Pyramid structure of intervention (from community/school-wide to individual/intensive level of intervention)
Community
- Parent Workshops
- TMS/THS counselor meeting with parents
- Participation on the district-wide SEDL Committee Social Emotional Development and Learning Committee
- Parent Cafe; seeking parent feedback about meeting their children’s social-emotional
- District Needs Assessment survey
- Professional development for staff- meeting the needs of our students
- Probation workshop; Rensselaer Co. probation department presented to SEDL (school referral documentation, procedures, new screening procedures).
- Subcommittees; development of consistent attendance procedures, FBA/BIP procedures, parent engagement, etc.
- Court Diversion Council meetings (community-based problem solving)
- SPOA (Rensselaer Co. Mental Health- referral program)
- Coordinate provider meetings (working with outside community providers to meet our individual student needs)
- Development of a guidance newsletter; information, resources, and contact information
- Coordinate with outside services and agencies to provide workshops for students during or after school.
School
- Parent outreach (making and maintaining contact with parents; facilitating parent meetings; home visits)
- Participation with PBIS; supporting the monthly themes, expectations, and behaviors
- Monthly guidance lessons in classrooms
- DASA- using data to identify who/why others are being bullied (poor, disabilities, skin color)
- Guidance calendar is shared with faculty and staff; outlined are the roles/responsibilities for each member, and the on-going work that is conducted throughout the guidance department
- Participation on team meetings
Small groups
- Group counseling (attendance, coping skills, social skills, problem solving skills)*
- Daily check-ins; counseling “as-needed”
- Push-in homeroom groups (team-building, coping skills, problem solving skills)
- Gay Straight Alliance/ Roy G Biv group within TMS; working with existing group at THS
Individual students
- Individual behavior plans; plans have been compiled into a binder, in a secure, central location to be accessed by monitors, PE, nurses, and other staff that need to see them.
- Individual counseling
- Crisis intervention
- Referrals and facilitation to mental health services
- Monitors and nurses have been included in guidance meetings to discuss individual student needs and maintain communication (i.e. students with 5+ visits to the nurses’ office, students needing a check-in, etc.).
* Counseling groups/individual were organized based on the following:
a) the social-emotional screen conducted by each team on a team-wide spreadsheet (ratings of 0-3)
b) counseling as a related service on IEP’s
c) referrals from the previous guidance counselor (i.e. at-risk for attendance)
d) parent referrals
e) PST referrals (identified as an intervention).
All students receiving counseling, and their provider, have been organized by grade level so that monitors, nurses, and other support staff can identify the contact person for a specific student.