When an apartment complex fire in Fairfax County, Virginia, displaced families whose children attend Lynbrook Elementary in Springfield, school social worker Claudia McDowell sprung into action.
The fire, one of three in nearby neighborhoods in McDowell’s time at Lynbrook, had the biggest impact. So she coordinated with the Red Cross and other county officials to provide families with food and clothes. She arranged for temporary transportation, so students displaced by the fire could still get to school.
McDowell launched a crisis team and worked with teachers so they knew how to work with students living through the traumatic event too.
But she most vividly remembers arriving at the apartment complex to find a child whose parents had already gone to work. McDowell worked to calm the distraught student.
McDowell’s efforts working with Lynbrook students and families prompted her colleagues to nominate her for the School Social Worker Association of America’s School Social Worker of the Year Award, a recognition she recently learned she won. She’ll be recognized at a conference in Chicago in April.
In a letter announcing the news to the school community, Principal Kathleen Sain wrote, “While we always knew Lynbrook has the best social worker of all time, we are thrilled that Claudia now gets recognition for it.”
McDowell was focused on her work with students, and didn’t think the email informing her of the honor was real.
“I’ve been so busy; I didn’t really remember,” McDowell said, recalling a colleague mentioning a potential nomination. ” … I was so incredibly flattered and humbled. I think of all the people that I work with on a day-to-day basis — my colleagues, all the other school social workers, teachers, everyone is giving so much.”
‘Supporting students’
A Fairfax County native, McDowell said her parents, immigrants from Peru and Cuba, often discussed the value of education and altruism. When she took her first social work class, she said she knew other career paths wouldn’t be an option.
McDowell has been with Fairfax County Public Schools for 10 years and describes her role as “supporting students and families to be able to fully engage in the education process to have kids come to school,” but Sain said she goes far beyond that.
As part of the local medical screening committee, for one, McDowell works to connect students with medical services, helping to get appointments quickly.
“Claudia figures out a plan, reaches out to all the community services that we have here,” Sain said. “And it happens, and it always benefits our students.”
McDowell also has a hand in the school’s attendance program, working on strategies to overcome chronic absenteeism. She recalls seeing a student who had been out of school for a few days on the walk to her car.
“I was like, ‘Well, I might have to come visit you,'” McDowell said. “And [another] student goes, ‘Man, she’s not even kidding. She’s going to come to your house.’ It was such a funny moment, and he was at school the next day.”
Sain, the principal, said McDowell has hosted breakfast groups in the mornings, where students can gather and engage, and helps students cope with major life events. When a fourth grader’s mother died, the girl’s parents checked with McDowell, because they didn’t know the best way to tell her.
During drop-off and dismissal, Sain said, McDowell receives all of the hugs.
“There’s never a shoe that she will leave untied of some of our younger students,” Sain said. ” … She’s so calm in the face of some of the storms that we’ve experienced.”
For McDowell, that’s part of the job.
“I’ve had kids who cry in my office; I’ve had parents who cry in my office, because they need a place to sort of have that support,” McDowell said. “Sometimes I think, particularly for our population here, it’s the first time they really talked about some of that really tough stuff, and just being able to validate that and just say that I’m here and I’m listening is so very important.”