Summarizes research conducted primarily over the past 10 years on how families’ involvement in children’s learning and development through activities at home and at school positively impacts literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional skills of children ages 3 to 8. Addresses implications for future research and practice on family involvement.
The SS/HS Initiative set an overarching goal to increase family engagement in schools. One key feature of this goal focused on the needs of parents and caregivers who struggled in navigating multiple child serving systems and in accessing services for their child with serious mental and/or behavioral health needs. As a result, Wisconsin’s state team partnered with Wisconsin Family Ties (WFT), the statewide family organization, to establish Parent Peer Support (PPS) providers in LEA’s across the state as a strategy to connect families, schools, and community.
The Greene County Educational Service Center (ESC) has a large minority population in their pre-schools and elementary schools with over 20 different languages and cultures represented. Most students need services through the ESL (English language learner) and LEP (limited English proficiency) programs. ESC desired to effectively address diverse student needs while also engaging students and their families in a positive and respectful manner.
Greene County Educational Service Center (ESC) developed the ECMHC program to promote young children’s social and emotional development, to address challenging behaviors, and to assist parents/caregivers of young children in the region who have experienced high levels of trauma or toxic stress. The caregivers in early learning programs were not adequately trained on how to support the social-emotional development of children. In Greene County, 44 out of 57 child care centers were not yet participating in the Ohio’s quality rating and improvement system.
Recognition of the critical importance of mental health in the education of young children has brought significant change to Laconia’s Pleasant Street School (PSS) and other district schools.
The Family Center in Concord School District (CSD) is a district-wide early child development program focused on strengthening the home-school connection for Concord families with young children. With a boost from Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) funds, the program has expanded to four Concord locations.
Pennsylvania is integrating five previously discrete SAMHSA-sponsored initiatives to create a comprehensive system of care for families, children, and youth with behavioral health needs from birth to adulthood.
Pennsylvania’s SS/HS initiative has developed a protocol to guide community-level teams in identifying and selecting well-founded programs and practices to address salient student and school needs that fit the local circumstances and context. The protocol is designed to be used by an inclusive team involving educators, student and family representatives, as well as system partners.
School professionals and students across all seventeen school districts in York County, Pennsylvania formed an active student-led Youth Mental Health Alliance (Alliance) that serves as a catalyst “to end the stigma of mental illness, and to ensure that mental-health resources are available to everyone who needs them”—especially the county's youth.
Ohio is one of seven states awarded a Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grant in 2013 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
