Student Advocate

South Cook Intermediate Service Center; Chicago Heights (IL); On-site; USD 42,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

South Cook Intermediate Service Center is seeking a full-time Student Advocate to support students dealing with trauma through social-emotional learning in collaboration with district schools. The role focuses on case management, attendance, and building partnerships with families and community services within the district environment.

The Advocate will report to the ALOP Coordinator and work on-site within South Cook school locations, coordinating with building administration to promote student

Qualifications

• Strong technology skills and eagerness to keep up with technology updates
• Excellent organizing skills for advocacy space and digital files/drives
• Commitment to serving underserved students in grades 4–12
• Experience with community agencies and supporting public school students
• Strong problem-solving and organizational skills; persistence with students
• Advocacy skills including negotiation and professional conflicts handling
• Ability to communicate effectively with students, families, and school personnel

Responsibilities

• Maintains a caseload of 25-32 students across 4th–12th grades
• Takes daily attendance for caseload
• Observe students with permission in classroom
• Monitors attendance, behavior, grades; acts as first responder to crises
• Create and monitor individual SSP with goals
• Meet with each student weekly
• Attend SCISC ALOP team meetings and trainings
• Complete SCISC Know Before trainings
• Engage in family outreach and wellness checks
• Record daily caseload notes and maintain Google Drive files
• Assist families and schools in writing/monitoring success plans
• Connect students and families to additional support services

Skills

Tech savvy

Organizational skills

Student-focused service

Conflict resolution

Communication with families

Collaboration with school staff

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Job description

Position Title: Student Advocate

Reports To: ALOP Coordinator

Terms of Employment: As outlined in contract for services

Location: Reporting District

Purpose: This is a full-time, 10-month position. Student advocates are hired by the South Cook Intermediate Service Center to help students dealing with trauma by way of social emotional learning support, in collaboration with specific South Cook school districts that will be identified upon hiring. This is a non-certified position working with the on-site school locations & South Cook Intermediate Service Center team. The Student Advocate works directly with students in South Cook school districts. The student advocate will report to the ALOP Coordinator, in addition to the on-site school location building admin within the school environment.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong technology skills and eagerness to keep up with technology updates
• Flexibility: adjust well to changes made at any given time Top-notch organizing: physically of advocacy space & digital files/drives
• Strong commitment to serving struggling and historically underserved students in elementary, middle and/or high school
• Experience in working with community agencies in providing support networks to assist. students and families; experience supporting public school students in grades 4-12
• Possess a strong problem-solving and organizational skills; willingness to persist with students
• Advocacy skills, including the ability to negotiate, compromise, and confront conflict professionally
• Ability to cooperate and communicate effectively with students, families, and school personnel

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (across all content areas)
• Must have a minimum of two years working with underrepresented youth/at-risk youth.
• Clear Background Check
• Must provide students with a positive pattern of engagement at school, fuel motivation, and foster development of the life skills

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: *other duties may be assigned

• Maintains a caseload of 25-32 students based on school placement grades ranging from (4th-8th) elementary/junior high school & (9th-12th) high school
• Takes student caseload attendance daily
• Observe students within their classroom setting (permission must be granted by building admin/teacher in advance)
• Monitors attendance, behavior, grades and acts as a first responder in the event of student’ crises; maintains accurate records of student engagement & interactions.
• Create an individual (SSP) Student Success Plan with goals for each student
• Meet with each student on caseload minimally once a week
• Attend mandatory SCISC ALOP team meetings & professional development trainings
• Complete SCISC “Know Before” technology on-line trainings
• Participates in family outreach visits and family engagement events to promote family participation in the student’s learning experiences and conducts wellness checks if needed
• Chart student caseload notes daily
• Maintain and organize student caseload google drive: Student caseload attendance and student caseload notes are required. Maintenance of the on-site school location google drive must be accessible for review to the following: SCISC Admin, Superintendent, & Building Admin.
• Work with students, families and the educational support team in establishing/writing success plans setting realistic goals, schedules and plans for monitoring student academic and social/emotional success
• Connects students’ and families’ to additional support services as needed and acts as a liaison to service providers
• Supports all school based initiatives actively and engages with all staff and administration to promote student success
• Attends all district institute/school improvement days.
• Greet students in the hallway during passing period
• Invite students to eat lunch with you. (Only permitted via building admin permission)
• Conduct daily random student caseload check-in’s
• Call parents with positives and opportunities for growth updates
• Conduct/Schedule “Open House & Parent Conferences” with parents/guardians in person or virtually during district's parent-teacher conferences schedule hours within the school day. Invite parents to see advocacy space and partake in student updates.
• Maintain student caseload hard copy files. All student caseload files should consist of the Parent consent form, student schedule, and other items deemed necessary at the student advocate discretion.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

*Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Regularly required to talk and hear to exchange information in person and by telephone.
• Frequently required to use hands and fingers to handle or operate standard office equipment.
• Occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with hands and arms, and stoop or kneel.
• Must be able to lift and/or move up to 20 pounds occasionally (e.g., office supplies, files).
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment

• Work is generally performed in a standard office setting with moderate noise levels (e.g., conversations, printers, phones).
• The position requires the ability to work in a fast-paced environment with frequent interruptions.
• Duties may involve occasional travel between work sites, schools, or off-site meetings.
• Work hours for Advocates: arrive 30 minutes prior to students' arrival, and leave 30 minutes after dismissal. Hours are adjusted for Parent-Teacher Conferences to match the district's schedule.
• The work environment is generally climate controlled and ergonomically equipped.