What are we missing? What can parents and educators do to provide extra support? Perhaps the most critical thing we can do is ask children, rather than guessing or telling them. As an educator, when you see a dramatic change in a child, there’s usually a traumatic event that has occurred. Knowing how to spot warning signs and respond in a supportive way is essential to helping students understand how to reduce anxiety, stress and other issues.

What are the warning signs of anxiety or depression?

Weight gains or loss: One of the common reasons that young people gain weight is actually abuse, so weight certainly is something educators should be paying attention to. The idea is not to call students out but rather to find an indirect way of supporting students’ mental health.

So, for example, a district in Naperville, Illinois, had students do some exercise around a track before school. They found that if students could get their resting heart rate up to one-and-a-half times their resting rate, they actually did better on standardized tests

Severe mood swings/lashing out: As with weight gain, something has triggered these behaviors. Whether students are modeling something that they’ve seen at home or having a shame-based response, people who feel exposed are more likely to act out in rage.

Teachers’ first response here should be to understand how much information they can get from the child about what they are experiencing. Next would be an invitation to the parents, saying, “These are some of the things that are going on at school. Could you help me understand what’s happening at home?” It’s also informative to ask, “What are they saying about school at home? Are they talking about frustrations?”

The goal is not to make the parents feel like they’re doing something wrong.The goal is to create an alliance with parents so that you can all understand the root of the issue. Is the student being bullied at school? Is something happening on a bus or on the way to school? When you see extreme mood swings, there’s almost always a story behind it.

Disengagement/sleeping in class: Sleeping in class is a clear warning sign, but teachers should also be on the lookout for students who have their heads down every day. They’re disengaged, they’re not making eye contact, and usually a lack of eye contact is shame-based, right? They don’t want to be seen. These individuals who don’t feel part of the class are more likely to start skipping class. Kids can fall through the cracks, and post-COVID a lot of kids are having a hard time going back to school because they were actually comfortable doing everything online.

Excessive screen time: Based on research, the No. 1 thing that is triggering adolescent anxiety today is screen time. Educators (and certainly parents) should do everything they can to be aware of how much a child is using a device. I know some schools have made the choice to not have phones in the classroom. This may help students focus during course time but it doesn’t address the cause of excessive screen time, which is often an emotional issue they’re struggling with.

It’s important to note here that there’s a difference between being an adolescent and being depressed. To some degree, mood swings and anxiety are a normal part of adolescence. The warning sign is when a student is anxious or depressed to the point where they say, “I just can’t get up.” If they’re coming up on finals or other key events, they need time to work through the stress but if concerning behaviors continue for a month or more, they need to be addressed.

How districts can support students’ mental health

Build a support team: Schools have the opportunity to influence the children’s minds in many ways, but it has to be a team effort. Teachers and the school counselor should be a part of the team. Districts can also help by setting up peer support networks. My children have been a part of a national peer-to-peer suicide prevention group called the Hope Squad. Giving students the opportunity to connect with someone their age may be the most powerful way districts can support their students’ mental health. The more support students have, the more connected they feel and the better off they are.

More from DA: This is how many teachers would carry a gun to make their school safer

Create ways for struggling students to succeed: When students who are struggling with mental health are in school, teachers can really help by creating moments for these individuals to succeed. It may be as straightforward as saying, “You know what? You came to school today and I know what was hard.” Having somebody pay attention to the fact that they stepped through those doors matters because when students are suffering, having somebody paying attention can make an enormous difference.

Hold community-building events: When it comes to fostering social connection, districts have a unique capacity to hold activities and events that bring students, teachers and families together. I think what we did here in Utah during the pandemic was actually quite incredible. Even throughout the year when everyone was out of classrooms, our schools continued to host sporting events and as many other activities as possible. I believe our state held something like 95% of scheduled activities, which really helped maintain some sense of normalcy and community.

Meet students and families where they are: Of course not all students attend events, so the next challenge is identifying those students who are struggling and reaching out to their family members so they can get the support they need. Working parents may have a hard time connecting with school or district leaders in person, but tools like ParentGuidance.org can be an enormous help. It’s a free resource for parents created by licensed therapists (including me) and districts across the country use it to provide families with information about mental health and practical steps they can take to talk their child through tough issues such as bullying, self-harm or when to report something suspicious to a trusted adult.

