AI exposure: Child, Family, and School Social Workers
Provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the family well-being and the academic functioning of children. May assist parents, arrange adoptions, and find foster homes for abandoned or abused children. In schools, they address such problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and truancy. May also advise teachers.
Reading this score
computedChild, Family, and School Social Workers is one of the unusual cases where capability and friction are both high. Current systems can produce a great deal of this work, with average capability across its tasks at 2.2 out of 4. Only 25.4% of the weighted task load comes out as exposed, because 28.5% of it runs into something structural. Jobs in this band tend not to disappear. They change shape, and the person stays.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 21 tasks it averages 2.32 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Maintain case history records and prepare reports, at 70.0%. The least is Lead group counseling sessions that provide support in such areas as grief, stress, or chemical..., at 4.2%. A gap of 65.8% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within community and social service occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 14 roles in the group is 24.4%, and only 6 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 21 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 10 assisted and 6 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.15 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.60 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.01 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.72 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.32 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.08 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Roles in this band tend to change shape rather than disappear. The output gets drafted faster and the person moves toward review, judgment and accountability. The useful question is not whether to use these tools but who is trusted to sign off on what they produce.
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain case history records and prepare reports. | 70.0% | 30.0% | 0.0% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Collect supplementary information needed to assist client, such as employment records, medical records, or school reports. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.99 | exposed |
| Conduct social research. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.17 | exposed |
| Refer clients to community resources for services, such as job placement, debt counseling, legal aid, housing, medical treatment, or financial assistance, and provide concrete information, such as where to go and how to apply. | 40.0% | 26.7% | 33.3% | 4.01 | exposed |
| Serve on policy-making committees, assist in community development, and assist client groups by lobbying for solutions to problems. | 31.2% | 31.2% | 37.5% | 3.72 | assisted |
| Address legal issues, such as child abuse and discipline, assisting with hearings and providing testimony to inform custody arrangements. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.22 | assisted |
| Place children in foster or adoptive homes, institutions, or medical treatment centers. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.68 | assisted |
| Provide, find, or arrange for support services, such as child care, homemaker service, prenatal care, substance abuse treatment, job training, counseling, or parenting classes to prevent more serious problems from developing. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.99 | exposed |
| Determine clients' eligibility for financial assistance. | 25.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 3.41 | assisted |
| Counsel students whose behavior, school progress, or mental or physical impairment indicate a need for assistance, diagnosing students' problems and arranging for needed services. | 21.7% | 28.3% | 50.0% | 4.36 | assisted |
| Serve as liaisons between students, homes, schools, family services, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors, and other contacts to help children who face problems, such as disabilities, abuse, or poverty. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.36 | assisted |
| Arrange for medical, psychiatric, and other tests that may disclose causes of difficulties and indicate remedial measures. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.21 | assisted |
| Develop and review service plans in consultation with clients and perform follow-ups assessing the quantity and quality of services provided. | 18.3% | 31.7% | 50.0% | 4.27 | assisted |
| Recommend temporary foster care and advise foster or adoptive parents. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.53 | assisted |
| Evaluate personal characteristics and home conditions of foster home or adoption applicants. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.22 | assisted |
| Counsel individuals, groups, families, or communities regarding issues including mental health, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, physical abuse, rehabilitation, social adjustment, child care, or medical care. | 13.0% | 28.7% | 58.3% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Interview clients individually, in families, or in groups, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Counsel parents with child rearing problems, interviewing the child and family to determine whether further action is required. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Supervise other social workers. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Consult with parents, teachers, and other school personnel to determine causes of problems, such as truancy and misbehavior, and to implement solutions. | 8.2% | 25.2% | 66.7% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Lead group counseling sessions that provide support in such areas as grief, stress, or chemical dependency. | 4.2% | 20.8% | 75.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.