Child, Family, and School Social Workers

Lowest risk
Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

7% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Psychology knowledge

Very important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
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Show 5 more strengths

Negotiation

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together to reconcile differences, trade off priorities, and reach agreements—work that depends on trust, persuasion, and reading the situation.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 168 votes

19.3% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a minimal chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 7% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Child, Family, and School Social Workers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Child, Family, and School Social Workers was $58,570 ($28 per hour).

The median annual wage for Child, Family, and School Social Workers was 18.3% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Child, Family, and School Social Workers' job openings is expected to rise 3.4% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 382,960 people employed as 'Child, Family, and School Social Workers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.25% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 402 people are employed as 'Child, Family, and School Social Workers'.

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What people are saying (6)

Leave a comment
B (No chance)
25 Mar 2026 17:19
Going out to visit children and families and creating a bond where they trust you is something AI is not capable of
Sami (Moderate)
05 Nov 2025 02:10
It's more common for children not to want to tell their parents, and in other cases, teenagers ask AI, just like they do with their homework. AI might not play a perfect role, but it does reassure people in the same way a human might, which makes me believe in its rise in the future. Plus, it's a free option.
Phillip Alan Batz (Highly likely)
23 Mar 2024 13:55
It's not just the individual wage which matters, but the total number employed now, and to be hired in the future. As significant growth is expected, and work attitudes are changing, expect hiring and attrition to be a growing problem, and automation the proposed solution.
M (Low)
19 Aug 2023 14:28
Children need support from real adults when not receiving it at home
Joseph JT (No chance)
14 Sep 2020 05:49
I don't think you can replace social workers or people in this career. This job requires human intelligence, touch and empathy to manage and help those people in need. Something a machine can't replace.
Autumn (Low)
27 Sep 2019 01:13
There's no way a robot could do this job!
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

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.

O*NET-SOC code: 21-1021.00