ParentGuidance.org also offers informative courses for parents. For example, we recently finished up a course to help parents understand ADHD and share some things they can do to help children with ADHD. Sharing resources is not enough, though. It takes more time and more energy. Why not periodically do Zoom meetings with parents, not only the ones whose children are struggling, but the ones who are thriving?

Creating these opportunities to connect over time shows families that you value their feedback. I believe that if schools, families, students and mental health professionals work with each other harmoniously, we’ll see much more effective learning for every student.

The post 4 warning signs that students are struggling with mental health. And 4 solutions. appeared first on District Administration.

Still, bullying ranks above active shooters as teachers’ No. 1 safety concern, RAND’s researchers found.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans are worried that schools are not safe from gun violence. Some 57% of Americans now say they think the schools in their community are safe from gun violence, a drop from the 65% who said the same in 2019, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist University national poll found.

More than 330 people were injured or killed in approximately 300 school shootings in 2022; there were 250 shooting incidents in 2021, the RAND Corporation reports. “These two most recent years have seen well more than double the number of shooting incidents at schools each year throughout the 2000s,” the authors of the study said. “All told, more than 330,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in a school setting in the past two decades.”

Teachers remain divided on the issue of letting educators carry firearms. While 54% said it would make schools less safe, 20% said arming teachers would improve security. The rest landed in the middle, saying guns would make schools neither more nor less safe. More white teachers than Black teachers said they believe arming teachers would improve safety while male teachers in rural schools were most likely to say they would carry a firearm at school if allowed.

More from DA: Kentucky superintendent suspended as two other leaders call it quits 

Several past surveys by other researchers have found lower levels of support among teachers for arming themselves, RAND’s researchers add. Meanwhile, about half of teachers think more common safety measures—such as locks, ID badges, cameras, and security staff—improve their school’s climate.

Arming teachers: What’s next?

Administrators and policymakers are encouraged to take a look at school districts that have more expansive teacher-carry programs to understand if the policy has made schools safer or if there have been unintended consequences, such as accidental discharges of firearms. How parents, students and staff have responded to the policy in those districts should also be considered.

Here are other steps that RAND recommends K12 administrators take before arming teachers:

1. Assess their outcomes potential outcomes by conducting a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of teacher-carry programs.
2. Develop risk analysis approaches that focus on both frequent, lower-level forms of school violence (such as bullying) and less likely, extreme forms of school violence—such as shootings.
3. Develop a deeper understanding of the sources of teachers’ safety concerns.
4. Identify how fears of victimization and other safety concerns contribute to teacher and principal turnover and to student enrollment, attendance and academic performance.
5. Take the pulse of parents, teachers, administrators, and students about school safety measures. Disaggregate feedback by type of community to zero in on the perceptions of school safety.

The post This is how many teachers would carry a gun to make their school safer appeared first on District Administration.

The food truck will, of course, be a big part of Lincoln Public Schools’ culinary CTE program. But getting the truck going will require the skills and participation of students studying graphic design, automotive repair, business and law, among other subjects. “This food truck is a mobile classroom that is cross-curricular,” says Filippelli, Rhode Island’s 2023 Superintendent of the Year.

Lincoln Public Schools bought the five-year-old food truck from a restaurant with $125,000 worth of help from the Rhode Island Department of Education. Three graphic design students, including one who is special needs, have designed the wrap to cover the exterior of the truck, now dubbed the “Lion’s Mane” after the district’s mascot. Business and law students will review state regulations to ensure the truck has all the appropriate licenses.

The CTE focus jibes with the “vision of a graduate” framework Filippelli and his team are now finalizing after three years of work. “That’s the curriculum driver for everything we want our little Lions to be when they come to preschool and what we want our seniors to exit as when they graduate,” he says.

That vision, however, goes nowhere without the facilities to support i. Lincoln Public Schools, a suburban district of about 3,200 students, recently completed a $60 million renovation of its high school and is now building a $9 million physical education center. In the fall, voters will be asked to approve a $25 million bond to fund new gymnasiums, makerspaces, STEM spaces and reimagined cafeterias at the district’s elementary schools, where the media centers are also being renovated and updated.

