Advancing Antiracist Policies and Practices in Schools

As social justice allies and advocates, the top professional priority of school social workers should be to embrace and advance antiracist policies and practices to (re)build schools as institutions of equity, inclusion, and opportunity. This chapter addresses a critical question related to the struggle for diversity, equity, and inclusion in P-12 schools in the United States. It explores how new school social workers in their first three years of practice can establish themselves as leaders in guiding their school to assess the degree of cultural acceptance, while taking steps toward advancing antiracist policies and practices. Finally, the chapter offers an array of tools regarding assessing cultural acceptance and techniques for incorporating them across all tiers of a school community.