Jaye Murray

2017 Ruth Schwartz
School Social Worker of the Year Awardee

Jaye Murray was selected as the 2017 New York State School Social Workers’ Associations’ recipient of the Ruth Schwartz School Social Worker of the Year Award.

Being a School Social Worker in New York City is a daunting experience.   The responsibilities for making sure there is dignity for all races and identities, and genders and that we as School Social Workers teach, show moral integrity and demonstrate human compassion for that which is right, are what we do, as we work alongside educators for a child’s right to an education.

When one is a School Social Worker, one has to deal with not only the diversity of multiple cultural environments and school climates, but provide resources for students, which are often different from neighborhood to neighborhood. The responsibilities of the school social worker are vast and many. There are many political battles that make our jobs more complicated: with government resources being limited, being privatized and with resources not being there.  There is also  an educational battle  which effects the way we deliver our services, the battle is over  the benefits of public, private, charter and online education and how we as school social workers fit into these schools is not even discussed. There are political battles over state education mandates and  the use of professional licenses to deliver educational support services. There is a  rise in the needs of our school children, who battle learning in an environments fraught with social and emotional obstacles. Just two days ago, New York City faced its second terrorist attack. Two students and two staff members were wounded on a school bus which was struck. One student was in critical condition. The emotional burdens we face as School Social Workers are heavy. We are the people responsible for working with children who are facing these difficult emotions.  

Jaye Murray serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Guidance and School Counseling for the New York City Department of Education and is a veteran social worker of over 25 years.  Her work has included community based family, individual and group counseling, private clinical practice, substance abuse counseling, programming for children of alcoholics, supervision and School Social Work. She is the author of American Library Association 2003 Best Book for Young Adults Bottled Up and is currently an adjunct professor of social work for the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work.

Her current focus of work for school counselors includes increased professional development opportunities, communication and collaboration between the school based counseling disciplines, support initiatives for LGBT student and staff, social emotional programming beyond curriculum, and positive behavioral response.    The LGBT advisory board was ahead of its time in terms of the LGBT issues that surround us on a daily basis. Jaye developed  and oversees the Comfort Dog pilot program now in its second year in New York City schools.  Again, taking the lead and overcoming New York City Department of Education obstacles to pilot a program that helps students. She is currently leading the NYC Mayoral Equity and Excellence initiative Single Shepherd which pairs school counselors and social workers with students in low poverty, low graduation rate districts at an unprecedented 1:100 ratio.  Jaye developed and leads the Single Shepherd initiative in District 7 and District 23 which is now in its second years. Today, we are pleased to honor Jaye Murray for all of her work with and on behalf of students, families and School Social Workers as well as other educational support personnel.   

Award presented by Julie Beatrice.          

The Ruth Efron Schwartz School Social Worker of the Year Award is awarded to a School Social Worker who exemplifies the qualities that Ruth Schwartz exemplified throughout her career as a School Social Worker. Ruth Schwartz believed in the importance of School Social Workers. She believed in helping the children and families in her care. Ruth often went the extra mile, including delivering coal to family’s homes when needed. Ruth was a founding member of NYSSSWA. She was responsible for picking the organization’s colors-blue to encourage students to reach for the sky, and white to encourage School Social Workers to be pure and true in their work with children. The award is given to a School Social worker who is both dedicated to helping the children and families in their care and to promotion of the profession of School Social Worker.