43
Care Team to help end barriers to student success
By HArold gwin
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown city schools will pay the Muskingham Valley Educational Service Center of Zanesville $150,000 to develop and monitor systemic changes designed to remove nonacademic barriers to student learning.
The city school board voted to tap $150,000 in federal stimulus funds to pay for it.
The organization will do a major-needs assessment to determine what is needed using its “Care Team Collaborative” process to develop a framework for student success. It will use a research-based approach that includes the collaboration of home, school and community stakeholders to map out a continuum of care for all students that addresses physical as well as social/emotional issues.
It will guide the creation of a Care Team that will provide training and activities for students, staff and the community designed to prevent problem behaviors by improving the school climate.
Student performance data will be used to target groups needing additional services and support to improve their likelihood of success.
Activities could include extended-day programs, small-group counseling, bullying prevention, leadership training, mentoring and classroom presentations on such topics as suicide, depression and abstinence.
The team will meet weekly to identify children deemed to be “at risk” and provide services designed to meet that child’s and his or her family’s needs so no child can slip through the cracks, said Superintendent Wendy Webb.
The project will begin in the remaining weeks of this school year, she said.
The program will be implemented in all schools.