Grantee Highlights
As NCSSLE provides specialized direct assistance and training to a set of U.S. Department of Education funded grantees, we collect highlights to feature helpful examples and lessons learned to the field. Below we provide a range of grantee highlights you can browse through or search by state or topic.
Displaying 68 Grantee Highlight(s).As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools have been actively working to hire, train and retain school mental health professionals. To support this process, one of NCSSLE’s School Based Mental Health Services (SBMH2020) grantees, the Hawaii State Department of Education (HI DOE), in collaboration with a local university, created an online Education Psychology doctoral program as well as the state’s first ever School Psychology program to increase the pipeline of trained mental health professionals for their state’s schools. Background InformationUnlike any other…
As schools across the United States work to mitigate the impact of violence within their communities, restorative practices have become a popular strategy to do so. As conflict arises among students, it is important to teach them strategies to cope and repair relationships, while focusing on reflection. Why do we need it? Research shows that punitive measures such as removing students from learning environments for extended periods of time is ineffective; zero tolerance policies typically do not work or make schools safer; punishment via exclusionary suspension often hurts relationships with…
As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools across the country are working to provide mental health supports and services to students to help them thrive in school. One of NCSSLE’s Project Prevent (Cohort 3) grantees, El Rancho Unified School District in Southern California, has created a wellness center in the district’s high school for students to decompress and seek mental health supports and resources throughout the school day. ImpetusIn the early 2010s, El Rancho had just one mental health personnel in the district. Students who needed mental…
As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools are implementing universal mental health screenings to identify students needing support. These screenings are part of a systematic process to identify students’ strengths and needs to better inform school based mental health intervention efforts. One of NCSSLE’s Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP2019) grantees, Sodus Central School District in New York State, has successfully implemented a district-wide universal screening process that has helped improve their intervention efforts and better support students. The…
As state education agencies, districts and schools across the country grapple with the effects of trauma exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health crisis, and more, many have shifted to a trauma-informed care approach to promote healing environments for students and staff. One of NCSSLE’s Project Prevent Cohort 3 (P2C3) grantees, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), has made particularly noteworthy progress in implementing this approach district-wide. Background Jefferson County is located in Louisville, KY; a city with a long-standing history of redlining, urban…
In an effort to combat the United States mental health crisis, state education agencies, regional education agencies, and school districts have created pathways for professionals to work within the field of school mental health by providing opportunities for students to intern in local schools. One of NCSSLE’s Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP2019) grantees, the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE) in California, is a great example as they have created a robust and sustainable Mental Health Internship program across their district. Their internship experience is aligned with…
As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools have been actively working to retain school mental health professionals to support student needs. One of NCSSLE’s Project Prevent (Cohort 2) grantees, Iredell Statesville Schools (ISS) in North Carolina, has expanded their student support staff by integrating school nurses into their mental health support framework. The ImpetusFrom the outset, the integration process was organic – rooted in the understanding that nurses often encounter students whose medical visits are prompted by underlying mental health or psychosomatic…
As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools have been actively working to hire, train and retain school mental health professionals. When interviewing potential professionals for the job, schools look for candidates that connect well with students. One way to ensure this connection is to engage students in the hiring process. One of NCSSLE’s Project Prevent grantees, the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) in Hartford, CT has done this by implementing student-led interview panels as part of their clinician hiring process. Pilot ProcessDuring the 2023-24…
When the Newark Board of Education and Newark Public Schools received MHSP and P2C2 grant funds in 2019, schools were given $6,000 to transform a room in their building into a Therapeutic Learning Center (TLC). TLCs are designated spaces (preferably close to the counselor/social worker’s office) for students grades K-8 to access therapeutic tools, regulate, attend counseling sessions, and more. Each school had the opportunity to choose the type of TLC that best fit their students’ needs; school counselors and social workers created a list of supplies needed for their room and partnered with…
