whatever the case, these students also are taking on more responsibility that lessens their quality of life during an unpaid internship.
The other reason social work students should be paid during internships is because they are the future supporters of the people in need of help in our society. Why does society – specifically, the government – not lend a hand to social work students when they are invaluable to our society. Any social work higher education requires students to learn about social welfare policy, meaning that social work students will have acquired tools to advance their advocacy in these classes. These students need the time and energy to fully engage themselves in these courses for the knowledge in these courses to be truly beneficial for their careers. Without a good quality of life, they are unable to invest themselves in such a class.
There are many ways people, especially social work students, can advocate for paid internships for these students. A few months ago, I tagged along on the 2024 NASW-Illinois Chapter Advocacy Day, which is where social workers advocate for certain social work-related policies in bills. One of the policies that we advocated for was IL SB 2222, and I supposed it ended up being implemented! The idea of meeting our representatives, people who I deemed too powerful to talk to beforehand, was terrifying. However, after doing so, I learned that they are quite literally people that represent us, and we need to talk to them so they know what we want – or convince them that what we want is best.
So far, SB 2222 hasn’t been passed by a floor vote, so I think it’s still a proposed amendment. You could offer a slip in support of it, I suppose. I was hoping it would be passed, but it seems there will be no veto session, and that suggests it will have to be passed in the next General Assembly. Unpaid internships are legal if the intern is working at a non-profit or charitable organization, or if the intern is working at a for-profit company but the primary benefit is to the intern rather than to the company. There are rules (a seven-point test) to determine if an intern is a primary beneficiary of their field placement or internship at a private for-profit company. I’m not sure about working for a government agency or non-profit, but the standards would be different. There are grants already to help child protection agencies and schools pay stipends to students who do internships, but my understanding is that in Illinois it’s not easy for schools and agencies to get those grants (they are not large grants, not many are given out, and the application process is burdensome).
Another law that NASW Illinois chapter supported, and was passed into law, was the one about awarding 53 scholarships to students aging out of state custody to pay for their higher education (IL SB 3138 now Public Act 103-0943.2024-08-09).
You can follow this bill at the General Assembly website, or scroll through the many bills supported or opposed by NASW-IL to see its status at the Bill Tracker webpage at the NASW-IL website.
I am in agreement with you that social work students who do internships at schools should not have to pay for their internships. Ideally, social work students should not have to pay tuition for any of their internships, and they should receive minimum wage compensation for their work. However, there may be practical problems in forcing this desirable situation upon all internship sites. But, for internships at public schools or public agencies, including state agencies, public housing authorities, Area Agencies on Aging, and those sorts of public sector sites, I think the state has the ability and the resources to at least cover the cost of tuition for those internships, and ideally cover the tuition for the internships and also provide a stipend for the student, and perhaps a bonus for the social worker who is supervising the student in their field placement. All the justifications you gave in your reaction essay are good reasons why this should be done.
No comments:
Post a Comment