‘Every Child, Every Day’

Goal/Purpose: Social Distancing has created social isolation for some of our families/students. Students are more at risk than ever, and a school’s ability to “keep eyes” on students is greatly diminished. In order to maintain community, social contact, and to ensure that we can do all we can to maintain our students safety and support families by making community connections when they are struggling, we believe that contact should be made with every student, every day.

Concept Description: Utilizing the fundamental, underlying concepts of the researched based program “Check and Connect” from the University of Minnesota, we propose that school personnel be set up to reach out to families/students in partnership, to:

● Maintain the positive relationships necessary to student social/emotional/behavioral success and commitment to learning;

● Engage students and families in learning in the context of the pandemic, stay at home orders and social distancing and the context within which the family is currently living;

● Connect families/students to community resources when required to ensure families have basic needs met.

Strategies:

Four components:

● Staff “mentor” assigned to students to keep education salient

● Systematic monitoring (checking in with student/family every day)

● Timely and individualized intervention (providing the supports needed)

● Enhancing home-school communication and home support for learning

Core Elements:

● Building relationships, engaging the power of providing a caring and supportive environment

● Problem Solving, providing opportunities for educational success, helping students with personal problems

● Individualized intervention, connecting students with resources (social worker, counselors, community agencies)

● Building/maintaining affiliation with school

● Persistence Plus - providing a persistent source of academic motivation, familiarity with the student and the family, and consistency of the message that education is important

● Mentor focus on alterable indicators of engagement, in other words, checking on whether students are completing whatever tasks are presented, engaging in check-in calls

Necessary Resources:

Mentors:

○ Willingness to be a mentor

○ Willingness to persist with students

○ Personal belief that all students/families have abilities and strengths

○ Willingness to cooperate and collaborate with family and school staff

○ Ability to work independently and keep records

Check-In procedures

○ Identified list of questions and considerations that serve the purpose to both connect and identify potential challenges, for example food insecurity

■ “What did you have for breakfast/lunch/dinner?”

■ “What did you do today?”

■ “What did you learn today?”

■ “Did you struggle with anything today?”

■ “What was hard/easy?”

■ “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Key Considerations:

○ Consider your SAP teams taking on the responsibility to address elevated concerns from mentors

○ Work with your counselors and social workers to come up with indicator questions that demonstrate the need to elevate a student’s situation for increased support.

○ Ensure all staff assigned as mentors have received training on how to deal with difficult situations/questions/information

○ Create a log in which mentors can document contacts/attempted contacts and concerns

○ Ensure there is a process for elevating concerns to be addressed by other staff or community resources

○ Don’t forget mandated reporter requirements if child abuse/endangerment is suspected

RESOURCES (Don’t forget to print resources for families that do not have internet access)

Establishing Classroom Community – Classroom Management – Safety Resources

Establishing Online Learning Expectations - Suggestions for establishing expectations during this online

At Home Schedules - Creating schedules at home to maintain consistency and routine

Creating a Safe Environment - Maintaining structure and routine how to speak to your children, creating a safe environment

Coping Strategies - Helping children cope with an emergency

Talking about the Pandemic - Tips for managing student stress

Online Safety - Talking with kids about being online and digital safety

More About Cyber Safety - Cyber Safety Considerations

Dealing with Cyberbullying - Suggestions for connecting with your students and cyberbullying considerations

Positive Reinforcement - Phone app to provide communication with families and students and provide positive reinforcement tied to your expectations

Social Emotional Learning - SEL & Edmodo Assignments for Distance Learning, create classes, wellness checks, quizzes, communication, resources

Personalizing student engagement - checking in with students before they check out

School Counseling Resources - Planning for Virtual/Distance School Counseling During an Emergency Shutdown

Social Skills & Social Emotional Learning Resources

Social Skills - Social skills from K-12, mindfulness, impulse control

Parent Supports for SEL - Parent response during Covid-19 to support social emotional learning supports

Coping with Disasters - Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Disasters and Other Traumatic Events: What Parents, Rescue Workers, and the Community Can Do

PaTTAN SEL Resources - SEL resources for families

CASEL COVID-19 Resource Page Wealth of Social emotional resources, teachers, caregivers and parents

CASEL Signature Practices Playbook Teacher or parent directed activities (65 pages of resources/lessons to address engagement in social emotional learning

Commonsense Media Educator Toolkit: SEL Social emotional resources around character strengths humility and gratitude, teamwork and communication, curiosity, empathy and compassion, integrity and self-control

8 Amazing Videos to Teach and Practice Mindfulness with Kids Recorded SEL or mindfulness videos

5 Incredibly Fun GAMES to Teach Self-Regulation Youtube video with 5 games to teach self-regulation

We Integrated Yoga videos (registration required) Elementary and Secondary

InstagramSAVEWITHSTORIES - Online Storytimes

Helping children cope with COVID-19 - Articles, strategies, etc…

Office for Safe Schools resources - Resources from PDE on School Climate, Bully Prevention, Mental Health Resources

Mental Health Resources

Mental Health Toolkit - (Great resources with coping skills for young children, elementary, middle school and beyond, signs of someone that needs mental health support)

Mindful matter App IOS and Android App provides coping skills, based on how are you feeling?, provides mental health resources & organizations grouped by condition, 360 Experience, faculty & parent training

Mindfulness, anxiety resources - Affirmations, Self-Care, Anxiety workbooks

Mental Health First Aid Resources - Mental Health First Aid resource for suggestions for loved ones struggling during this pandemic

Mental Health Resources for Anxiety/Depression - Mental Health First Aid how to support a loved one with anxiety or depression during Covid-19.

Mental Health Resources for Self Care - Self-Care for Anxiety Youth Mental Health First Aid

Self Care - Free Self-Care Activities

Managing Anxiety - Resources for anxiety management

Self Care for Teachers - Self-Care strategies for teachers and mindfulness activities

Using QPR in addressing loneliness - Question, Persuade, Refer (loneliness during pandemic focus on the elderly)

Staying Connected - Staying connected, self-quiz on the importance of connecting with others to serve as a protective factor minimizing the risk of suicide

Wellness

Move Your Way - Activity activities to build wellness

Building an Activity Schedule - Activity Schedule ideas for parents

Talking with Children - Talking with children about tragedies links with various resources, videos and examples.

Staff Support Resources

Teaching Through the Pandemic - Hundreds of teachers, many of them operating in countries where teach-from-home has been in place for weeks, weigh in on the mental approach you need to stay grounded in this difficult time.

Working and Learning Online - Resources for teachers in online teaching

Do’s and Don’ts of Pandemic teaching - ways to address this new teaching paradigm

Resources to support teachers - Resources to start important conversations with students about the coronavirus outbreak, and to explore questions about community, responsibility, decision-making and upstanding that are relevant in this moment.

Teacher Self Care - staying balanced during the pandemic.

Teacher Mental Health - taking care of yourself and your mental health during COVID.