When the Virginia Department of Education (VA DOE) won their first School Based Mental Health (SBMH) grant in 2019, their main priority was to increase the quantity and quality of school mental health services in high-need communities. To do this, they established a suite of professional development experiences which included tele-mentoring groups using the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model. To learn more about this model, read VA DOE’s previous Grantee Highlight, Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health Uses Tele-Mentoring Groups to Promote Professional…
A significant part of Allen County’s sustainability plan—as part of their Project Prevent Cohort 3 (P2C3) grant—is to build the capacity of school based mental health staff in the district to better meet student and family mental health needs. As a first step to building capacity, the county has begun conducting “time studies” to evaluate how school counselors are spending their time. According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), 80% of school counselors’ time should be spent in direct or indirect service to students. These time studies will help gauge whether Allen…
The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) was awarded a School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) grant in 2020 to increase the number and quality of school-based mental health providers in high-need schools. With this funding and in partnership with New Mexico schools, universities, communities, and other state agencies, NMPED has established the Expanding Opportunities Project (EOP) to increase the access to care for school-aged youth in identified communities. Need for EOP New Mexico has prioritized behavioral health in schools to strengthen the social, emotional, behavioral…
With help from Trauma Recovery Demonstration Grant funds, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is implementing a Trauma-Engaged framework to help Alaska schools and communities integrate trauma-engaged practices and policies into their everyday activities to improve the academic outcomes and well-being of all students. Recognizing that it is one thing to be trauma informed or sensitive to the effects of trauma and another to be engaged with and actively implementing promising practices to prevent or alleviate the effects of trauma, the goal of this framework is to build a…
Recognizing that professional development is often dedicated to statewide requirements geared toward classroom educators, Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education saw a need for role-specific professional development for school-based mental health professionals. After conversations with LEAs, they partnered with the School Counseling Specialist in the Office of Career and College Readiness to conduct a statewide professional development survey for all school mental health professionals. Thirty percent of certified professionals responded, and the results displayed role-…
With help from the Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant, Sodus Central School District in Wayne County, New York has utilized the “Community Schools strategy” to help youth and families thrive. The Community School strategy is built on partnerships with community organizations to provide resources so that all families and youth can have access to services and supports, such as food pantries, clothing closets, mental health services, and physical health clinics. Community School coordinators and teams help to identify community assets, needs, and gaps, and connect students…
Through the Project Prevent (Cohort 2) grant, Stringtown Public School provides a community partnership with Riverbend Counseling Services for students and families. This grant gave Stringtown the opportunity to hire 3 mental health professionals, offer counseling services at no cost to students, and provide a social emotional learning curriculum. Starting with data collection that identified specific needs for students, families, staff, and community, Stringtown focused on making data analysis actionable by using the insights to implement program interventions and strategies and staff…
Since the Muskegon Area Independent School District (MAISD) in Michigan received a Project Prevent (Cohort 2) grant in 2020, the district has been committed to revising and revamping their Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) approaches. The district has engaged in many professional development opportunities, including exploring PBIS in the classroom (using CHAMPS training) and implementing Restorative Practices. The schools in the district have put in considerable effort to sharpen their Tier 1 and 2 systems, practices, and use of…
John V Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School (JVL) supports its students’ growth and achievement through rigorous academic requirements; offers real world internship experiences to help students accomplish future goals; and holds successful sports and culinary programs to provide extracurricular activity. Students often come to JVL from non-charter schools that may not meet their needs, and JVL gives them a second chance to earn their New York State High School Diploma.
With MHSP grant funds acquired in 2018, JVL took student support to the next level by developing a mental health program…
On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Eureka City High School in Eureka, California officially, opened its new wellness center in partnership with its federally qualified health center partner, Open Door, via their Mental Health Service Professionals (MHSP) grant. The high school’s is the first of many to be developed across Eureka City Schools [ECS] campuses. These centers will aim to fulfill Priority Area 3 of the ECS Strategic Plan, which focuses on Social-Emotional Wellness.
