Family Support Specialist

About the role

This position's responsibilities are to serve as liaison between families, schools and community service resources to provide social services to preschool students and family members who are eligible for the Early Childhood Education Assistance Program (ECEAP) or Head Start program and/or students with developmental handicaps (Special Education Preschool).

Responsibilities

• Recruits and enrolls students to maintain full enrollment for the program through a variety of mailings, flyers, information to the community, door-to-door visits, and referrals.
• Provides an orientation for families and students as they enter the program.
• Conducts family needs assessment, develops a program of services, implements services, and coordinates intervention to assist families.
• Performs home visits; provides a variety of consultation and advice on issues such as behavior management, social service referrals, parenting skills, and a wide variety of other matters to assist parents in improving the home environment to benefit the child's education.
• Acts as a liaison between parents and school; provides for and/or conducts parent meetings, parent classes, newsletters and flyers about special events; promotes communication between parents, school and social service agencies.
• Attends parent meetings and classes that are scheduled during day and evening hours.
• Serves as parent advocate at multidisciplinary team meetings, staff meetings, pre-meetings for individual learning plans (ILPs), individual education plans (IEPs), and in agency contacts.
• Provides support for families in crisis; coordinates efforts for consistent behavior and environment for the child.
• May administer assessment tests to determine appropriate student placement.
• May provide health services such as review of immunization records, preparation of annual state