Finding aid for the California Association of School Social Workers records 0467
Finding aid prepared by Sue Luftschein
USC Libraries Special Collections
2011 May
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California, 90089-0189
213-740-5900
specol@usc.edu
Title: California Association of School Social Workers records
Collection number: 0467
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
2.3 Linear feet
6 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1927-1995
Abstract: The California Association of School Social Workers records consist primarily of correspondence, 1927-1995, that documents
the development of this organization from its roots in the California Association of Visiting Teachers. In addition to the
correspondence, the records also contain meeting minutes, agendas, newsletters, programs, and reports. Among the subjects
discussed are: the founding and role of the California State Association of Visiting Teachers and activities of its members;
activities of the American Association of Visiting Teachers and its activities in California; membership requirements for
the AAVT; training for visiting teachers in California; the establishment of training programs in California, specifically
in cooperation with the USC School of Social Work; discussions of curricula for training programs; establishment of the National
Association of School Social Workers California chapters, the School Social Work section of the National Association of Social
Workers, and finally the California Association of School Social Workers.
creator:
California Association of School Social Workers.
creator:
National Association of School Social Workers. Southern California Chapter.
creator:
National Association of Social Workers. School Social Work Section. Los Angeles Chapter.
[Box/folder# or item name], California Association of School Social Workers records, Collection no. 0467, California Social
Welfare Archives, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Advance notice required for access.
The use of archival materials for on-site research does not constitute permission from the California Social Welfare Archives
to publish them. Copyright has not been assigned to the California Social Welfare Archives, and the researcher is instructed
to obtain permission from the copyright holder to quote from or publish manuscripts in the CSWA's collections.
The California Association of School Social Workers records consist primarily of correspondence, 1927-1995, that documents
the development of this organization from its roots in the California Association of Visiting Teachers. In addition to the
correspondence, the records also contain meeting minutes, agendas, newsletters, programs, and reports. Among the subjects
discussed are: the founding and role of the California State Association of Visiting Teachers and activities of its members;
the American Association of Visiting Teachers and its activities both in California and nationally; membership requirements
for the AAVT; training for visiting teachers in California; the establishment of training programs in California, specifically
in cooperation with the USC School of Social Work; discussions of curricula for training programs; establishment of the National
Association of School Social Workers California chapters, the School Social Work section of the National Association of Social
Workers, and finally the California Association of School Social Workers. Much of the correspondence occurs between Gladys
Keyes of the San Diego Board of Education and colleagues (1930s); Gladys Hall of the American Association of Visiting Teachers,
Bertha Trowbridge of the San Diego Board of Education, Helen G. Knox of the Long Beach Public Schools, and Miriam Spreng as
California Regional Representative of the AAVT (1940s-1960s). Also involved in the correspondence are Emery Bogardus and Arlien
Johnson of USC, and Mildred Sikkema, of the National Association of School Social Workers.
The collection covers, in correspondence form, the struggle of the visiting teachers to gain recognition from both educators
and social workers, to survive the Depression years, and to find a university anywhere in California willing and able to provide
school social work education comparable to that available in the eastern and mid western states. After World War II, when
problems arising from disruption in lives of school children led to a sharp increase in the hiring of school social workers,
the collection begins to reflect the changing concerns of the San Diego visiting teachers, and their National Association
in New York, as they focus on certification, and on appropriate credentials in their specialization.
From 1956, when school social workers in Southern California joined the National Association of Social Workers, the papers
reflect continuing preoccupation with the problem of credentials, and relationships with associations representing the interests
of other pupil personnel workers. School social workers' long legislative battle to get an acceptable credential requirement
is well documented in the collection, as is also the effort of the California Association of School Social Workers, established
in 1966, to adjust to the new atmosphere and requirements of the schools in that era. Apart from its extensive and idiosyncratic
correspondence, the early part of the collection includes membership lists, conference records, reports, incorporation papers,
curricula, course schedules, and newsletters. For the mid 1950's formal memoranda and minutes begin to appear, together with
committee rosters, policy statements, legislative materials, chronologies and newspaper clippings.
Visiting teachers, who neither taught nor did much visiting but were essentially school-based social workers, appeared in
American schools in the first decade of the century with the beginning of compulsory school attendance. The first school-financed
visiting teacher was employed by the Hartford, Connecticut, school system in 1908. In 1919, eighty such workers, employed
in ten eastern cities, established the National Association Visiting Teachers and Home Visitors. In 1923 the Commonwealth
Fund of New York supported, as part of a delinquency prevention program, a three-year demonstration of visiting teacher work
in cooperation with 30 school districts across the country, including the district for the then relatively small and remote
city of San Diego, California. The San Diego school district, which already employed a psychologist in 1920 and would be a
pioneer in the use of psychiatrists, retained its visiting teacher and hired another when the Commonwealth Fund's demonstration
project came to an end. By 1935 it had a well equipped Bureau of Child Reference and Counsel with a staff of 15, including
visiting teachers, guidance and attendance workers, home tutors and speech therapists.
