Kindergarteners expelled for bad behavior leads to Project KIND

YOUNGSTOWN

Project KIND, a Wean-Foundation-funded program that helps Warren kindergartners behave appropriately in the classroom, is being tried out in a Youngstown elementary school and could eventually be made available to schools nationwide.

Employees of the Warren counseling agency Community Solutions who work in the schools observed about seven years ago that many children were starting school without basic social skills, such as getting along with classmates or waiting their turn to speak.

It was about the same time that the agency began to hear about kindergartners in various places who were being expelled for poor behavior, and it seemed like a good time to address the issue, said Kathy Marando of Community Solutions.

So Marando and co-worker Kathy LaMarco developed Project KIND.

For more on this innovative program, read Sunday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.