School of Social Work

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The LSU School of Social Work was founded in 1937 in the era of the “New Deal” programs, reflecting a growing need for professional social workers. The school has a reputation for excellence in professional education and a long tradition of service to the professional community. The focus of the school is to educate competent, professional social workers and early childhood specialists, to use research to enhance the effectiveness of social work practice, and to practice in the fields of child and family studies and early childhood administration and leadership. The school has a commitment to culturally competent practice, an equally strong commitment to the social work profession’s core values of social and economic justice, respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, and the centrality of human relationships to well-being. The research infrastructure of the school includes active programs in the areas of juvenile justice, poverty, mental health, addictions, gerontology, community development, and child welfare. The school is a charter member of the Council on Social Work Education and its master’s program has maintained continuous accreditation with this body since its inception.

Leading

• A nationally ranked master’s program
• The only social work PhD program in Louisiana
• The state’s only graduate program in a public university with a research office
• Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. The first faculty member from LSU to be selected as well as the first from the state of Louisiana
• Graduate selected as a Presidential Management Fellow by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Transforming

• Establishing the Louisiana Poverty Initiative for research on the causes and outcomes of poverty, which focuses on academic research and individual and community actions to create pathways out of poverty for children and families
• Improving Louisiana’s child welfare professionals through the Louisiana Child Welfare Comprehensive Workforce Project to improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children and youth by building the capacity of Louisiana’s child welfare professionals and by improving the systems to recruit, train, supervise, manage, and retain them
• Truancy Assessment and Service Centers (TASC) operate in over 20 parishes to prevent truancy in kindergarten through fifth grade
• Meeting the critical need for more professionals skilled in the area of addictions by partnering with the Capital Area Human Services District on the Addictive Disorders Training Initiative

Empowering

• Over 50 percent of all credentialed social workers in Louisiana have graduated from LSU and 77 percent of our graduates remain working in the state
• Students provide an estimated 96,000 hours of service to community agencies annually. There are more than 300 approved community agencies throughout every part of Louisiana serving as field placement sites

Programs

• Child & Family Studies, B.S.

• Social Work Minor

• Social Work, M.S.W.

• Social Work, Ph.D.

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