“We’ve got a lot of infrastructure to support the curriculum,” Filippelli explains. “By the time we’re done, we’re probably going to spend close to $100M in renovations. That is really exciting.”

Why you need a second therapy dog

Meeting the social-emotional needs of students and adults presents one of the biggest issues that Filippelli says he and his team are facing as the school year winds down. “Last school year, we were coming out of COVID and we came out pretty strong but this year, getting back into those routines and putting COVID in the rear-view mirror, that really has been a challenge,” he says. “There have been some behaviors that we’ve had to address that just leave you scratching your head.”

The district has used ESSER funds to hire extra social workers and psychologists and ramped up professional development on trauma-informed practices. The district is also now home to a therapy dog, a Labradoodle named Willow. “She has made an incredible difference when it comes time for state testing and finals exams,” Filippelli says. “We’re considering getting a second one because it has made a huge impact to have a therapy dog here.”

Lincoln has not struggled to hire teachers as much as it has in filling administrative vacancies. The district has received about half the applications that it normally gets for an open position.

More from DA: This low-profile staff position can save districts millions each year 

Filippelli is seeing both lower enrollments in college administrative training programs and fewer teachers excited about moving to central office. The pay for a beginning administrator—such as an assistant principal—is not that much higher than for an experienced teacher who also earns a stipend for additional instructional duties. Some educators may not consider the pay increase worth the tilt in work-life balance for an administrator who is obligated to attend school events multiple nights a week, among other duties.

Can schools provide everything?

Filippelli is deeply involved in state and regional school safety efforts, including with SENTRY, a Northeastern University-based think tank that is backed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and is looking into the role artificial intelligence can play in K12 security, among other research. The organization has also analyzed Lincoln’s lockdown drills.

He is also an adjuct instructor in the principal development program at Providence College and often works with state legislators on laws that will impact education, both positively and negatively. He is concerned about a bill that, at a cost of $15 million, would provide universal free meals to all students and the financial strain that could place on the state’s education system.

“Ever since we became mobile hospitals during COVID, parents have this expectation that schools just need to provide everything,” he concludes. “As you provide more, responsibility gets pulled away from parents, and when people have responsibilities pulled away from them, you get used to that really quickly.”

The post How this superintendent is fueling multidisciplinary learning with a food truck appeared first on District Administration.

The path forward is fraught and full of challenges, as the problem’s scope, scale and impact are unparalleled and unprecedented. The most recent State of Mental Health in Today’s Schools survey collected insights from more than 350 school social workers, teachers, counselors, administrators, and district leaders, finding that 85% of respondents agree or strongly agree that students are more stressed and anxious than in previous school years.

The consequences cascade beyond just emotional well-being. Nearly 90% of survey respondents indicated that stress and anxiety negatively impact academic outcomes. With math and reading scores falling across the board, it’s clear that helping students learn requires more than just excellent academic opportunities.

As school administrators give their best to help their staff and students meet the moment, here are three ways they can lead through the student mental health crisis.

1. Prioritize self-care and personal well-being

Administrators are both sounding boards and problem solvers, encountering and encapsulating the trauma and challenges of their staff, students, and communities. If you’re feeling burned out and overwhelmed by these acute challenges, you’re not alone. One education report found that 85% of principals are experiencing “job-related stress,” and nearly half are managing systems of burnout.

To effectively support their students and staff, administrators must first affix their own proverbial oxygen masks first. In other words, they must prioritize self-care and personal well-being. Prioritize self-care by making time for habits and activities that are essential to maintaining physical and mental well-being. At the same time, establish clear boundaries, lean on your administrative team and celebrate successes.

Most importantly, seek support early and often. This might include building a support network among colleagues, friends and family. It can also include help from mental health professionals who can help you prioritize your own mental health, ensuring you are best positioned to support the people around you.

Leading through a crisis is especially difficult, and the most effective leaders will take care of themselves first.

2. Team up to multiply impact

Students are struggling, but they don’t want to struggle alone. In fact, the State of Mental Health in Today’s Schools survey found that 70% of survey respondents agree or strongly agree that students are willing to communicate their needs and ask for help from a trusted adult at school.

