Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Student Services Committee Meeting, Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 27m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/799315816?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:06] Good evening. I call to order the Student Services Committee, February 15, 2023. We'll move to the item, I guess, with Paris Medvi and Ms. Sheridan present and Ms. Ogdebay absent.

[00:00:22] I guess I'll move to the second item, public comment. I've been notified that we have one speaker tonight, Ms. Weisskopf. You have two minutes. Hello. I actually wanted to, one, speak in support of the Unified Mental Health Team.

[00:00:45] Uh, my first year of teaching here in Loudoun, I had lunch duty, which is the worst thing in the world, but I was with one of the counselors and I thought we were just chit-chatting, but she went, she hasn't had eaten her lunch two days.

[00:01:01] And I realized, oh, we look around the room and she was paying attention and that taught me a lot in that moment. Um, the other thing, second step, it's a one size fits all program. You know, it's good, it's bad, it's whatever something that's one-size-fits-all is.

[00:01:18] I have never taught communism with it. If you want me to do that, I would need a different program. Something else I'm curious about, I don't know if this is the committee, but on the news they showed that Montgomery County had administered NARCON 11 times, probably more by now this school year, and I would really like to know the numbers for Loudoun.

[00:01:43] That's serious. Also the incidents of breakdown that were presented at the equity committee. I think it's important we know by school if the numbers are high at a school because they're not being addressed or they're high because the teachers do know to report things. But I would like to see that breakdown by numbers.

[00:02:02] Black Lives Matter. I guess that was the only public comment speaker tonight, and so we'll move to the next item, number three, approval of January 25, 2023 minutes.

[00:02:24] Do I have a motion? So moved. I'll second that. Any questions? Okay. All those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. The motion passes with Ms. Ogdebay absent. with that I guess we'll move on to item number four review policy 8610 and is that the right order Miss Jones Dr. Jones so because in the board docs with different I need to open my board docs I guess because we have an action item

[00:03:03] tonight right and that's not 8610 thank you yes in board docs actually the action item review of policy 8290 threat assessment for the protection of schools we listed the division counsel Robert Falcone would be attending but tonight we have assistant division counsel mr. Wes Allen and he is here to present that as an action item okay so we'll move the agenda again from not from this but it's going back to board docs and we'll review the policy 8290

[00:03:40] and I guess I'll pass it to mr. West on this thing thank you good evening policy My 8290 threat assessment for the protection of schools is moved hereby tonight to incorporate amendments that incorporate the Special Grand Jury Recommendation 3, which is that the LCPS Director of Safety and Security needs to be more involved in situations that threaten the safety and security of students, faculty, and staff.

[00:04:13] This came before the committee last meeting, January 25th, as an information item. And we would move that the committee approve it with the amendments as stated here.

[00:04:35] Thank you, Mr. West. Do we have any further questions? So the Section E, I guess, have a question. The threats of self-harm, was this added recently based on feedback? Because now there was a lot of feedback on that, saying, are we addressing that?

[00:04:53] Was it something that I added since we spoke last time? It's my understanding that this was in the prior iteration of the policy that was last revised, at least in June 2018.

[00:05:10] It was moved down as a separate item just to stand alone, but it had previously been part of Policy 8290. Mr. Mehedivi, to answer your question, if you look at the red-lined item, line 49 through 51 is where that information previously resided, and it's just been moved down as a separate section of its own.

[00:05:41] And I'll just ask Rita my question. I know we spoke about it, but we're going to make sure that all the staff involved in this that we're adding into this, Section A, the team, which is now including the school security officer i know the sro that there will be proper training available for them as they go through this so the regulations are somewhere we just need to make sure that they are you know they're trained and they're aware and so on so forth as they go through it that's kind of mentioned

[00:06:17] last time just that would be my hope as we go through the policy that's all yes to confirm that is included in the regulation under b2 uh under the threat assessment teams that they'll have proper training and refreshers so I'll make the motion that this committee recommend this policy to the full board policy 8290 do you have a second second any further questions no no all those in favor raise your hands and I the policy

[00:06:51] passes to the full board with Ms. Ogdebay absent Mr. Mejedevi and I am now in board docs and the remaining items on your paper agenda are in the order as listed in board docs and we have mr. Smith from chief technology officer who

[00:07:29] is here to present policy 8610 student records so we thank you for this opportunity for bringing policy 8610 student records before the board this is policy up for its five-year review it was brought as a first reading in December but we're bringing it again as a first reading too so we're just going to do a walkthrough. The version I am referencing is the student records red line copy that

[00:08:06] highlights the changes. Sections A1, 2, and 3 have clarifying language that was provided by Division Council to make the policy clear. Section 6 was added. It is a new section to specifically outline the process for notification and training. LCPS had this practice already, but this section codifies it in the LCPS policy. I believe this comes directly from Virginia state code section the next substantial change section is sections d d1 d2 and f are additions

[00:08:43] that come directly again from state code so these would be the major red sections going through the end of the policy and again we're added to clarify our policy and align it with state code one item i did want to make a comment on is we received feedback on lines 50 to 52 those lines read such records may be maintained in any way, including but not limited to handwritten, print, computer media, video, audio tape, film, microfilm, and microfiche. One item I wanted to highlight is we follow Library of Virginia record retention policies. Students' cumulative folders are