ECS Trustee Area 1 Board Member Lisa Ollivier explains that the Board created the Wellness Center as a space for students to…
In September of 2022, students in Newark Public Schools returned to in person classes after 2 years of online learning during the pandemic. To bridge the gap that had been created between home and school during this time, the district used Supportive Schools Newark grant funds from the Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant to purchase Social Emotional Learning kits for student’s grades K-8 to continue practicing at home the SEL skills they were learning in the classroom.
The kits were tailored with different items and activities depending on the student’s age: for instance…
Project EVERS (Ending Violence and its Effects in Rural Schools) was developed to meet the needs of students living in rural areas in northwest Kansas that have been affected by trauma or violence in their homes and communities. The goal of the five-year project is to train and equip school staff in 19 districts across Northwest Kansas to recognize and offer quality resources and referrals to address the fallout from any form of violence that may be affecting their students.
Project Prevent’s Director, Lora Thomas, and Trauma Specialist, Mick Thornton, credit the project’s success to…
In Newark, New Jersey, parent liaisons serve in each of the district’s schools to help families navigate questions, learn about available programs, and stay up to date on events such as parent-teacher conferences. The Newark Board of Education works closely with these parent liaisons and holds workforce development trainings to better prepare them for this work.
Within the past year, the Board has worked to develop a Community Directory, a resource for students, parents, and community members. The Community Directory provides a list of organizations and programs in Newark that are open to…
When it comes to effectively partnering with institutes of higher education (IHEs), Hennessey Lustica, PhD, Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), and Karen Horn, MSW are seasoned professionals. Hennessey is the Community Schools Mental Health Director at Sodus Central School District and Mental Health Service Professional Grant Director, and Karen is an Educational Consultant for School Mental Health Professionals at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI), as well as a School-Based Mental Health grant recipient.
Hennessey’s experience as a school counseling intern as…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Joseph Wharff and Jamey Petersen have maintained successful partnerships in rural communities. Joseph is the Associate Director of the Office of Student Services at the Virginia Department of Education and State Coordinator of the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health, and Jamey is the Coordinated School Health Director for the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
For Jamey, partnerships are essential in a rural state with many isolated communities. The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) collaborates with The…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Greg Hickey and Heather Ormiston, PhD, know how to partner strategically and effectively.
Greg, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Mental Health Specialist with Region 15 Education Service Center in Texas, works with school counselors in 45 districts, whereas Heather, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Health Service Provider in Psychology, and the Director of the School-Based Mental Health Research and Training Initiative at Indiana University Bloomington, works with just one district in Indiana and with school…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Michelle Warren, Ed.D., Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) at Osage County Interlocal Cooperative (OCIC) in Oklahoma and Christine Judson, Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from Chicago Public Schools, share a common goal of recruiting and retaining school based mental health providers in their districts. In order to do this, both Michelle and Christine emphasize the importance of workforce development initiatives in providing quality training services, field experience, and certification opportunities to graduate…
Dr. Teri Lawler, Project Director for the Trauma Recovery Demonstration Grant program at the Delaware State Department of Education, credits the success of Project THRIVE (Trauma Health Recovery InnoVation & Engagement) to the cross-sector partnerships she and her team have initiated and maintained. Project THRIVE provides free mental health services and trauma-informed support to eligible Delaware students grades pre-k through 12 attending Delaware public schools, private schools, parochial schools, and homeschools. These services assist students struggling with traumatic situations such…
Rockingham County Schools Recognized for Model Social Emotional & Mental Health Program for Students
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction [NCDPI] leadership have recognized Rockingham County Schools [RCS] for its model K-12 mental health services program. NCDPI officials asked Stephanie Ellis, Executive Director of Behavioral Health, Crisis Intervention, and Student Safety and Mental Health Service Professional Project Director at RCS to make a site visit, in recognition of her team’s work in building a full continuum of support for students’ mental health and emotional wellbeing. The visiting team of officials intends to help advocate for more North Carolina school districts to…
The Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health aims to increase the quantity and quality of school mental health services in high-need communities. To do this, they provide a suite of professional development experiences which include tele-mentoring groups using the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model. ECHO meetings occur virtually once per month and involve university faculty members and practicing school mental health professionals from partnering school districts. Each ECHO follows the same structure: introductions of all group members, a brief didactic…
The Ohio Departments of Education, Mental Health and Addiction Services and Public Safety created a School Wellness Toolkit in response to heightened school wellness needs that educators, school administrators, community organizations, behavioral health providers and other stakeholders have identified.
