The Silver School has joined with Sarah Lawrence College to offer a dual degree in Social Work and Child Development. Students in this program can pursue study leading to an MSW and a master’s in Child Development. Admission to both programs is required. By taking courses that are acceptable for transfer credit in each of the schools involved, and through careful course planning, the dual-degree student can complete both degrees full-time in three years. The program can also be completed on a part-time basis. All classes in Child Development are held at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Students must begin this program at Sarah Lawrence College, completing one year of course work in developmental theory and an observational fieldwork placement. Social work classes begin after the completion of this first year and can be taken at any campus.

The dual degree program will combine the theoretical knowledge bases of clinical social work and developmental psychology. Its goals include:

to educate social work clinicians for advanced practice in the treatment of children;
to develop social work clinicians with an in-depth understanding of the life of the child as the interaction of intellectual, emotional, social, and imaginative streams;
to provide an appropriate balance between academic study in the theoretical and empirical aspects of the child development/child treatment fields and direct practice with children; and
to prepare social work clinicians/child development experts to meet the diverse needs of at-risk children, particularly those in the urban setting.