Board Report: Student Services Update (January 2025) Board Report: Student Services Update (January 2025) Show Transcript good evening my name is Sina Baines I'm the director of student services with Jasper County School District and this is our 2425 school year update the of the officer student services is to work collaboratively with students families staff community and uh to support Student Success by identifying and addressing barriers to learning promoting safe learning environments increasing attendance and encouraging overall student wellness some of the updates that I'm going to share with you tonight is our uh social emotional learning and the supports that we provide crisis response and assessments are nursing update discipline attendance our home visits that support our attendance and our McKinney vento efforts the student service staffs include myself as director of student services Miss Sheila Martinez Administrative Assistant alation steedman bar clinical social worker Miss Crystal Grimes and Morgan Oedo who uh all serve on our individual campuses at the heart of campus with Miss Grimes Miss Obed serves the original campus to support those students Cassandra Alexa which is our district lead nurse and Dr LeRoy Dinkins who is a truancy officer for the district so the value of social emotional learning uh we have engaged on being a trauma-informed district and taking to heart um the of social emotional learning of our students so we want to make sure that we're able to promote emotional regulation and resilience amongst our students improve their academic performance and reduce their behavioral issues encourage empathy and decision making um our social workers specifically work a lot with the crisis interventions and counseling School counseling also uh help students with academic planning um and also their emotional support and then we have mental health uh providers third-party mental health providers that provide intensive therapy and evaluations for our students so case loads what does it look like in action Miss steedman bar she has 25 intensity um 35 McKenney vento students that she's working actively with um providing resources we have Miss Grimes who has 46 students assigned on the Hardeeville campus Miss obah who has 26 students on original campus um and 10 students at jcap Miss Tisdale who is 1 of our part provide us through Coastal Empire she has 40 students on our case load Miss o Banner has 31 who's also with Coastal Empire and then we have hope for Horizon um which is another third party provider who is providing intensive support for 1 of our students in reference to crisis response and threat assessments so um there are times in which there are are incidents that require us to do an immediate evaluation on site uh to determine or threat assessment to determine um a students proclivity to um self harm suicidal homicidal or self harm radiation um and then we have to after doing that assessment or evaluation um we work with third-party providers to implement care plans should the need arise um some cases there have to be uh transported uh to a local um Healthcare facility uh to provide an more intensive evaluation or determine um the impetus for that student to to self harm or or have those homicidal ideations um I will say because of our efforts and our response in last year we have a significant reduction in those assessments prepared the last year um last year I there were about 37 um overall threat assessments or evaluations having to be done um some of them um requiring hospitalization and things of that nature but we've had a reduced number of those um and so you see that that information there 10 hospitalizations last year for long-term placements um they included things such as self harm like cutting burning um hitting themselves scratching themselves homicide ideations we had 21 threats 6 involved law enforcement um compared to uh only 10 crisis of threat assessments conducted during the first semester of this school year so that is a significant reduction um from last year school nursing pleased to note that all of our schools are staffed with the nurse at this time all immunization reports have been submitted to D our vision and screenings uh hearing screenings are currently in progress so our nurses and um nursing assistants are working through those to make sure that all of our students have those vision and hearing screenings and we have a continued partnership with Buford Jasper Health uh for doctors to come in and do visits with uh to visit those students or students to be able to see the doctor during the school day um to provide those Health Care Services and they're also doing Telehealth for mental health um for students who require uh mental health support so our discipline overview um as of uh prior to January 6th we've had 76 disciplinary hearings conducted um 152 disciplinary hearings were conducted in the school year 2324 so where where there's a slight reduction as far as at this point in the year um we're hoping that our efforts will greatly reduce the overall number of disciplinary hearings um and as we look at the data um these are the things that we use to make determinations on how we support our students and which students are required the greatest need of Support also what time of day might be um you might see the most activity or or the most referrals so um looking at that first uh graphic you see the number of office referrals by ethnicity um and we're right now now um we have 948 African-American students are are referrals from African-American students and while compared to only uh 415 from Hispanic or Latino students if you look at the number of office referrals by grade uh 8th grade right now is kind of outpacing everyone else with the number of referrals that have been generated with 200 175 with the very next um next uh grade level to have the highest number of referrals would be ninth grade so want to make sure that we target uh our efforts toward uh improving those numbers with amongst eighth grade and Ninth Grade which are pivotal transition years for our students all right so number of office referral roles uh by time occurrence um if you look at the the time with uh that we have the most significant rise in office referrals that's happening around 1:00 which is right after lunch much so making sure that we are prepared visible