The Departments collected information through several listening sessions and surveys to best understand what was happening in schools across the state. The Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory also identified that mental health needs in young people…
A new online program at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse [UW-L] aims to help address Wisconsin’s extreme shortage of school psychologists.
Working with the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the U.S. Department of Education through a School Based Mental Health Professionals Grant, UW-L is adding an online program to its traditional program that will allow current teachers to become endorsed as school psychologists while continuing to teach.
Rob Dixon, Director of the UW-L School Psychology Program, explained the new program’s three main goals. First, it addresses…
Focusing on reintegration in the 2021-22 school year to ensure the success of students and staff upon return to full in-person instruction, the Pasadena United School District (PUSD), a Mental Health Service Professional grantee in California, developed an enhanced version of their curriculum that included visual arts, mental health, and academics. As part of this initiative, PUSD created virtual wellness centers for staff and students that includes a “PUSD Wellness Studio”, a Padlet for staff use only. As Dr. Julianne Reynoso, Assistant Superintendent, Student Wellness and Support Services…
During individual supervision and interaction, staff of the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) school social work department recognized that their interns felt great anxiety before professional interviews due to lack of prior experience. It was then that the Clinical Grant Facilitator felt that a mock interview would be advantageous with assisting the candidate in learning how to respond to challenging questions, developing interview strategies, improving communication skills, and reducing stress before an actual job interview.
Mock Interview Rubric Development
In collaboration with…
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is using the School-Based Mental Health Services grant program to increase recruitment and retention of school mental health providers by creating the Virginia Career and Learning Center (CLC) website. Participating LEAs with demonstrated need can access quality professional development modules (currently 90+ modules), guidance on licensing requirements, and information and resources on school-based mental health careers. The CLC also serves as a repository for available school mental health positions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The site…
In Virginia, school-based mental health services are provided primarily by school mental health providers: school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers. Their capacity to offer mental health services depends greatly on the needs of the school division, their responsibilities within the LEA, and ratios of provider-to-student populations. The Code of Virginia § 22.1-253.13:2 delineates staffing ratios for school counselors based on student enrollment through Virginia’s Standards of Quality. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) continues to advocate for reduced…
To support training interns through the work of the Mental Health Service Professional grant, the Pennsauken Public Schools (NJ) team developed what they call “Mastery Mondays,” a full-day training seminar program.
On Mastery Mondays, interns are introduced to counseling techniques through immersive exposure in group counseling modalities. There are also presentations on topics such as behavior de-escalation, understanding the state’s special education code, and various learning styles. Activities to date have included roleplays in active listening and facilitating SEL lessons, and…
A school social worker and social work intern for Del Norte County, California’s Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) demonstration grant are implementing a peer-led suicide prevention program, Sources of Strength, among high-risk youth at Sunset High School in Crescent City. The local United Indian Health Services has partnered with the school to support this program with assistance from a SAMHSA Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention grant. Numerous students embrace their roles in the program with enthusiasm, and there is even potential to “extend the pipeline” for new school mental…
Niagara Falls City School District (NFCSD) is using the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant initiative to provide new wraparound support services to students and families. Key activities include:
providing direct emotional support to students in school by placing up to 15 mental health interns in all district schools;
partnering with a local counseling agency to provide individual and family counseling to students and families;
training and coaching district staff on trauma-informed care; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and other mental health topics; and
utilizing…
The Osage County Interlocal Cooperative, Oklahoma [OCIC], as part of its Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant initiative, Project PREPARE is recruiting, training, and coaching school psychology, counseling, and social worker interns in the provision of high quality virtual and hybrid mental health services and caseload management. OCIC’s school mental health professionals have developed virtual “one-stop” school counseling centers that allow students, families and educators to learn more about their counselor and available services; refer to and request…
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), as part of its Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant initiative, Collaborative Internship for All (CIA), is recruiting, training and coaching school counseling interns en route to placing them in high-needs school communities. In its efforts to promote CIA internally and externally, and recruit and retain graduate students, the grant team discovered that there was untapped talent among its interns.