[00:09:17] required to be kept for 75 years, and that's from date of graduation. So we currently are maintaining records that were created in 1935. So this policy is covering everything from 1935 to now also existing seniors started you know 13 years ago so we have it's not just student records that are in place as what we can maintain now they kind of span the entire 88 years of records maintenance that and this policy covers all of that so that's all I had to cover and open to answer any questions thank you I'll open up for questions I don't have any questions miss Sheridan

[00:09:56] I'm just curious the records that go back to 1935 have they been scanned and they're digital or are we still maintaining paper ones so we have scanned but there is some significant historical to keep them in certain in the condition that they're in so we still store them that way we do partnerships with the edwin washington project for example and they take those records that have historical significance and they're those are some of the records they'll be using at douglas school so we do have them digitized for what we can there's also some records that are so fragile that we can't so everything that we can digitize is and anything

[00:10:32] that's new that's come in is being fed directly into laserfish which is our digital platform we just have a gap of records that still need to be scanned in so every day we're getting a little bit closer to having everything scanned in i'm sure that's a huge undertaking and of course the fragile records i hadn't even considered that so thanks for that it's interesting information more than anything else. Absolutely. Any other questions? So, Mrs. Smith, I have a question on the new section on 32, Section 6. So, I think we've done a good job about putting

[00:11:07] the Virginia reference code in there. Can we also make sure that those Virginia codes are referenced here as well for that section, Section 6? Absolutely. I believe that section was added by Mr. Falcone, so I'll reach back out and make sure that we coordinate with that for the next time.

[00:11:28] Did you follow that? It's my understanding that that language echoes what is listed in the VSBA model policy, but to the extent it's from code specifically, we'll be sure to include that as a reference. Thank you.

[00:11:44] And so does that also go down to Section E, F, and G as well? Section G has codes in there, but I don't see for F or – I mean, E also has it, but F does not.

[00:12:02] Yeah, I can speak to the fact that section E is also included in the VSBA model policy, F and G, or not. But to the extent that is lifted from the code, we will reference that code section.

[00:12:21] So today, again, I'm going back to section F here. So I'm presuming that we already share the information. This is getting codified in the policy. Is that how I understand this? like sharing the student data with military recruiters or any other higher institution of education right now?

[00:12:40] That's correct. We follow whatever has been in our code, Virginia code, for those practices. So again, when I discuss this with Mr. Falcone, my understanding was that we were just making our policy more closely resemble what our practices were and what our state code requires.

[00:12:58] But like I said, I will confirm that. Well, and then the thing we just got is saying we haven't got feedback because we haven't put this out for feedback yet for this policy. The feedback is included. We did get feedback.

[00:13:14] That's the one item I did reference from minority student from the MSAC feedback. So, and we received that in November before the reading in December. So, one of the questions they ask is, are we using microfilm, microfish to maintain records?

[00:13:42] Since we have records going back to 1935, we have them in all sorts of different media formats. And that definition actually comes directly from the student data website from the ed.gov site, which defines a student record. So it's pretty much cut and paste from that site for what defines a student record.

[00:14:01] And the intent of that section is to identify it's not just digital records. There's these other things that count as student records that can be put as part of the QM file as well. So going forward, do we then digitize and maintain all handwritten notes into electronic?

[00:14:16] I mean, do we have anything to cover that? How do you store any written notes in a file or anything of that sort? So schools still have CUME folders that they keep for students where they put these things in that are part of the student record. They're stored at the school level in physical folders for five years, I believe, and then they're transferred to our office for long-term storage so that they can access them at the high school level for things like students in need of a transcript or something like that or after a recent graduate.

[00:14:44] But then those folders are sent to us, and as much of that that has already been digitized is already transferred over to our LaserFish system, and then the rest of it is scanned in by the team. And I forgive, I'm presuming there's a regulation that goes with it that describes the record retention policy of which documents, how long we keep, and when we dispose them, and so on and so forth.

[00:15:06] This is just referencing the student records, so there is no regulation that goes with this policy. This is our practice right now in following the retention schedules that are listed on the Library of Virginia. So those are our guiding documents that drive how long we have to keep each document.

[00:15:24] I think, I mean, I'm not sure, I think it would be helpful for the parents and for everybody to see, I'm sure for employees too, and maybe this is not specific to student records, but overall just a sharing of, you know, what records, how long we keep it by federal law, by state law, and, you know, how long we keep it, et cetera.

[00:15:48] I think it would be great to present that in some fashion, somewhere. We are actually working on an overall record retention policy right now. It is in very, very early draft format. In comparing to our neighbors, there really is a lack of something that specifically states how long you're going to keep something.

[00:16:05] The Library of Virginia is also open to interpretation for some of those record types. So we're really, they kind of default to what you want to do. So student records, they're very strict. They outline everything. Everything else is like e-mails, electronic documents.

[00:16:22] It's kind of a little bit of a gray area. So we are working with that internally, and then we have some internal conversations going on about what that would look like and then hopeful to bring a policy to the board at some point in the future about just record retention separate from student records. Just on the topic then, I guess, so do we have records management systems in place to lock records so that it can be modified further if they are once it becomes a record?

