Hi Natalie, we've dealt with this a few times over the past couple of years. Our policy is pretty generalized as we find it best to deal with these on a case by case scenario. The language in our field handbook reads: "If a student is an employer-based placement and their employment ends for reasons beyond the student's control, they must notify their field faculty liaison promptly. The field office will assess the circumstances and work to find a resolution which may include continuing the placement while no longer an employee, changing placements, or an academic review, depending on circumstances leading to this change."
In practice, we've done a couple of things. For one, we were surprised to find that sometimes this would happen and the agency would not communicate with us at all. In an attempt to remedy that, we now include as part of our process for approving an employer based placement, that we meet with the employer to discuss the placement and also have a conversation about what would happen if the employment relationship ended for any reason. We explain that while we would not need to know about HR related deatils, we would need to know if there were reasons that the student's educational opportunity at the agency would come to and end. That does seem to make some lightbulbs go off.
Then, assuming we are notified promptly, by either the student or agency, we would assess what we know of the situation. If there are reasons to consider a serious ethical violation or other reason that we may have concern about replacing the student elsewhere, we would refer to an academic review with our full MSW committee to determine next steps for the student. If it seems the issue is not to the scale that we necessarily have that concern, we would attempt to replace that student, but this sometimes would disrupt the course progression, depending on the timing. If it happens near a semester break and we are able to get the agency to complete a midterm assessment for example, we may be able to find a new placement, get a new learning contract in place and have the student continue, but the timing can also be more unfortunate, leading to a pause in field, or possibly needing to take an incomplete or withdraw and repeat field. We have really tried to emphasize to our students that there is inherent risk in employer based placements and they should give this serious consideration when making the decision to tie their employment so closely to their education, and then also that communicating with us is essential if there are any concerns about any changes to their employment scenario as we are much better equipped to help them through if we know what is going on.
I hope this helps!
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Lindsey Rinehart
Field Education Director & Clinical Instructor
West Virginia University
Morgantown WV
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Original Message:
Sent: Dec 04, 2023 13:10
From: Natalie Yates
Subject: Employment Based Placements
Good Afternoon! Employment-based placements are becoming more popular, and I was wondering if anyone had a policy on what to do if a student gets fired from their employment-based placement.
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Natalie Yates
Co-Field Director/Assistant Professor
North Carolina A&T State University
Greensboro NC
336-285-2050
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