Social Services Specialist (Tier 1) (Head Start)

The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has launched a new public “Education & Awareness” website for the Florida Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse in accordance with House Bill 531 (2025). Effective January 1, 2026, any job announcement that requires Clearinghouse screening must include the following link: https://info.flclearinghouse.com.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will have a High School Diploma, as well as one or more years of experience interacting with clients in a social services environment gathering and providing information and developing case plans.  Excellent written and verbal skills are required.  Ability to work independently with a high-volume workload is necessary.  Outstanding customer service skills with both internal staff and outside clients is essential.  Knowledge of Head Start/Early Head Start Performance Standards is desirable. 

Salary (Tier 1)

Minimum: $34,320.00- $44,616.00

Core Competencies

• Customer Commitment - Proactively seeks to understand the needs of the customers and provide the highest standards of service.
• Dedication to Professionalism and Integrity - Demonstrates and promotes fair, honest, professional and ethical behaviors that establishes trust throughout the organization and with the public we serve.
• Organizational Excellence - Takes ownership for excellence through one's personal effectiveness and dedication to the continuous improvement of our operations.
• Success through Teamwork - Collaborates and builds partnerships through trust and the open exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives to achieve organizational goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

Note: The following duties are illustrative and not exhaustive. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. Depending on assigned area of responsibility, incumbents in the position may perform some or all of the activities described below.

• Interviews clients, reviews documents and completes forms to acquire a limited amount of readily available financial and other information which may be used for comparison against elementary standards to determine eligibility for basic social services programs.
• Provides elementary social services program information to clients.
• Provides elementary social services directly to clients where program eligibility is easily determined; or refers clients to others where program eligibility requires more in-depth analysis.
• Schedules and administers client health screenings, coordinates client transportation needs, schedules meetings and public workshops, and maintains follow-up on the status of these activities.
• Obtains information from service providers to authorize payment for their services.
• Performs telephone answering, filing, mail handling, photocopying, distribution, record keeping and other clerical duties.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Duties and Responsibilities

Note: The following duties are illustrative and not exhaustive. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. Depending on assigned area of responsibility, incumbents in the position may perform some or all of the activities described below.

• Interviews clients on the job site or through home visits, reviews documents, investigates, researches and completes forms to acquire a more than limited amount of readily available financial and other information which may be used for comparing against a variety of standards to determine eligibility for financial, medical, interment, head start, job placement, legal representation or other socioeconomic or health program.
• Collaborates with clients to develop, implement and follow-up on holistic socioeconomic case plans that address vocatio