[00:16:46] Again, there are a lot of different how you define what a record is Because if it's active, it always needs to be updated. But once it becomes, if the student is out, you can't touch them. So do we have tools and controls in place to make sure that the records are retained the way it needs to be?

[00:17:03] So depending on the records, such as school board minutes or student records, there's different systems in place that do that and kind of encapsulate those systems. For the student records specifically, they go into a lockdown system with view-only rights for specific staff. And then we're able to go back and staff do searches in that system to pull those back when they need to based off of any sort of request that we would get.

[00:17:24] So it depends on the record in the system. HR has a separate process for HR records, and that is a completely separate identified record on the Library of Virginia versus student records and every other record type. So look forward for the record policy, I guess. And so we'll bring this back as action item in the next committee meeting, and hopefully we get some more feedback.

[00:17:45] Now, so MSAC, we got feedback. We didn't get feedback from SEAC. actually yes we did submit this policy for review to seag they did review they had no suggestions for any changes and just for clarification i know that mr smith is shepherding this policy but in student services we work closely regarding this policy as well i thought i understood part of your question was is there an existing regulation with this policy there is an existing regulation

[00:18:17] with this policy and there that is under review by members on mr. Smith's team as well as mine to ensure that aligns with our existing practice and if there are any additional clarifications it does speak to informing parents and a little bit about record retention as well if so i will double check with the superintendent's office i mean it was it was to follow the standard review

[00:18:57] process in November so I'll go back and look and verify that but my understanding is the only feedback we got was MSAC got it so we can just get all the information back for the next committee meeting so we can then take action on this thing and go forward with it okay well thank you for for joining us tonight so next item on agenda is review of policy 5040 school counseling services and this is being brought as a information item for the first time to this committee good evening it would be the second time but I think we're starting over right from the beginning so what

[00:19:34] we did was we took the current policy and regulation and combined them they were very short but I'll go through the line items and the information that has been changed and we did consult with district council as well so if you look at lines 10 through 14 that basically was the regulation the 50 40 regulation so we moved it into policy and then when you look at lines 19 through 35 those are straight from virginia code one addition that we did make based on feedback

[00:20:11] from the 12 15 meeting was to add lines 36 through 40 which describes that personal social counseling includes services delivered by school counselors to students either individually or in groups and includes character education and bullying prevention personal social counseling does not include social emotional learning lessons provided by teachers and other instructional staff so that was added and then when you go to page 2 looking at lines 45 through 49

[00:20:48] those are from the model policy the VSBA policy section B 51 through 65 is also from the model policy and then section c 67 through 74 is the model policy as well item 2 under c 76 through 78 is the code virginia code as well as item 3 80 through 83 about the opt-out for parents and then

[00:21:23] item 4 the 85 to 86 is the model policy d 90 through 93 is from the virginia code as well as 95 through 97 about the public participation in reviewing the policy and we did receive I think you have copies of some minor feedback on the policy one

[00:21:53] was a grammatical correction yes right here so leaf both were from leaf put it up for questions thank you mr. Evans you know I think this just a feedback on

[00:22:31] the spreadsheet we get I know it's not each specific thing I think maybe I I sure talked to Aaron about this, but that's how we are seeing across all committee. And especially if you have, like, I mean, this feedback goes in the column. It's just not, we'll work on to see how we can get it more in a different format than the way it is.

[00:22:54] So, I don't know, do you have any questions, Ms. Sheridan, on this? The question I have, it's in line 80. It's, I mean, we talk about parental notification.

[00:23:14] So if you're providing any personal social counseling, I guess two sort of questions comes up. So parental consent is not required for short duration, but do we still notify parents if there's any of the social counseling provided to the student?

[00:23:39] So we look at it across the tiers. So personal social counseling is done at all the levels. When we're doing more targeted services, that requires an opt-in from parents. they do have to sign permission for us to have them in individual or in group which is more formal and there's goals associated with that what this is referencing is more the responsive services that might happen during the school day if a kid has you know difficulty with a peer and they drop by the counselor's office we're going to support that student so they can get back to class and the parent would be notified but there's no formal permission for that got it no i think it's it's

[00:24:17] It's an important part of the thing, but I mean, just to clarify nowadays how and what the definitions could be, so. Okay, and I guess we got the feedback from LEAF, but I guess from MSAC and SEAC. Will we be going through and seeing if we can get feedback from them as well?

[00:24:37] Yes, there is a statement in here representing from MSAC, and SEAC also received this policy. They did not have any additional suggestions for this particular policy. Just to follow up, the feedback from SEAC was, MSAC was to differentiate between SEL, which we did on that first page.

[00:25:08] I guess we'll work on to bring this as an action item next time and work through that. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is social emotional learning and second step.

[00:25:30] Thank you. We attempted to present last time, and I think we've got a few slides in, so if it's not too much of a bother, I'll just repeat some of that information so we have some coherence from start to finish.

[00:25:54] Dr. Warm wasn't able to join me back for this meeting. I would like to say that she is presenting to parents tomorrow night on SEL as part of our mental health and wellness parents series. So the topic of social emotional learning and second step will be presented to our families tomorrow.

[00:26:16] And she had just visited the Gifted Education and Advisory Committee in January and did a presentation for that group of parents as well. Okay, so how did we get to the point of implementing SEL?

