As a kid at heart, working in a preschool was a good fit for me but it was not without its challenges. Working in a preschool meant shifting from a planned schedule to handling unpredictable moments—from managing behaviors and multiple crises in the classroom to navigating the sometimes competing needs of students, families and teachers. It was often fast paced work requiring a balance between clinical skills, playfulness, and remaining calm under pressure.
The Unique Challenges of Preschool Social Work
While we provide social/emotional and behavioral support to our young students, our work won’t be effective (and we may not be welcomed into classrooms needing us the most) if we don’t have the necessary engagement from educators and parents. This goes far beyond pleasantries and collegial relationships. I learned early on I needed to hold space for the multiple intersecting identities and experiences of students, parents and teachers—that each grouping was their own client system influenced by outside factors and each other.
Determining what’s causing certain behaviors in a classroom setting can also be challenging, in large part due to developmental factors. Most preschoolers are energetic, active and have little to no impulse control by nature. Understanding behavior through a variety of lenses—developmental, trauma-informed, possible learning or social/emotional delays—allows the team to remain open minded while addressing the root issue rather than just stopping the behavior.
While navigating the various dynamics of preschool social work can feel overwhelming and a bit like untangling a complicated web, tools like Casebook can create order and efficiency in our work. By having a centralized location to store data, such as classroom observations, collateral contacts and the content of conversations with early childhood educators and parents, untangling the web of information can feel more straightforward and useful in our work.
Real-Time Crisis Management vs. Structured Counseling Sessions
There can be a lot of joy working within a preschool setting but its unpredictable nature can be both invigorating and exhausting for providers. Because young children have little impulse control and are just learning how to identify and manage feelings that overwhelm them, they can also exhibit aggressive and unsafe behaviors in the classroom. On most days, I bounced from room to room based on the sounds of distress heard through the hallways. In those moments, intervention needed to be quick and effective, meaning that it was necessary to stop whatever I was working on or end a structured session with a student early, to attend to that student’s needs.
We can’t plan for every moment but access to resources, such as Casebook, supports providers in anticipating when a student may experience distress, creating a sense of predictability and preparedness. By tracking the important contextual details—antecedent, behavior, consequence—as well as what else is happening in those difficult moments, providers can see if a pattern is emerging, helping to make sense of a child’s behavior and emotional response.
Information from collateral colleagues, such as the removal of a child by CPS or a traumatic event the child has experienced, isn’t always communicated to educators, even by providers within the same agency, but could be accessed in a tool like Casebook. This kind of knowledge allows early childhood educators and other providers within the preschool setting to be proactive in providing support to young students.
Building Relationships with Non-Clinical Staff and Parents
Perspectives regarding behavior management are varied and more than likely, educators and families won’t always be in complete alignment. By using quantitative and qualitative data, social workers can reflect back to teachers and parents what’s been reported and observed by themselves and others, grounding the conversation in facts while strengthening the working relationship with the rest of the team.
For example, if a traumatic incident occurs at home, documenting it in a shared platform like Casebook can alert the broader care team—helping teachers approach the student with extra sensitivity the next day. This kind of context helps foster trust across staff roles and strengthens collaboration.
I often described some of the differences between my work within a preschool and my work providing individual therapy in a controlled office setting like this: “when you’re with children all day, you see the whole movie play out – not just what parents want you to see in the therapy office.” This was challenging but it also provided a rich learning environment, becoming an ongoing opportunity to fine tune engagement skills, work from a person-in-environment perspective, develop a strong foundation in realistic interventions and learn how to effectively utilize research and data. And believe it or not, there was still time for playfulness and fun.
Looking to Bring Order to the Chaos?
Explore how Casebook can support your team.
From tracking behavior patterns to supporting collaboration between teachers and providers, Casebook offers tools that make preschool social work more efficient, connected, and impactful.