However, 85% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they wish they had more tools or resources to help students address their mental health challenges. Specifically, the survey revealed that just 35% of respondents believe their school or local community has a tool for reporting, supporting and maintaining student mental health challenges and outcomes.

More from DA: This low-profile staff position can save districts millions each year https://districtadministration.com/this-low-profile-staff-position-can-save-districts-millions-each-year/

Teachers or mentors often resort to casual chats in corridors, exchanging documents or sending emails to convey student requirements to counselors, administrators and auxiliary staff.

Collaborative case management platforms equip schools with the necessary resources to address urgent concerns. By transcending rudimentary or makeshift communication techniques, cutting-edge digital record-keeping and integrated case management systems enable staff members to effortlessly link students to indispensable support services. This enables school personnel, community resources and families to work together to help students thrive.

Some schools are even forming strategic partnerships with local healthcare facilities, making it easier to offer immediate mental healthcare services to students. Regardless of the methodology, administrators affect the most change when they team up with internal and external resources to multiply impact.

3. Monitor progress and continuously adapt

When it comes to improving students’ mental health outcomes, success is a journey, not a destination. Administrators best navigate this course by identifying, measuring and analyzing key indicators of improvement.

This might include improved attendance, elevated academic performance, more active engagement in school functions, or other anecdotal evidence. It might also require surveying or assessing students to acquire data-based insights into evolving needs, required interventions and support efficacy. School administrators can measure outcomes related to student mental health by implementing comprehensive assessment strategies.

Equipped with these insights, continue to adapt your offerings to meet shifting needs, allocating time and resources appropriately. In this way, administrators can ensure that their efforts are directed at the interventions making the most impact.

Empowering the next generation to thrive

Schools are working tirelessly to support their students, and yet it doesn’t seem like it’s quite enough. By prioritizing self-care, fostering collaboration, leveraging resources and continuously measuring and adapting to meet the needs of students, administrators can lead their schools through this difficult period.

It is crucial to remain persistent and dedicated in the face of adversity, as the well-being and success of students depend on the collective efforts of educators, administrators and the community. By embracing innovation and fostering an environment of support, schools can effectively address the student mental health crisis and empower the next generation to thrive.

The post 3 keys to leading through the student mental health crisis appeared first on District Administration.

Two South Carolina school districts—Fort Mill Schools and the Clover School District—are among the latest to take aim at social media companies for their negative impact on students. The lawsuit targets Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat and Google, which owns YouTube.

“We’re hopeful that this will maybe help some of these companies put in some extra safeguards for kids,” Chief Communication Officer of Fort Mill Schools Joe Burke told WCNC. “We heard last night that a lot of kids on this platform are in the 8 to 12 range which shouldn’t even be on those platforms.”

Also this week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new mental health advisory addressing social media use and its effects on youth mental health.

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis—one that we must urgently address,” Murthy said in a statement.

While social media poses a clear and immediate threat to students, as the headlines suggest, do school districts stand a chance in their fight to reduce the risk?

Dr. Aaron Saiger, professor of law at Fordham University, says their chances may be slim.

“I am not optimistic about the success of these lawsuits,” he says. “Many, many products have adverse effects on children that create costs for schools. These costs include, but are not limited to, mental health problems for students. Without making any claims about relative magnitude, products that come immediately to mind include television shows, phones, sugary foods, sneakers and music. All of these products arguably harm children but also bring value—which includes enjoyment—to their users.”

He adds that we’ve seen these heightened states of fear and “moral panic” before surrounding new behaviors and technologies that young children take a liking to.

“TV shows, rock music and video games have all been viewed by adults as a scourge that needed to be stopped lest they destroy children and childhood,” he says. “In earlier periods, these conflicts played out over genres like films and even novels. This is not to deny that new kinds of entertainment often do create new problems. They do. But they also create value that hidebound adults cannot—or do not want—to see.”

That being said, he doesn’t think the lawsuits are “preposterous.” If a company produces a potentially harmful product and doesn’t take measures to mitigate the negative effects it has on its audience, they’re responsible for it.

“A company is liable for placing a dangerous product on the market if it failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate the danger its products pose, or if its product is so ‘inherently’ dangerous that the dangers vastly outweigh whatever compensating value it offers,” he explains. “My lay understanding of social media is that it is not the latter; social media provides an enormous value to many people, including children.”