providing adequate supervision assisting the schools with those um with supervision and support during those time during that time frame pivotal and so we plan to see a reduction in that that timing as well which will also reduce our overall number of referrals office referrals by um proportion so as it stands um at the time this Report was generated um we have 1,275 students who identify as black or African-American and they account for 968 office referrals compared to our Hispanic and Latino population which constitutes um 1824 students but they only account for 4 15 offers referrals so being able to Target which population students are getting um office referrals at a greater degree or uh will also allow us to Target which population students require um most support and if you're looking at the type of Officer referrals I will say um this graph is a lot different than what we saw last year um there have been a reduction some behaviors that we've targeted and um for instance The Vaping um 004 Contraband or 230 tobacco violations were much higher on this list last year but because of our a proactive approach um to addressing some of those concerns things such as the scanners um we've seen a reduced number in those referrals also um if you look at the bottom of of this list um you see um uh phone violations our proactive approach to um the how we address cell phones has greatly reduced the number of referrals that we've seen districtwide for self phones and of course our new cell phone policy which is was approved in November is uh will be enforced begin to be enforced uh this this month so we're excited to see that that should be a a even lower number moving forward as well attendance overview so we have multiple players that that are contribute to um assisting in address our attendance issues and it starts with our data specialist and they monitor uh tenders daily they document the interventions at 3 day and 5 day letters are being sent out for students who have missed those at those intervals Miss um at those intervals also they are to submit requests for home visits for students who are chronically absent they also gather information for court petitions for truancy cases and I'm excited to say that we now have a truancy officer who um will be helping us address and curtail some of those those issues they will also monitor attendance investigate absences enforce business laws uh provide interventions and support for those students who are habitually truant um work collaboratively with administrators counselors and Community agencies to determine the best course of action to um help students become more engaged with the school and and uh increase their attendance also this individual will help with supporting documentation and Reporting and advocacy and prevention um through our attendance awareness programs home visit data there have been uh 42 home visits for semester 1 um now those particular home visits were spec specifically for attendance interventions Wellness checks are residency verification we have uh an additional 21 home visits which are outside of that 42 um and that was for resource management that's deliver food for our McKenna vento students or other McKenna vento related um support items to those students who uh who were in need our McKinney vento program in school year 2324 we had 81 unhoused students at 11 unaccompanied youth as it stands right now in 2425 we have 50 un students in 4 unaccompanied youth now this is uh this hap this identification happens yearly so while you see a reduction in numbers um we have to students have to or parents will self-identify so um it may not be an accurate reflection of the number of students who are unhoused but during our registration process and the screener um we we there they may not consider themselves um unhoused are unhomed or homeless uh based on federal guidelines but federal guidelines um can say if you're doubled up if a student um or family is doubled up in a house um then they may qualify for McKenna vento um we are working to make sure that we have accurate identification so that we can provide support for those families so the types of services that we provide are food uniforms hygiene kits um with our last Forum uh last McKinney vento funding we were um able to provide some transitional housing um for those students that funding source has now gone away we have an new funding source that doesn't allow for the uh housing um transportation is 1 of those things that we still provide and counseling services as well so internally um we have uniform banks at all of the schools as well as jcap we have food pantries and um clothing closets externally uh we work with those third-party providers for mental health um and we also partner with um local hotels and and um other housing agencies to try to provide some temporary housing assistance for those who are in need um our overall 1 of the things that we want to do better is make sure that we identify those students who require those Services um at registration during the registration process in order to make sure that we're providing the most good most service for those students who are truly in need so far um closing remarks you know the office of student services we focus on providing a safe and supportive environment for all of our students we have been working to strengthen our crisis response and Mental Health Services uh 1 of those things that have um truly helped is that we now have uh Mental Health Counselors assigned to both campuses and there 4 days a week as opposed to uh 2 or 3 days as it was last year so our students are receiving more consistent support we want to make sure that we continue to strengthen other Partnerships such as um our partnership with DJJ um and and DSs to make sure that again we are providing the best uh service possible for our students we definitely um continue to partner with students and improve improve student attendance of things such as those home visits uh or any reports to either DSS or DJJ regarding truancy uh making sure that process is streamlined and last but not least uh we provided trauma-informed training for all staff to ensure that every staff member everyone who is touching a student here in Jasper County is well aware of the impacts of trauma and how it may um act student Behavior thank you so much for your time and attention Print