[00:26:32] Well, numerous schools, elementary schools, had already been implementing various SEL strategies and programs, and we were getting schools contacting us for input and seeking our guidance and support as they wanted a greater focus on school-wide SEL.

[00:26:53] At the same time, we had secondary schools, particularly high schools, giving us feedback that many students were experiencing significant mental health issues and it seemed that there was they lacked skills social emotional competencies to address typical life circumstances adversity and coping with problems while pbis has been an important part of our behavioral part of our enhancing our learning environments many students still need explicit skill instruction taught by

[00:27:29] classroom teachers and reinforced across the academic day to promote their success and engagement and learning. And we, of course, adopted SEL because the science that was formerly known as emotional intelligence, and it's sort of been rebranded as social-emotional learning, had suggested for a better part of 25 years that this positive approach to psychology makes a difference in the learning of our students. It promotes healthy relationships, mental wellness, and improves

[00:28:07] discipline outcomes, as well as pro-social behaviors. Those were some of the drivers. So SEL has been a phased approach. It was originally meant to be a five-year phase-in. We started before the 2019-20 school year where we submitted a request for proposals and we had a large representative committee with input from parents, including SEAC parents and gifted education advisory group that helped unanimously select Second Step as our curriculum.

[00:28:42] The project started with 33 elementary schools, which is a very sizable first-year start, which speaks to the comprehensive interest that we had in SEL. Because the pandemic happened, that promoted greater urgency, which accelerated our implementation, and we expanded to 47 schools and K-5 in the 2021 school year.

[00:29:13] In the 2021-22 school year, the remaining elementary schools came online and joined us, and we implemented 13 of the 17 middle schools, which, again, speaks to the interest that our middle school folks had in implementing SEL in a structured way.

[00:29:34] We have plans next year to complete the elementary middle school. We are down to four middle schools who will be onboarded, and we're working with them right now to get them prepared for implementation next year. The adopted Second Step program is a curriculum designed to teach social-emotional skills essential to children's success in school and life, of course.

[00:29:59] The curriculum is organized into four units, and I'm laying out the units here by elementary and middle school. There's a total of 20 lessons at the elementary level and 26 to 27 at the middle school, depending on the grade level you're in. Units are aligned across grade levels, so each grade level in a school is focusing on a common unit of study.

[00:30:21] So, for example, growth mindset and goal setting, which is developing the growth mindset, is taught at the same time across all the different grades with developmentally appropriate curriculum to their grade level. All lessons are grade specific and follow a logical sequence that builds on one another.

[00:30:49] So, how do students receive SEL instruction? So in elementary school, second step is taught by classroom teachers using the morning meeting structure. Family communication regarding the lessons is sent home each week. In middle school, staff use the advisory period, which is either four or five days per week, depending on the school.

[00:31:12] Second step lessons are taught over one to two days per week in middle schools, allowing schools to present other important advisory activity and lessons that they've developed for their students. Presently, high schools do not use an adopted SEL curriculum but hold advisory to deliver mental health and wellness and other life skill lessons developed by student leaders and staff.

[00:31:41] I do believe they have nearly 100 lessons that have been developed that are used across our division that are coordinated to some degree, but we do not have a defined or set curriculum that has been implemented at that level at this point. Second step lessons are taught through video presentation and include real-life relatable scenarios that are relevant to their developmental level.

[00:32:08] One of the criteria we used for selecting second step is we wanted these lessons to be easily implemented by teachers and it didn't take a lot of prep time second step met that criteria the last lesson in each unit involves a performance task where students can apply the skills learned so it's more sort of outcome based in nature elementary lessons generally take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes and start with a brain builder activity brain builders and second step relates to

[00:32:48] a concept called executive functioning these are skills that are support the learning of effective and efficient learning so organizational skills goal-oriented skills attention focusing skills things to get them ready for learning middle school lessons involve interactive discussion-based activities and they generally take about 25 minutes and typically middle schools deliver this over one or two days in order to fully teach the lesson the two images

[00:33:23] in your pdf are actually linkable so you can actually see a preview of an actual lesson if you click on that so each year of implementation our office distributes the survey to all classroom teachers who implement second step to gather their feedback on fidelity of implementation and impact on the lessons we also gather feedback from our what we call our lead sel teachers who receive quarterly training from my office and provide ongoing support to support to their school from

[00:34:00] the sel team the second step program has helped teachers develop their own sel competencies and better connect with their students. What the literature shows is the delivery of SEL is also facilitated when adults also improve their SEL competencies. These data reflect the percentage of teachers who agree or strongly agree that students are demonstrating the taught skills in the learning environment. So this reflects three years of implementation from the 19-20 school year

[00:34:38] when only 37 schools in grades K through 2 started to where we are today, well, at least through 21-22 school year, that involved over 1,000 teachers implementing Second Step. Of course, the 21-22 school year was -- the data was greatly influenced by the implementation of our middle schools which was qualitatively new for 13 of our 17 middle schools that began

[00:35:11] implementation. Fidelity of implementation is an important part of improving our student outcomes. Our data that we collect shows a strong correlation between the fidelity of implementation and the impact on student skills. In other words, teachers who implement all the lessons with the prescribed fidelity report greater impact on student incomes fidelity is supported and monitored through my office and the sel team our sel our schools complete the sel

[00:35:48] implementation rubric annually to identify areas for improvement so this is a way that the admin other SEL leads assess their own fidelity of implementation and identify areas that are in need of practice or systemic improvement in the school. The second step digital curriculum provides school administrators with a lesson report so they can see where all their teachers are in the delivery of lessons. So if they know if somebody's gotten behind, they can offer support to get them

[00:36:22] back on track. Our SEL team conducts site visits at least twice a year in each school and schools that need some more support are visited more often. The SEL team also conducts classroom walkthroughs as part of their fidelity checks going into classrooms where teachers are delivering lessons and making sure they can verify lessons are delivered in the manner prescribed.