The clinical grant coordinator began to have interns present on a topic of interest or need and identify their interests and…
The School District of Philadelphia is using their Project Prevent grant to increase capacity to identify, assess, and serve students exposed to pervasive violence and help ensure that students are offered mental health services for trauma and/or anxiety. Through Project Prevent funding, they are implementing evidence-based violence prevention strategies at all three tiers within the PBIS Framework.
To implement their Project Prevent violence prevention strategies to reduce the likelihood of students later committing violent acts, they are using an implementation science approach to inform…
As an innovative adaptation to the sudden disconnection of students from their school community over the course of the past year, the student support team at Del Norte County, California schools, a Mental Health Services Professional grantee, arranged to convert its Yoga Calm, an evidence-based program, to a combination in-person/Zoom! platform. As a trauma-informed program, Yoga Calm was taught in classrooms prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the school district began to adjust to the pandemic’s restrictions, the need for tools to manage stress and anxiety was even greater than it had…
The Public Schools of Robeson County, North Carolina [PSRC], as part of its Project SCORE (School Counseling Opportunities in Robeson Education) Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant, has invested creativity, collaboration, and energy to ensure strong connections for students’ families despite public health imperatives for physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The district has initiated regular family support opportunities through scheduled on-line events, and maintains open communication, in part through an electronic newsletter. Project SCORE has developed…
The Charleston County School District (CCSD) in South Carolina, a Project Prevent grantee, recently adopted CASEL’s Reunite, Renew, and Thrive: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Roadmap for Reopening School. As part of Critical Practice 2 of the approach (design opportunities where adults can connect, heal, and build their capacity to support students), the district committed to providing a more universal approach to adult mental health and self-care.
In support of the grant, when teacher leaders made a formal request for additional mental health supports, the district capitalized on…
While preparing for Year 2 of Pennsauken Public School District’s Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant, grant co-director and school psychologist Alexandra Pensiero realized that having “an in-person presence” would be important to students in a virtual environment. Ms. Pensiero and her team created webpage on their website dedicated to Mental Health. Within, they share general information, information about the grant, and Bitmoji classrooms for the district mental health providers and mental health interns to introduce themselves to students and to offer resources.…
The Sodus Central School District’s Mental Health Demonstration (MHD) grant, as part of Wayne County Community Schools, is helping to expand the pipeline of mental health providers into rural school districts. Specifically, they have partnered with five local Colleges and Universities to provide internship experiences for graduate level social workers, school counselors, mental health counselors, and school psychologists. They currently have 24 internship students placed in 19 buildings across six districts in rural Wayne County, New York. The MHD Internship Program is built upon the…
Through their Rural West Texas Mental Health Educational Learning Partnership (HELP) grant, Region 15 Education Service Center in San Angelo, TX has partnered with Angelo State University (member of the Texas Tech University system) to recruit provisionally licensed school counselors from the M.S. in Professional School Counseling program for placement in 43 participating school districts in newly created positions. This partnership allows for reimbursement of tuition costs for participating students, in addition to the provision of quality social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to…
Oakland Unified School District held an African American Female Excellence Black Girl Power Conference in the fall of 2018. The OUSD superintendent’s plan prioritizes continued support for African American female excellence programming, a program that complements their multi-tiered systems of support efforts and trauma programming.
Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, a Project Prevent grant recipient, has used their funds to implement an online mental and behavioral health program called Ripple Effects for middle school students. The program provides interactive modules that teach students how to cope with and take action confronting mental and behavioral health issues, including bullying, sexual harassment, child abuse, depression, drug abuse, eating disorders, and suicide. Ripple Effects is currently used by 70 of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative’s 140 schools, which have seen fewer violent, aggressive…
Hornell City School District (NY) used Elementary and Secondary Education School Counseling funds to hire three additional mental health providers to support students in Kindergarten through grade 6 in three different schools. With the extra support, these schools have been able to develop Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) teams. These PBIS teams reorganized the systems and structures in place to better support students. Teams also implemented and fine-tuned preventative measures to make students feel safer and more secure in the school environment. The grant also…
Charter School for Applied Technologies (NY) used Elementary and Secondary Education School Counseling funds to hire two school counselors. The counselors played an integral role in creating a school-wide positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) framework. Through PBIS, students have learned to take ownership of their behavior and recognize and use strategies to support their personal challenges. During the 2016-17 school year, Charter School for Applied Technologies witnessed a notable decrease in incidents of harassment and bullying, even as enrollment has increased…
Gadsden City Schools (AL), an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, used its grant funds to hire two counselors and two social workers. The counselors and social workers provided students with individual counseling, group counseling, and crisis intervention. The social workers liaised between the school system and partnering agencies in the community to plan activities for students. During the grant period, Gadsden City Schools also used funding to establish a few district-wide initiatives, including drug awareness activities involving presentations by local…
Corbin School District, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, used its grant funding to provide mental health counseling at all its schools, especially at the primary, elementary and middle school levels. Mental health services were provided through a series of projects, including Treehouse University—a trauma informed skill building curriculum for upper elementary and middle school students who have experienced a trauma in the recent past. Students are provided with two or more small group sessions weekly with a certified school counselor and a mental health…
Bourbon County Schools, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, provides its students with a series of mental health services and supports using grant funding. These services include individual and group sessions, addressing intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships with peers and adults, academics, managing stressful and inter-familial challenges, and bullying prevention. In the previous school year, 2016-17, the mental health professionals provided an average of 466 group sessions to elementary students. That same school year, 43% of students in the…
El Rancho Unified School District (CA), an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling (ESSC) grant recipient, used their ESSC funds to hire eight school-based mental health counselors (i.e. school social workers), provide all school sites professional development on early warning signs of students with mental health concerns, and establish a district-wide referral process known as ACCESS. The ACCESS process pairs screened students with mental health counselors directly at the school site. Throughout the course of the grant mental health counselors provided evidenced-based individual and group…
Oxnard School District, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, provides mental health services to students and families living within the most underserved areas of Ventura County, California through Acción Positiva. The program is coordinated by Chris Ridge, the District’s Director of Pupil Services and utilizes a partnership between Oxnard School District and New Dawn counseling services, a local mental health services provider. Acción Positiva provides on-site, direct mental health services to over 100 students requiring intensive therapeutic counseling at seven of…
The Lansing School District’s Project Prevent grant (Project PEACE), under the Office of Culture, is providing a series of four professional development sessions on trauma-sensitive schools. The series will focus on developing a safe and supportive environment for students who have been exposed to traumatic/toxic stress. To prepare for the series, the district has developed a website to house resources, including the district’s PEACETalks as well as learning modules on trauma-sensitive schools from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The district has also released a…
Murrieta Valley Unified School District, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, won the 2017 H.P. McDaniel Foundation Group Award for their development of R.A.I.N. Elementary Counseling. Counselors in this district developed a model comprehensive program and completed significant research resulting in a major impact for the counseling field in the state of California. R.A.I.N. stands for:
Re-engaging Students,
Advocating for students and parents
Intervening with students, parents, teachers and administrators
Nurturing all students through the delivery…
Baltimore City Schools is utilizing its Promoting Student Resilience grant to establish a cohesive response to youth mental health needs, particularly in relation to trauma. Grant funds have been used to hire a trauma manager and trainers, and to provide a mandatory learning module on trauma-informed practices to all school teachers and staff. This article provides an overview of Baltimore City’s need for this work and its efforts to more effectively address the mental health needs of students.
