| School Social Work Services |
| School Social Workers (SSW) receive referrals from school staff or community partners and target student behaviors that impact school safety, ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs), positive social/emotional supports, and mental health issues. School social workers are hired in at the Masters level and provide services to students and their families. Services will reduce risks (behavioral, emotional, academic, social) by building protective factors (positive coping skills). 8.5 SSW's will be hired using Safe Schools Healthy Students funding. |
| Mental Health Case Management Services |
| Mental Health Case Management Services will target mental health issues of students and their families. Using Safe Schools Healthy Students funding, 3 case managers will be hired by the public mental health agency to act as liaisons between school (principal, teacher, school social worker) and mental health center providers (psychiatrist, therapist) providing case management and coordination of student mental health treatment plans. |
| Reconnecting Youth |
| Reconnecting Youth (RY) is a school-based prevention program for youth (9th-12th grade) at-risk for school drop-out. RY targets drug use, mood management, violence, emotional adjustment and academic achievement. RY will be provided by school social workers. Academic credit can be awarded for participation in Reconnecting Youth. |
| Why Try? |
| Why Try (WT) is an interactive targeted-group curriculum which teaches social and emotional skills needed to overcome challenges and improve outcomes in the areas of truancy, behavior, and academics. The interactive nature of the curriculum includes visual prompts (posters, journaling), auditory prompts (music), and kinesthetic prompts (team challenge activities). Why Try is appropriate for use in elementary, junior high/middle school and high school. School social workers will implement the Why Try curriculum with targeted groups in individual schools. |
| Strengthening Families |
| Strengthening Families (SF) provides children and their families with family skill building by improving family relationships, parenting skills, and by increasing social and life skills. SF is offered by age group 3-5, 6-9, or 10-14 and targets parenting skills, social competence, ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs), violence, and the presence of overall protective factors (positive coping skills). |
| Social Norms Campaign - Most of Us ® |
| Social Norms (SN) marketing will be implemented as a universal prevention strategy which corrects the perception gap between choices that youth are making related to the use of drugs and alcohol and the perception that "everyone is doing it". Past research on Social Norms marketing efforts has demonstrated that informing people that the majority of their peers are acting in a positive or healthy way can create an environment in which people actively strive to emulate what they believe is typical of their peers. |
| Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports |
| Positive Behavioral Supports (PBIS) involves the creation of school-wide system of discipline and positive behavioral interventions. PBIS is based on behavioral theory; problem behavior continues to occur because it is consistently followed by the child getting something positive or escaping something negative. By focusing on the contexts and outcomes of the behavior, it is possible to determine the functions of the behavior, make the problem behavior less effective and efficient, and make the desired behavior more functional. This often involves changing systems, altering environments and teaching new skills, as well as focusing on the problem behavior. |
| Character Counts |
| Character Counts (CC) is a universal curriculum to teach students six important character traits: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The program shows evidence of reduced behavioral problems and truancy, increased test scores, and improved decision-making skills. |
| Response to Intervention (RTI) model |
| Response to Intervention (RTI) seeks to prevent academic failure through early intervention, frequent progress measurement, and increasingly intensive research-based instructional interventions for children who continue to have difficulty. Students who do not show a response to effective interventions are likely (or, more likely than students who respond) to have biologically-based learning disabilities and to be in need of special education. For children with learning disabilities, RTI may assist schools in avoiding the so-called "wait-to-fail" method by providing intervention as soon as children exhibit difficulty. |
| School Safety Audits |
| Each school will participate in a school safety audit. Recommendations from the audit will be prioritized and implemented with Safe Schools Healthy Students funding over four years. Examples of activities that may result from this audit include additional safety equipment such as cameras, communication systems and restricted entry systems, training of staff for response to emergencies, and increased utilization of school resources officers. |
| School Resource Officers |
| School Resource Officers (SRO) are actual law enforcement officers placed in the school setting. An SRO is a teacher, counselor, and law enforcer. The SRO provides many of the following services to students, as well as to staff: law-related education and presentations, positive relationship building, problem solving techniques, public safety awareness, drug, crime, and violence prevention programs, planning and managing school crises, and handling dangerous or illegal behavior. The SRO maintains a comprehensive log documenting all activities performed throughout his/her day. |
| Early Childhood Development |
Programs will be provided to increase access to school readiness activities for pre-school aged children and their families. Kindergarten Readiness Checklists and transition plans will be developed and implemented. Additional programs, such as 1234 Parents! and Parents as Teachers, to aide the development of early childhood social emotional skills as well as parenting skills will be offered. |
| IPRC Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Survey |
| An annual survey completed by children and adolescents in the state of Indiana and coordinated by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC) in Bloomington, Indiana, allows for state and local entities to coordinate prevention programs by providing information regarding the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use among children and adolescents in Indiana. The SSHS grant will be surveying 6th to 12th graders in the participating school districts as part of the grant's program evaluation. |
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