Daily Archives: February 2, 2012

Helping at-risk students succeed

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Tori DeAngelis writing for the APA describes a model for helping kids succeed in school.  Its a model that our district is trying to establish though our Healthy Community Pathways program.

 

  1. Making innovative changes to classroom instruction. That includes bringing support personnel into the classroom, rather than taking children out of class when their behavior or inattention may have gotten out of control.
  2. Supporting children through transitions.
  3. Connecting families to schools and school activities. This includes offering basic parenting classes, fostering more meetings between parents and teachers and involving families in homework projects, field trips and other activities.
  4. Maximizing use of community resources. Developing and maintaining strong connections with community resources can greatly enhance schools’ capacity to support these youngsters.
  5. Reorganizing crisis assistance and prevention. Schools need systems that can respond quickly and effectively in the wake of any crisis, whether it is a natural disaster, a terrorist attack or student acting in a way that endangers others. Schools must also create safe and caring learning environments that deal preemptively with disruptive and potentially dangerous behavior such as bullying and harassment.
  6. Improving links to external mental health and behavioral services. When internal resources aren’t enough, schools should be able to refer students and families to mental health and financial assistance services in a timely fashion.

Read the whole article here… Helping at-risk students succeed.