Buncombe County Schools identified evidence-based strategies to improve social and emotional skills in students, and a reliable way to assess students skills, in an effort to close achievement gaps among their students. Their social and emotional curriculum included Second Step, Mindful Schools, and the Compassionate Schools framework. Schools used the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment to measure students' social-emotional competencies and the impact of social and emotional skills interventions. This article provides the criteria they used to select the assessment that best…
An Erlanger School District elementary school counseling team is featured in a case study, sponsored by the American School Counseling Association, to demonstrate their exemplary program promoting college and career readiness (CCR). The case study examines how this school's collaborative approach for implementing a CCR curriculum unit, Operation Occupation, for fifth grade students promotes student knowledge and skills related to CCR. These skills include awareness of occupations, financial responsibilities, and career goal setting.
Series builds off of last year’s Trauma Trainings for Educators that included an introduction to understanding Compassion Fatigue. This series will utilize reflective practices, videos, exercises, and collegial support to help teachers manage the challenges of this work while holding in mind each educator’s unique gifts and wisdom. The first session was titled "Reconnecting with Your Teacher’s Wisdom / Honoring Your Battle Wounds" and allowed teachers to spend time with colleagues, reconnect with their reasons for becoming an educator, reflect upon their experiences in the classroom…
Contains Oakland Unified School Districts (OUSD) Restorative Justice Toolkit which informs their districts discipline matrix. In their toolkit you can find their restorative justice resources and templates they use, from presentations to documents on how to build a restorative justice team. A notable success of OUSD's incorporation of restorative justice principles in their discipline matrix is they no longer give suspensions at any grade level for "defiance" or "disruption." Furthermore, students at OUSD are engaged in restorative justice practices through OUSD's "Restorative…
Provides Hillsborough County Public School’s Multi-tiered System of Supports - Response to Intervention (MTSS-RtI) Department- with a framework and process to ensure students have an opportunity to receive multi-tiered instruction/interventions within the general education environment with fidelity. The district’s framework incorporates a problem solving process for ensuring quality instruction and school-wide behavior supports are delivered to ALL students. Hillsborough’s MTSS-RtI department supports schools with maintaining this framework with many resources, documents, and forms…
Presents a video, created by the Elk Grove Unified School District, on the experience and successes of schools under Project GROW, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Grant program. The program uses a multi-tiered approach to address behavioral issues and provide developmentally appropriate interventions to students so that they can develop the skills to succeed in the instructional environment.
Northeast Washington ESD 101 is using their Project Prevent grant to provide tiered mental health supports through their school-based mental health services to students and their families. Counselors are trained in topics such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and complex trauma, to provide counseling and referral services for students, facilitate professional development for teachers such as mental health education, and coordinate school-wide programming that improve social skills and emotional intelligence. Notably, the services extend support to…
Presents findings for Michigan's Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Contains grantee progress and highlights: 65% of schools reported improved school safety scores, 52% of schools reported a decrease in bullying, 30% of Safe and Supportive Schools received "Reward" status, and 70% of S3 2010 Priority schools moved off the Priority List. This final report also presents trends in statewide graduation rates over the course of the grant, previews key initiatives, and details lessons learned.
Demonstrates through video Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative's adaptation of “Ripple Effects,” an online supported social and emotional learning program, for a rural setting. Kentucky Valley plans to implement it in over 70 schools by the end of their grant. Ripple Effects is an evidence based, trauma informed tool that can be used to support PBIS, Behavioral RTI, risk behavior prevention, and more.