The collection, initially, presents itself as an interstate letter record of the early development of school social work,
consisting of the professional correspondence of some half dozen San Diego visiting teachers as they wrote continuously to
their counterparts across the nation in an effort to maintain a network of ties with the National Association of Visiting
Teachers and its scattered but strongly committed membership. References are frequent in this early correspondence to "the
cause" and to the "the great development of public social work." These early school social workers were highly educated women,
many with both teaching and social work credentials. Their misleading job title was apparently adopted because they identified
with teachers as professionals, and in the 1920's saw this association as more advantageous than any emphasis on the less
developed field of social work. They usually practiced alone as caseworkers, without supervision, and often in crisis situations.
Their letters convey their conviction as to the value of their specialty, and the energy they brought to the task of its development.
The California Association of School Social Workers was founded in 1966, when school social workers in California acted upon
the recognized need for a state-wide professional organization that could represent their interests with the State's Department
of Education. It was the natural outgrowth of a number of organizations that had flourished both in California and across
the country for some decades, all of which are represented in these records. Beginning with the National and American Association
of Visiting Teachers (the term used to describe professionals engaged in social work with school children in their homes),
the importance of the school-based social worker became increasingly apparent to social workers across the country. The California
State Association of Visiting Teachers was founded in 1930, and affiliated with the AAVT. The AAVT changed its name to the
American Association of School Social Workers in the early 1940s, and again to the National Association of School Social Workers
in the early 1950s. In 1955, the NASSW merged with the National Association of Social Workers, creating the School Social
Work Section of that organization.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American Association of School Social Workers. -- Archives
American Association of Visiting Teachers. -- Archives
Bogardus, Emory Stephen, 1882- -- Correspondence
California Association of School Social Workers. -- Archives
Johnson, Arlien -- Correspondence
National Association of School Social Workers. Southern California Chapter. -- Archives
National Association of School Social Workers. -- Archives
National Association of Social Workers. School Social Work Section. Los Angeles Chapter. -- Archives
National Association of Visiting Teachers. -- Archives
Sikkema, Mildred -- Correspondence
University of Southern California. School of Social Work. -- Archives
Correspondence
Minutes
Newsletters
Reports
School social work--California--Archival resources
Box 1, Folder 1
National Association of Visiting Teachers, American Association of Visiting Teachers 1927-1935
Correspondence, primarily between Gladys Keyes, San Diego Board of Education, and colleagues, discussing founding and role
of California State Association of Visiting Teachers and activities of its members. Correspondence with American Association
of Visiting Teachers on its activities and relationship to activities in California; membership requirements for the AAVT.
Box 1, Folder 2
Visiting Teachers Association 1935-1939
Correspondence to and from Gladys Hall, American Association of Visiting Teachers, Bertha Trowbirdge, San Diego Board of Education,
and colleagues, regarding training for visiting teachers in California; interest on the part of the Child Guidance Clinic
in Los Angeles as a training center; interest on the part of USC School of Social Work in establishing a graduate program
for training visiting teachers and corresponendence with Emery Bogardus and Arlien Johnson; interest by AAVT of affiliation
with UCLA.
Box 1, Folder 3
American Association of Visiting Teachers 1936-1939
Suggested curricula for psychiatric social work. Membership standards for AAVT. Correspondence between Bertha Trowbridge,
Helen G. Knox (Long Beach Public Schools), Gladys Hall, regarding professional standards, membership requirements, training.
Continued discussions of curriculum at USC. Correspondence and communication with the American Association of Psychiatric
Social Workers regarding classroom work. General correspondence regarding certification, meetings, conferences. AAVT recognition
of changes within field; appointment of Miriam Spreng as California Regional Representative of the AAVT.
Box 1, Folder 4
Box 1, Folder 5
National Association of School Social Workers 1943-1947
Routine correspondence of Miriam Spreng; correspondence between Miriam Spreng and Mildred Sikkema, Executive Secretary, National
Association of School Social Workers; activities of Professional Advisory Committee of USC School of Social Work; activities
of National Association of School Social Workers; conference and meeting information; continued discussions of training.
Box 1, Folder 6
Box 1, Folder 7
Box 2, Folder 1
Box 2, Folder 2
Box 2, Folder 3
"School Social Work in Twelve Communities" by Mildred Sikkema 1953
Box 2, Folder 4
Box 2, Folder 5
Box 2, Folder 6
Box 2, Folder 7
Box 2, Folder 8
Box 2, Folder 9
Box 3, Folder 1
Box 3, Folder 2
Box 3, Folder 3
Box 3, Folder 4
Box 3, Folder 5
Box 3, Folder 6
Box 3, Folder 7
Box 3, Folder 8
Box 3, Folder 9
Box 4, Folder 1
Box 4, Folder 2
Box 4, Folder 3
Box 4, Folder 4
Box 4, Folder 5
California Association of School Social Workers 1966-1969
Box 4, Folder 6
Box 5, Folder 1
Box 5, Folder 2-3
Box 5, Folder 4-7
Box 5, Folder 8
Box 5, Folder 9
Box 6, Folder 1
"The Communicator," newsletter of the California Association of School Social Workers 1980, 1983-1985, 1987, 1991-1995
Box 6, Folder 2
Miscellaneous clippings, biographical material, California Association of School Social Workers 1942-1977
Box 6
Article offprints 1938, 1952
Box 6
San Diego City Schools, Guidance Department, "Guide for Visiting Teachers" 1954 July