“I do not know whether there are ways to mitigate the bad effects of social media on children that would be realistically achievable and reasonably effective,” he adds. “For example, could companies actually enforce minimum age requirements, and would that help mental health? If there are such steps, social media companies would be wise to take them. But such steps, to be reasonably effective in this context, cannot destroy the value of the product.”

More from DA: By the numbers: The pandemic and its ‘complicated’ toll on K12 education

Another complex element is the idea that students are seemingly addicted to social media, something that Murthy points out in his advisory.

“Small studies have shown that people with frequent and problematic use can experience changes in brain structure similar to changes seen in individuals with substance use or gambling addictions,” the advisory reads.

Another national survey revealed that one-third of girls ages 11-15 reported feeling “addicted” to a social media platform. But according to Saiger, it’s a loaded term in this context.

“It comes from medicine and implies a physical dependency,” he says. “Courts might well hold that it is per se unreasonable to try purposely to ‘addict’ children. But companies are entitled to design products that consumers enjoy using and therefore want to use more of.”

But the lawsuits clearly put pressure on social media companies, he notes. As with the general surgeon’s advisory, they stir public conversation and potential regulatory intervention, regardless of whether the lawsuits are dropped or resolved in favor of the company.

“They might also motivate state and federal regulators to look into the issue,” he says. “The companies might reasonably look for proactive measures that would satisfy some of the districts’ complaints in order to head off adverse regulatory action. This could look like a win to the districts.”

The post Do school districts stand a chance suing social media giants? appeared first on District Administration.

“We try to offer a very wide breadth of programming—extracurricular and academic—that outmatches our size,” says Smith, who after seven years leading the Point Pleasant Beach School District was named New Jersey’s 2023 Superintendent of the Year.

What Smith is most excited about right now is the expansion of what his district calls “Gull Flight School”—which is not an aeronautics program. Rather, it gives students a chance to soar academically with more than 40 dual-enrollment courses in conjunction with nearby Ocean County College, Smith explains.

“We’re seeing more and more students get so many credits in high school, they’re entering college with a full year under their belts,” he continues. “And our parents and community members are now understanding how much of a tuition savings that is.”

More from DA: Teacher morale has not totally tanked. And here are 5 ways to rebuild it. 

The expansion of Gull Flight School is a natural outgrowth of one of the district’s most distinctive achievements. Point Pleasant Beach schools often have among the highest percentage of students taking AP classes in New Jersey. “Sometimes it’s hard for little schools to stand out because we can’t do as much,” Smith explains. “Our conversations are about access, and equity through access and how do you get all students to work at the level they’re capable of—and we believe in that work and we’ve made great strides.”

The other big initiative that has Smith fired up is Point Pleasant Beach schools’ “gamified” staff wellness program. The district offers free yoga and gym workouts and dozens of other events and activities in which teachers and other staff can win rewards. “Our tagline is ‘A healthy staff room is a healthy classroom,'” Smith says. “We believe that by attending to the social-emotional needs of our staff members, we get better performance out of everybody.”

How Point Pleasant Beach schools tackle challenges

Keeping Smith up at night is enrollment in his district. The community sustained heavy damage in Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and many older houses have been demolished and replaced by more expensive homes. This has made it harder for young families to settle in Point Pleasant Beach. The district has about 100 tuition-paying students, and its wide range of projects is a key selling point.

For instance, Smith and the school board found a way to maintain AP language programs even though only a handful of students were enrolled in the courses. Computer science and engineering classes were added when the district converted the high school media center into an “innovation collaboratory.” And when students asked for business classes for two years, the district launched a business program.

“We build what needs to be built,” Smith says. “We try to be responsive to what the needs are and we try to read the tea leaves for what’s going to position our students best for their post-secondary outcomes and dreams.”

One key to all these efforts is maintaining a strong working relationship with the school board and its president, in particular. That means Smith and his team try to be transparent when explaining the rationale behind their decisions to board members. It’s also important to remain flexible in adapting to the styles of communication and leadership of each school board member. Finally, establishing boundaries between the roles of district staff and elected officials also fosters productive working relationships.