[00:36:50] implementation and outcome data are then used at the end of the year to tier our support to the schools so we're sending staff and resources to schools who need it the most and monitoring other schools who have demonstrated good outcomes and high fidelity of implementation finally and most importantly family access to lesson content is a very important part of our sel program. In addition to weekly information that's sent by classroom teachers, school leaders share second step family curriculum access information to all of our parents. Parents can log in with

[00:37:30] their school code to review lesson materials and specifically see what children or their children are learning. We have over 400 families who have taken the time to create accounts and review lessons in the system. And that concludes my high-level overview of SEL, and I'm open to some questions. Thank you, Mr. Lodi, for sharing this. Remember, any questions? So, I'll sort of begin with the last data that you shared. So, you said 400. So, what would be, I mean, again, that's,

[00:38:10] is that a good number? Obviously, we'd like to have more. So, what, how many, how many families, i guess 400 out of how many i guess let's begin with that so if i heard your question correctly how many families uh would have received exposure yeah yeah so it's all elementary and middle school families uh save for middle school so i don't know what that number would be but it's probably 50,000 that's what i was thinking somewhere in that range okay so what what's what are we doing

[00:38:43] to i guess what would be our communication plan to get more and more folks signed up so that they aware because then if they're not signed up then it creates the all the misunderstanding of what social emotional learning is if they see it what's really being taught in the class then i think we can address many of the concerns that has been raised as well so if we have not it's okay i mean i'm sure you're trying i'm not but what can we do additionally to get more parents to sign up and

[00:39:16] create accounts and go see that yeah I understand your question and the account access is if you want to actually go through lessons and I think we've had 400 curious families who wanted to see for themselves what the lessons look like but I can't say more confidently that families are receiving on a weekly basis from their classroom teacher the focus of each lesson as well as the lesson objectives for the week. So I think they're getting a healthy amount of communication and

[00:39:49] exposure to the lessons, maybe not the actual lessons themselves, but what the focus will be on the unit that we're studying and the particular lessons that we are working on. They also equip families with, I wish Dr. Warren was with me, she would be able to give the exact title of the document, but reinforcing material so families can practice these skills in the home. So while only 400 families have signed up and are actually looking at the lesson material more closely,

[00:40:23] all families are receiving weekly communication, including the focus of the lessons and the skills we're trying to develop so they can reinforce that in the homes as well. Okay, thank you. So I think one of there's two things i'm also i also sit on the communications committee as well i'm going to bring this back up to bring awareness of how we can get this message out but second i think as we do the the sort of the yearly survey i'm not sure if we have an item and such but i would be curious because i don't want to start an off one-off survey to say hey you know how many do you use

[00:41:00] social emotionally check on the emails etc but be part of the comprehensive survey we do but have a section on because social emotional learning i'm sure and again to to everybody here um it's misunderstood i mean nobody's going to deny that and i think it's up to us in terms of how we clear the air what can we share and how do we bring back a better awareness that this is really good not for the it's you know it's a lot of a lot of benefits for future of the children if you address

[00:41:36] them in in in elementary school so we all agree on the benefits of it but to make sure that everybody you know is participating it or or understands what it is i think it'll benefit everybody so that's what would be my ask is that as you as you work through the the survey so we do address some questions on social emotional learning and see if they how we get more awareness of that And so that's, I don't know, Ms. Sheridan has a question.

[00:42:07] Yeah, go ahead, Ms. Sheridan. Thank you for the presentation. Just to follow up on what Mr. Mahedabi had asked is, do we get any feedback from parents that are looking at it from those 400? Like, is there an opportunity for them to provide feedback as they're looking and perusing?

[00:42:24] Of course, they could email and do that type of outreach. I'm just curious if we provide that outside of a survey, just, you know, an opportunity to ask questions, Perhaps when the teachers are emailing them with the information, they're asking it directly to the teacher. I'd just be curious if anybody is raising a concern or happy with it, you know, just some, I don't need specific data, just curious more than anything.

