Class act: CARE: Escondido Union SD and county collaborate
By:
Kristi GarrettSummer 2013
Recognizing that students’ emotional and mental health has a profound effect on their academic progress, the Escondido Union School District looked for ways to bring mental health services to campus, where the students who needed them spent most of their days.
Thus began a partnership with San Diego County mental health services, which back in 2000 brought services for children eligible for Medi-Cal to a handful of school sites. At the same time, the district hired a social worker whose charge was to connect special education students with the county program. The partnership looked promising.
Over the years, the district—driven by the school board’s goal to “provide systemic student supports to promote high student expectations and achievement for all students”—looked for ways to bring the wealth of resources available in the community to all its school sites. From small beginnings at half its campuses, Escondido Union grew what became the CARE Youth Project into a districtwide partnership with county social services, law enforcement, local nonprofits, medical and recreational services, and the faith community that serves all its students.
Aided by a federal Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant, CARE—Collaborative Agency Resources for Escondido—exemplifies a community schools strategy with a three-tiered approach to providing services and activities to support youth academic and personal success. All students and staff are treated to a system of supports that help to create and maintain a positive school climate. There are plenty of opportunities for students to participate in activities where they can demonstrate leadership and develop social skills—healthy recreational alternatives, peer mediation, community service, and student advisory boards among them. Students who show they are at greater risk for failure—perhaps due to gang involvement, academic struggle or substance use—receive additional academic, mental health or behavioral support.
Then, students who are experiencing stressors such as grief, loss or problems with their peers, or exhibiting behavioral difficulties receive further help, either individually or in a group setting. Students and families struggling with behavioral issues, absenteeism, substance abuse or social-emotional problems receive more intensive services and interventions.
The results—well documented for purposes of the Safe Schools grant—show that the district’s proactive approach to supporting students is paying off. Suspensions, especially in the middle grades, dropped dramatically after the project began districtwide: 88 percent fewer middle school students were suspended in 2010-11 than in the previous year. Absences have decreased an average of 40 percent from 2008 to 2012. Beyond those indicators, the California Healthy Kids survey that’s given to seventh-graders each year documents a decline in worrisome markers such as alcohol and inhalant use, says project Director Kimberly Israel. “What we’re seeing is students reporting that they feel safer at school; they’re feeling more connected to school.”
That translates to less absenteeism and a corresponding rise in funding for school programs. The return on the district’s investment in the program caught the attention of San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency, which recently awarded the district its Public Health Champion award. An added bonus: “The reduction in revenue lost to absenteeism is remarkable,” Israel notes.
Professional development is the key to maximizing the effectiveness of the partnerships, and not just for teachers and administrators. Parents, too, get specialized training. The district’s Parent University served 344 parents during the 2010-11 school year and almost doubled that number the following year, to 641.
“I believe the way our project integrates school social workers into the district and school infrastructure has made the most significant impact on our students, parents and school staff,” says Israel. “Attendance, discipline and academic problems are symptoms of more complex issues for a student, within a family system or within a classroom or school. When those issues are addressed, those symptoms usually disappear.”
See more about the results of Escondido’s CARE Youth Project—a CSBA Golden Bell Award-winner in 2012—and its community partners at www.careyouth.org; see read more about CSBA’s Golden Bell Awards at http://gb.csba.org.