“It’s not always rainbows and unicorns, but it’s an open line of communication,” Smith concludes. “If you continually remind everyone we have to be doing what’s in the best interest of kids—that’s what’s going to drive our programming, that’s where our budget’s going to go, that’s what every move is about—it helps you keep some of the ancillary challenges at bay.”

The post How this superintendent is amping up the power of his small N.J. district appeared first on District Administration.

And with ESSER relief funds expiring next year, the specter of layoffs and budget cuts are only adding more anxiety to a K12 environment fraught with a rise in student misbehavior and other safety concerns. Not surprisingly, then, administrators focused on teacher retention will find some conflicting sentiments from the educators who participated in the influential Merrimack College Teacher Survey that was released this week.

For example, the percentage of teachers who report being “very satisfied” with their jobs has nearly doubled from last year (it’s up to 20%) but less than half said they would recommend teaching as a career to their younger selves. More teachers feel respected by the public compared to last year’s poll but more than a third are considering leaving the profession within the next two years. On the bright side, that number dropped from the 44% who said in the 2022 poll that they were thinking about leaving.

“While this should serve as a flashing red light to educational policymakers, the survey also provides insights into strategies that educational administrators and policymakers can employ to address this,” said Dean Deborah Margolis of Merrimack’s Winston School of Education and Social Policy. “By prioritizing teacher mental health and well-being and taking steps to build teacher morale, academic leaders can help create a healthier and happier school environment and retain more of their teachers.”

About one in three of the teachers surveyed acknowledge receiving mental health and wellness support from their principals. However, only one in 10 of the teachers who admitted that mental health is having a major impact on their work said the same.

Making headway on teacher morale

Here are the top five steps that teachers recommend administrators take to improve the work environment in schools:

1. A pay raise or bonus to reduce financial stress (67%)
2. Smaller class sizes (62%)
3. More/better support for student discipline-related issues (62%)
4. Fewer administrative burdens associated with meetings and paperwork (57%)
5. More acknowledgment of good work/hard work/successes (54%)

And here are some more details on just how and where administrators can make some morale-boosting changes. First of all, teachers who have more autonomy over their work tend to be more satisfied, the survey points out.

More from DA: What’s driving K12 staff layoffs? It’s much more than expiring ESSER funds

Teachers in this year’s poll said they continue to have a lot of autonomy over pedagogy, the curriculum, student assessments and classroom management. But they feel they have much less control over school policy or their own schedule, including when they have to take on additional duties such as supervising recess.

Further down the list of steps for improving teachers’ mental wellness are more para-professionals to assist teachers in the classroom, stronger support when parents make demands, time and space to step away from the classroom to distress, and more opportunities to exercise and healthily during the school day.

Finally, teachers had some strong opinions about what administrators should learn in graduate programs about supporting staff. At the top of the list was understanding and supporting teachers, followed by more flexible schedules, time off and wellness programs.

The post Teacher morale has not totally tanked. Here are 5 ways to boost it. appeared first on District Administration.

Additionally, spring means that the end of the academic school year is quickly approaching. While many educators await the end of another year and look forward to summer, there is also anticipation for the new school year ahead.

The research is clear. Student wellbeing is a crucial component to effective learning. Studies from CASEL highlight the practical benefits of SEL and student well-being programs. Included in those findings are that about 27% more students would improve their academic performance due to SEL programs, and 24% more would have improved social behaviors and lower levels of distress.

Universal screening can start your school or district on the path to this type of success by providing actionable data to address student needs, proactively respond to risks of absenteeism, and implement broader interventions and initiatives that support students at school.

Warming up to well-being screenings

Here are three reasons why you should start universal screening for student well-being in the spring:

1. To contribute to the success of your district or campus improvement plan: Campus improvement plans identify ways to improve student achievement, increase school district capacity, and improve performance in each component of school district effectiveness. Data from universal well-being screenings can provide insight directly from students to help identify the areas the campus improvement plan needs to focus on in the coming year.

2. To plan for staff professional development: A good universal screener will provide data from the district level down to the individual student level, allowing administrators to easily identify those areas that will need special attention from the district. This allows administrators to build relevant staff professional development for the coming school year to address those areas.