[00:42:49] As far as I'm aware, the system doesn't allow or provide for an opportunity to provide feedback, and I think we're all alluding to concerns expressed by parents, and I think it's been about over the last three years maybe less than 15 families who have expressed concerns from things they've heard about what might be in the lesson content. The access accounts that I've referenced is new this year. We worked very closely with Committee for Children to find a way to bring it

[00:43:25] more easily to our families. So we could dispel any concerns that people had about what might be in here, what does it entail. So this is sort of new to us, and we work very closely. Also, previously, when we did have concerns expressed, we invited families in and opened up the Second step kits and gave them the opportunity to look through the curriculum and we've changed some minds pretty quickly once they realized that what we were teaching were things I think

[00:44:01] all families would agree are important, not just for learning, but for life as well. So the number of concerns, quite honestly, has been relatively small, but we were always confident that this is what's in the curriculum is appropriate and it's as advertised and we've met every request with inviting parents in to take a look for themselves and that's why we're not hearing this year much feed negative feedback or concerns about the second step curriculum thank you for that i i guess i would also just throw out there that i'd be more interested in

[00:44:40] hearing feedback from people who actually looked at it than just are are listening to rumor about what might be in it so when we look at feedback i'd like to actually hear from people that have reviewed the materials rather than someone who's just trying to gain a few minutes in the public spotlight. There, I said it. Yeah, I agree, Ms. Sharon. I think that would be really helpful. I mean, even if it's a small segment of 400 parents, but if you can get some feedback who are actually using it logged in, I agree. I mean, so I'm going to pivot on the same topic with numbers, I guess, because this year we're not hearing, because there's one more thing that we added this year,

[00:45:19] which we didn't have last year, was opt-out. So do you have numbers as far as how many parents have opt-out on this social-emotional learning at elementary and middle school? Well, let me clarify. There is no right of opt-out.

[00:45:39] This is at least provided by policy or law. I can't address if schools have let families opt-out of Second Step. opt-out is we are required to provide character education under state statute, and this is one of our methods or vehicles to provide character education for our families, so we are assertively compelled to do this type of work. I've worked with counsel, and we've studied this issue, and

[00:46:15] we don't offer a parental opt-out option. I was pretty clear when I was logging in parent view this year middle school they have an opt-out for social emotional learning in the middle school yeah I think I can clarify this concern this did become a point of confusion because through school counseling parents have a right to opt out of the three aspects of school counseling academic career and personal social the wording that was used in the opt-out was social emotional

[00:46:49] counseling rather than personal social which created some concept overlap and confusion for families about what they might be opting out of and i i we've since clarified the opt-out process um that was offered uh through parent view thank you so since you opened up i mean i think so what what what what are they opting out now i'm curious now like what is the aspect of that they're opting out versus something that you have to provide so can you I don't know if you can speak

[00:47:28] to it like what what is that they with a check box and parent fee was it opt out what are they opting out of I might pass this to my partner so she can kind of give you a better view of what they're opting out of the opt-out is for school counseling services SEL is delivered by teachers and non-instructional staff so the opt-outs for the academic guidance the career guidance and then personal social counseling and that's the lessons that our counselors deliver in the classroom separate from sel okay i think okay fair enough i think we need to we definitely need to clarify

[00:48:02] going into it because i think there is there could be a different understanding of what that means and and where where that goes so i'd love to see maybe you don't have the numbers but i would love to see how many parents opted out or how many students opted out uh this year with elementary and middle school for whatever we institute the parent view heather ross is here for our school counseling supervisor and we did have some families who were opting out i think they were under the understanding they were opting out of sel and all of the counselors reached out to this family

[00:48:39] individually to explain the confusion so i'll let heather share those numbers thank you for still being here sorry it's going to take me just one moment to pull it up so while you're pulling it up i mean any other questions i okay um i i have another question which is different because when i came in and again excuse me um i i believe that we need to address a lot of these concerns emotional

[00:49:19] concerns in elementary and i wholeheartedly supported this concept but when i was speaking with few elementary schools they were they were doing a different uh programs in elementary so second step was there I think I talked to Dr. Jones about it so this leader in me was a program that many schools have implemented and I was speaking to some schools even as recently as maybe December or November and they still had it and they complement so they try to over because there's a lot of the feedback I heard is it's it's a great program but there are still gaps

[00:49:57] within the the second step program and especially when it comes to goal setting so the second step does not offer goal setting that also needs to sort of visualize for students something to look forward to saying what how are they what are they what are they what are they going to see eventually in the future and so what are we doing to perhaps address the gaps as we see it you know I don't want to go back into leader and me and comparing that but you know again I'm sure each program has its pros and cons of it but the gaps that we have in second steps and you know teachers

[00:50:35] have sort of I'm sure provide feedback what are we doing to address and fill the gaps I guess that would be my question to to respond to leader and me we did grandfather in two schools that were pretty far in their implementation with leader and me and they have expressed a lot of interest in blending second step with leader and me and we've worked closely with them to make that happen but to your question we also create supported activities so a teach classroom teacher may deliver the lesson for one or two day over one or two days but we also build on that lesson

[00:51:15] supporting activities for wednesday thursday and friday as well that relate to the train concept leader and me is very heavy on goal development which is only one aspect of more broad-based So I won't argue that we're trying to work towards a leader in me emphasis on goal setting for students, but what we do try to over the course of the year provides supportive lessons that are adjunctive to the actual second step lesson.

[00:51:50] And keep in mind, all of these units align over time. So goal setting, for example, begins in kindergarten and they get additional exposure that's developmentally appropriate for first graders, second graders, third graders, and on.

