Federal Policy Discourse and School Social Work: A Rapid Content Analysis of Department of Education Press Releases

Background and Purpose: Federal policy shifts have rapidly evolved following the most recent socio-political shifts in the United States (US; Villavicencio et al., 2023). However, little is known about the influence of changes within the Department of Education (ED) and the subsequent press releases on school social work practices. School social workers and researchers alike need to better understand the interpretation and ramifications of executive orders on local educational agencies and their school staff (Lucio et al., 2024). Therefore, this research study employed a rapid qualitative content analysis of 180 US ED Press Releases to examine the degree to which policies were made to align with the Presidents’ Executive Orders (EOs) pertaining to educational settings (PK-12). Our research questions included: 1) To what extent is the US ED focused on enforcement of executive orders? 2) Which of 10 EOs most pertinent to public education and school social work practice are mentioned in press releases?

Methods: We analyzed all public press releases from January 20th, 2025 through the government shutdown on October 1st, 2025. Data collection involved gathering PDFs for all 180 publicly available releases. Press releases were given a unique identifier. All EOs published in the same time frame as the press releases were reviewed for relevance to school social work practice. Ten EOs were selected as the most pertinent to current practice contexts (e.g., Title IX, DEI, "local control", LGBTQ+ youth, commonsense school discipline). Authors used excel to code each of the press releases. A structured codebook was used to categorize the releases in one or more of the 10 included EOs (Yes = 1, No = 0). When mentioned, demographic and contextual information were collected from the press releases (e.g., state, school districts, individual school employees). Then, a secondary analysis was conducted to inductively examine press releases guidance for stakeholders in response to the EO category. Lastly, a second coder reviewed a random subset of the press releases (20%, 36 press releases; Syed & Nelson, 2015) to determine inter-rater reliability for the included press releases. Reliability was found to be consistent with standard practices (McHugh, 2012).

Results: Out of the 180 press releases, 82 pertained to the 10 EOs with a direct impact on school social work practice. The secondary analysis revealed that despite a myriad of inquires by the ED, retributions remained mainly administrative placing districts on “watch” or requiring re-certification of Title IX trainings. We also found releases tended to target specific school stakeholders, such as school social workers, principals, and superintendents in school settings, calling for public admonishment or written apologies for their actions.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings will be shared alongside recommendations for school social workers practicing with students and families whose identities are targeted in the current political climate. We also share practice guidance within the National SSW Model 2.0 regarding maintaining anti-racist practice. Areas of future research may include examining how school social workers personally or professionally targeted in the public stratosphere.