Being Proactive, Not Reactive
With the sharp uptick in mental health issues, Freehold Regional School District realized its current professional capacity was insufficient to meet and address their needs. District Superintendent Dr. Nicole Hazel adopted a proactive stance and partnered with ESS to ensure the necessary structures and supports were in place so that staff would be able to effectively respond to student needs. Freehold Regional already had a longstanding relationship with ESS. In 2011, ESS helped the district establish a therapeutic learning academy, located at one of its high schools – allowing students with therapeutic needs to stay in the district and remain part of the high school community. That undertaking was such a success that the district again turned to ESS as it sought to build professional capacity across its six high schools.
Starting with Leadership
The district had collected solid data, so it knew what challenges were most prominent among students at its six high schools. Now the goal was to equip teachers and school counselors, who lacked clinical expertise, with knowledge and practices to support students across a range of social, emotional, and mental health issues. Dr. Hazel believed that for the necessary professional development to take hold on the ground, engagement had to start at the highest levels of the administration. Once a methodology was established, leaders throughout the district had meetings with ESS to ensure they were knowledgeable about the programming, strategies, and approaches and could then present them to principals as well as teams of teachers and school counselors. “I think our partnership is so fabulous,” Dr. Hazel says, “because ESS brought high-quality content, and Freehold Regional stands out for its commitment to both data-driven decision making and strong leadership.
Supporting Teachers: An Evolving Series of Initiatives
The capacity-building partnership, which just wrapped up its third year, has continued to evolve to meet the district’s changing needs. In the summer of 2021, it began with brainstorming sessions, out of which came two initiatives – Grand Rounds and Individual Consulting – both of which were implemented in the 2021-2022 school year.
During Grand Rounds, which took place at each of the six high schools, case studies were presented, and ESS clinical experts led discussions on successful practices and strategies. The Individual Consulting sessions allowed school counselors to work with ESS consultants on best practices for addressing a range of high-risk behaviors.
In the 2022-2023 school year, the consulting services continued, and group facilitation training was introduced, to prepare school counselors to lead group counseling sessions. “ESS got us on the right path with tremendous support in training to build the confidence and the capacity of our school counselors,” Dr. Hazel says. Now, all school counselors possess the skills and experience to lead effective student support groups.
This past year, in addition to increasing support and consulting services to address the needs of Tier 2 students and their families, two new initiatives were launched. First, an anti-bullying curriculum was implemented to reduce the incidence of bullying and harassment among students. As a result of the initiative, one high school saw a decrease of 38% in incidents of this kind. And, to address the ongoing issue of school avoidance, ESS worked with the district to create an Attendance and School Avoidance Plan, which outlines the issue and offers best practices and strategies to support students.
In the 2024-2025 school year, the district will build on the School Avoidance Plan developed by ESS by launching a comprehensive initiative focused on attendance. This new initiative will include presentations on best practices and will stress impeccable implementation of attendance policies and follow-through by leadership at each of the high schools. In addition, the plan calls for regular Attendance Meetings among district leadership to review attendance metrics and compliance with the plan. The success of this professional capacity-building partnership is apparent. Teachers are better equipped to support students in the classroom, and the counseling staff are better able to be of service.
“They feel empowered by the district. They feel that we are giving them what they need to be successful in their jobs at a time when the issues are so elevated. Being able to call upon an expert from ESS at any time for assistance has been tremendous for them.”
— Dr. Nicole Hazel, Superintendent, Freehold Regional High School District