[00:52:06] So the longer our students are exposed to a second step, the emphasis on specific concepts such as goal setting, they'll have greater access to that type of content. So are we, maybe I'm, let me ask the question again, because, so are we making adjustments to bring, bring some elements that have gaps in second step? Maybe, maybe you said in many words that maybe, but I didn't quite, so are we making adjustments to that?

[00:52:37] I know teachers are doing that, which is great, but again, I go back to where we're building this one LCPS concept, so having that same good program down to every school, so one teacher, he or she is thinking out of the box, bringing in concepts to augment or enhance that, we want that to be available to every teacher, and that's kind of where I'm alluding to.

[00:53:03] Yeah, we do. We have made gaps. Actually, this year, we're implementing the newest version of the digital curriculum, so that required some adjustments. We have worked with the company to provide feedback in areas we'd like to see improvements, but keeping in mind SEL through Second Step is only one part of a more comprehensive approach.

[00:53:26] We have classroom lessons taught by school counselors who extend the learning in other areas that we might not be addressing. So second step is our base curriculum for SEL, but our school counselors are also building on that in other areas where we need emphasis.

[00:53:48] Yeah, I think I'm going to jump on here. I mean, you're speaking to the choir here, like somebody who's passionately been trying to address the ratio for counselors in elementary schools and so on and so forth. I understand that, but I think it's, again, providing the good, I mean, good is not a right word, but providing all the tools.

[00:54:11] So that's the whole intentions behind that. But one thing before, I know you want to share the numbers, but what I've also learned is that goal setting is really, really important. Because without goal and early age, because if a child has a goal, then a lot of things kind of put in different, they come in perspective then.

[00:54:33] Because if there's no goal, then it's very easy to get off the ramp. But if the child has goals and developed goals and we kind of nurture that, I think over the progress, I'm sure that's what parents sort of put some goals. And I think we just want to inculcate that concept for all the students.

[00:54:54] So I just want to make that comment there. And I'll pass it to Ms. Evans for the numbers. Okay. Yes, absolutely. So I have the current elementary I could speak to, and then I'm going to give total numbers because I, in the short amount of time, I couldn't filter to just middle school, unfortunately.

[00:55:15] So the number of academic opt-outs was 53 for all elementary school students. For career opt-outs, it was 89. And for social-emotional learning through Tier 1 Counseling was 226.

[00:55:38] And then total numbers for LCPS, we have the academic is 97. The social-emotional learning was 856 for all K-12.

[00:56:00] And then my last query is thinking 168 total for all LCPS.

[00:56:28] I mean, thank you for sharing this. I mean, this is pretty powerful. I mean, and I think it goes back to if it's only, I mean, even if I just saw SEL and H56, only one people are going to hold me. It's only 1% if I look at opt-out, which is, I don't know if that's, in academics it's really good, but I'm presuming it's pretty good.

[00:56:49] Only 1% opt-out of that. So I think these are some of the numbers, I mean, I don't know, Ms. Sheridan, some of the numbers are really powerful that talks about, like how many people are really opting out versus not opting out. I think that's something we need to be sharing and saying, you know, this program is working, the materials are available for folks to see.

[00:57:13] Any parent can create an account so they can see those programs' place and what the numbers are. So I appreciate everything that you have shared tonight and got a chance to discuss that. I think some items from here is that we do need to follow up. I think, as Ms. Sheridan pointed out, get some feedback with folks that are already using it.

[00:57:32] Look at perhaps including feedback on SEL through the survey of it. And for me, it's to go back to the communication team and see how we can get more awareness to getting more folks engaged with it to log on. I mean, they can have campaigns to make more awareness of it.

[00:57:50] And then somehow the superintendent office or maybe to come back and share and maybe share with the full board what that opt-out numbers have been. I think that will be pretty powerful to share that as well. So thank you for that. Dr. Jones, yeah.

[00:58:07] Yes, Mr. Mahedby, thank you very much. And I certainly appreciate my team for being on the ready to have the data for you. We always anticipate what questions you may have. And we certainly use data to make decisions and be responsive to our staff that we're supporting as well as to our families.

[00:58:28] With respect to the opt-out, as Mr. Lodi mentioned a bit earlier, we recognize that there was some confusion regarding opting out because Ms. Ross mentioned 97 parents or guardians wish to opt out of academic counseling.

[00:58:46] Well, we have academic and career plans for our students that our school counselors are integral to working through, and I don't know of any parent that wouldn't want a course progression from elementary, when we're setting goals of what do you want to be when you grow up, and career exploration, the tools we use from the Virginia Department of Education with that, all the way through the program of studies from middle and high school programming.

[00:59:12] So that was an indicator along that alone that our communication was not clear to our families about what to be able to opt out of. Certainly families who have opted out, which we've clarified in our policy, our draft policy for, as it's defined, the personal slash social counseling.

[00:59:34] many of our children may already have private practice therapists and practitioners that are working with them and they don't wish to have a school based counselor to work with their child on sessions short-term sessions so that certainly makes sense to be able to opt out of with I will take this information back to our partners in community communications and community engagement I'll put another plug in for Dr. Orm, who's our specialist coordinator for social-emotional learning,

[01:00:13] that we do have a parent resource services presentation that was sent through peach jar to all of our families, and that's tomorrow, as we mentioned, I believe at 6.30 here at the admin building.