More from DA: What 7 districts plan to fund and what leaders might cut

PD planning can be much more intentional, focusing on areas where students in the district most need support. And since much of that PD planning takes place in the summer, having that data available in the spring allows administrators to take action, using the data in conjunction with academic, behavioral, and attendance data to plan relevant, targeted, summer PD.

3. To get an indication of what students will need in the new school year: Data from spring universal well-being screeners helps educators gain an understanding of the needs of the students who will be in their classes in the coming year. They can identify which students should be on their radar and determine how they can set them up for success.

For example, what are the needs of students coming into middle school? What activities will school counselors need to do to prepare to support these students? How can the information be used to create interventions across Tier 1, 2 and 3. This data can also be instrumental in creating class rosters, small groupings, and more.

Data from universal well-being screeners helps district staff use their time wisely to prepare for the coming school year, knowing they are focusing on areas where students are indicating they need some help.

Measuring the effectiveness of well-being programs

It’s important to remember that spring universal well-being screeners also can help measure the effectiveness of student well-being programs. If students have already taken a universal screener in the fall, their teachers likely already identified the ones who needed student support initiatives and areas of concern for smaller groups and the district as a whole.

By administering a screener again in the spring, educators can see how the interventions and supports they’ve implemented have impacted students. What has been working? What programs might need some adjustments? Are there individual students that need extra support beyond these programs?

Even if educators have not administered a universal screener with students in the fall, spring survey data will provide a good temperature check of current programs, allowing the district to determine where they need to focus to start creating a positive school climate.

The post 3 reasons spring is a great time for student well-being screenings appeared first on District Administration.

In Denver Public Schools, a draft of a new safety plan and a string of “recent tragedies” incidents drew a vigorous and detailed response from the district’s teacher’s union. A member survey found that smaller class sizes and mental health services were far higher than SROs and metal detectors on the Denver Classroom Teacher Association’s list of steps it would take to make educators feel safe.

For example, more than 70% of the teachers want class sizes reduced but only about a quarter said metal detectors would help. “Educators believe that smaller class sizes and caseloads are the most important factor in creating a safe school environment,” the union said. “By reducing class sizes, educators can establish strong connections with students and foster a welcoming and supportive learning environment. ”

More from DA: Leaders who are taming out-of-control absenteeism are focused on 3 areas

A significant number of Denver’s teachers warned that students were receiving “less than half” of the mental health support they need from the district. They also want more training on restorative discipline and de-escalation techniques.

“A significant number of educators reported that they are not receiving adequate information on student support needs, including the process of collecting data, determining when to involve parents, and creating behavior or support plans,” the union said.

Teacher safety solutions vary

In Minnesota’s Twin Cities, a majority of high school teachers said they felt unsafe or very unsafe in Saint Paul Public Schools, according to a district survey. Weapons and student-on-student or student-on-staff violence were the biggest concerns of teachers at all levels. Overall, 56% of teachers said they felt safe in the state’s second-largest district.

Some other troubling findings from St. Paul include:

• Most staff have witnessed or experienced physical violence.
• The majority of staff did not feel equipped to deal with the situation when they witnessed or experienced physical violence.
• Many staff have been involved in multiple incidents, sometimes with the same student(s).
• Most staff were not satisfied with the outcome after an incident of physical violence and did not feel supported by building administrators.
• Staff often felt helpless to prevent, improve or resolve the situation.

But teachers in Saint Paul demanded different solutions than did their colleagues in Denver. Stricter punishment for student misbehavior and SROs were at the top of the list of things that would make St. Paul’s educators feel safer, according to the survey.

‘Safety starts with the classroom door’

In Wisconsin, three Racine USD teachers have sued their district over the handling of safety complaints. Over the past 18 months, the teachers had filed grievances over a student firing a gun in a school bathroom and fights involving students and staff, The Journal Times reported.

Shooting and other violence in Nashville, Tennessee, Clark County, Nevada and Tacoma, Washington, over the last week have spurred calls from teachers unions for administrators to take more aggressive safety measures. Discontent in Tacoma led teachers to vote no confidence in a middle school principal and assistant principal, KOMO News reported.

“Safety is an issue. It starts basically with the classroom door and how we talk to each other and how we treat each other, and I would say that we have failed miserably,” one of the teachers told KOMO News.

