Career Explorer Community and social care
Grows with AI
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.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 58% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +4.4% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and creative vision.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $59,550
- Job growth to 2035
- +4.4%
- Openings a year
- 33,900
- People doing it (2025)
- 405,000
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Assist others to access additional services or resources
- Explain medical information to patients or family members
- Counsel others about personal matters
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Interview people to obtain information
- Maintain health or medical records
- Confer with healthcare or other professionals about patient care
What the work looks like
- Place children in foster or adoptive homes, institutions, or medical treatment centers.
- Maintain case history records and prepare reports.
- Recommend temporary foster care and advise foster or adoptive parents.
- Interview clients individually, in families, or in groups, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs.
- 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.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Healthcare social workersGrows with AI, Index 68, +8.5%
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselorsGrows with AI, Index 83, +18.4%
- Community and social service specialists, all otherGrows with AI, Index 70, +5.5%
- Counselors, all otherGrows with AI, Index 69, +5.9%
Also known as: Case Manager, Family Protection Specialist, Family Service Worker, School Social Worker, Adoption Social Worker, Case Worker, Child Protective Services Social Worker (CPS Social Worker), Family Resource Coordinator.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.