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Among the states experiencing the steepest increases in chronic absenteeism are:

• Ohio: Rates soared from 20% in the 2018-19 school year to 39% in 2021-22
• California: Jumped from 13% to 30%
• Connecticut: Increased from 12% to 25%

And as administrators know, chronic absenteeism can torpedo a student’s academic prospects and sink their chances of graduating from high school. “The strikingly high rates of student absenteeism post-pandemic are undermining educators’ efforts to help students recover from the pandemic and diluting the massive, $189 billion federal investment in that work,” warn the authors of the newly updated “Attendance Playbook” from the nonprofit Attendance Works and the FutureEd think tank.

This spring’s updates to the playbook (which was first published in 2019) offer a range of strategies that superintendents and their teams can use to further reduce chronic absenteeism. The recommended solutions cover family engagement, attendance and students’ social-emotional well-being.

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“The strategies eschew punitive approaches to reducing truancy, which research have found to be largely unsuccessful, and instead promote conditions that strengthen the educational experiences of all students: rigorous instruction that is relevant to students’ lives; a safe, welcoming school climate; and stronger bonds between students and teachers,” the authors of the report wrote.

3 levels of addressing absenteeism

The playbook’s strategies and solutions are arranged in three tiers. School-wide prevention aims to reduce absenteeism among all students, targeted support removes barriers for students at heightened risk of chronic absenteeism, and intensive support provides individualized case management to students most at risk of chronic absenteeism due to health conditions, housing insecurity and other challenges. Here’s a look at how to make them work:

Tier 1—School-wide prevention:

• Relevant instruction: Teenagers who skip school often cite “boredom” and disengagement as a reason. In one study, high school students who followed a STEM career track were more eager to attend.
• Incentives: Rewards can work when administrators are clear about the students they want to reach and the behavior they need to change. Incentives can be simple, such as an attendance bulletin board for kindergartners or a middle school classroom competition.
• Rethinking recess: More structure at recess can reduce bullying that can often occur on the playground. Some districts have hired recess coordinators or coaches to train teachers to give students options for games on the playground. Through this approach, some children become playground leaders or “junior coaches.”
• Free meals for all: A universal approach reduces the stigma of receiving free meals and can also ensure that no student goes hungry because of challenges in applying for aid. Recent research has also linked universal free meals to better attendance in the early grades.
• Laundry at school: This is a new approach, but early evidence shows attendance improving at schools that have opened laundry facilities. Whirlpool is providing laundry appliances to about 130 schools through its Care Counts program. In the 2019-2020 school year, almost 75% of elementary students at risk of chronic absenteeism improved their attendance after they began participating in Care Counts.

Tier 2—Targeted support:

• Targeted youth engagement: Programs that help students develop problem-solving skills, self-control and emotional regulation, and stronger self-identification have been shown to reduce absenteeism. One such program is Positive Action, which has been piloted in Chicago and Hawaii and stresses getting along with others, and self-management in 15- to 20-minute segments.
• Addressing asthma: Nearly one in 10 U.S. children have asthma, a disease that accounts for nearly 14 million missed days a year, according to the CDC. Schools that have had success in reducing asthma-related absences are providing students with access to full-time nurses and conducting home visits to educate children and families on using asthma control medications.
• Mental health and school refusal: The more students who suffer from depression and anxiety miss school, the harder it becomes for them to return. The first step in solving this problem is for educators to determine if the cause is personal, such as anxiety around leaving home or failing grades, or something that is occurring at school, such as bullying or intense academic pressure. Cognitive behavior therapy—which includes relaxation techniques and social skill development—can then help students contend with the emotional distress that is preventing them from getting to school.

Tier 3—Intensive support:

• Housing insecurity: New York City is reducing absenteeism among housing-insecure students by providing the Department of Homeless Services with school data for students living in shelters. Shelter staff are now helping families enroll students in school, monitoring attendance and providing children with homework space.
• Rethinking truancy: Promoting attendance also requires administrators to abandon punitive approaches that have been shown to be ineffective at reducing truancy. School leaders and their teams also have to determine if bias is a factor in which absences are labeled unexcused. The report warns that the current surge in chronic absenteeism is driving some districts and states to consider strict new truancy rules.

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