[01:00:29] But, and I also want to mention that in our annual survey to families, that is from the research team, that there is a question on social-emotional learning because we know that it's multifaceted in different ways that we're able to reach our families.

[01:00:50] And one question on the annual survey to families is, my child has access to socially emotional support in this school. And, of course, I have the percentages that that information was included in our last update to the board on the Mental Health Task Force.

[01:01:06] So I will revisit that with what are the specific questions as they're looking at annual surveys and how to better update that to get data. That's fantastic. I think, just I think on the parent view, hopefully that's fixed by now.

[01:01:24] I mean, so that we don't have the same issue going in next year, fix that. And then the survey, I think it needs to be, I mean, we need to expand on what the, I mean, especially if the students are doing, what the positive, anything that we've learned, that they've found a positive in that.

[01:01:40] I think that's what we want to also learn from that. Thank you. Thank you again. Okay. I guess we'll move to the next item, which is student mental health service update. miss Evans hello again I wanted to provide an update on where we are with the recommendations from the superintendent's task force for student mental health the task force as you know was convened July 28th 21 and they were asked to provide a report inclusive of an analysis of the current state of student mental health the programs available and recommendations to the school board the analysis and recommendations were presented to the

[01:02:19] board on January 25th and the task force has since concluded their meetings. Following the updates that I'll go through Dr. Megan Greene is here to provide an overview of the unified mental health teams in our schools. As you know the mission and vision is embedded in the center of our collective work. The ongoing work in the Office of Student Mental Health Services supports the goals and aligned actions of our strategic plan. We're centered around a whole child approach to supporting the academic behavioral social emotional and mental

[01:02:54] health needs of all of our students. The superintendent's task force for student mental health recommendations align well with the strategic goals of 1, 2, and 4. I will briefly touch on each goal followed by the recommendations to demonstrate the connection to our work. Goal 1: Empowered Students. With students as the center of our work, the Office of Student Mental Health Services is focused on prioritizing mental health and wellness and removing barriers that impede student success. One of the recommendations was to improve the staffing standards for unified mental health team members at the elementary

[01:03:31] level so our goal is to establish a full-time unified mental health team at the elementary level as seen in our budget similarly to the secondary level this enhancement will eliminate the challenges and limitations that elementary schools currently face with an itinerant staffing model itinerant school counselors serve at least two schools and must split their time between schools during the work week the needs of students have significantly increased than a lower student to school counselor ratio along with the consistent counselor presence is needed to support the foundation for student success.

[01:04:10] The ASCA model recommends the American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students. We have asked for 25.2 full-time employees for the next school year. The staffing enhancement is a phased approach to building the unified mental health team model at the elementary school which was a recommendation of the task force.

[01:04:33] And was asked for by our elementary administrators. Another recommendation which aligns with goal one was to build upon existing data systems to identify software that could facilitate data collection to identify and respond to student mental health needs more rapidly.

[01:04:52] Over the last few years we have been capturing our tiered services in Phoenix in our student conference log and analyzing that data with various click apps. as you know this year we've been implementing the MTSS module in half of our schools and with this module we can document and progress monitor all academic behavioral and mental health intervention plans teachers are also made aware of the plans for consistent support in the classrooms next school year all of our schools will be using the MTSS module for this purpose the graphic that you see here shows a number of 659 active plans just for mental

[01:05:31] health as of January 19th but I pulled the data today just to give you an update and we have 908 active mental health intervention plans in place. Goal 2 focuses on staff. LCPS teachers, administrators, and staff are the most important factor in helping our students after their parents. Seeing that staff are esteemed, exemplary, supported, and accountable is vital to student success and this leads us to the next recommendation which was to provide mental health training to staff and students. Currently we have a lot of of these already in place. Sources of Strength is an annual training to students and staff.

[01:06:08] The students lead campaigns led by the adults focused on mental wellness and resiliency at the middle school and high school. And then we have peer positive experiences in educational relationships at the high school. There's an annual training for the staff and the students that are selected as leaders go through helping skills training delivered by the social workers.

[01:06:31] Signs of suicide is presentations from 8th through 12th grade, social-emotional learning in all elementary, working towards middle school. And then all new staff are asked to complete a mental health awareness or cognito self-paced training module. In addition, we have the mental health parent seminar series, which Dr. Orm is presenting that tomorrow, and our conference, which this year's was one of the largest.

[01:06:55] So it's an opportunity for not only staff, but parents as well. Goal four focuses on engaged community. One of the LCPS strategic plan focuses on engaging our parents, families, and our community to support our students.

[01:07:11] One of the recommendations was to improve the visibility and knowledge of our unified mental health teams. And since that time, we have updated our district page and individual school pages to provide consistent information about our mental health teams, the school-based programs, services, and crisis mental health resources.

[01:07:31] Those links should be all live, and they are examples of the additional changes that we've made. So we have a friendly URL for Student Mental Health Services now, and that button that you see on the right is for Student Mental Health Services.

[01:07:46] That's on our main page. And then you can see examples of Briarwoods and then an elementary school, that all of the pages look the same, and the crisis resources are all the same, and they align with our district page. So, in engaging our community through inclusive and meaningful relationships, we have many ongoing partnerships that support this work, and I'll just spotlight a few.

[01:08:12] Loudoun County Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services partner with us in a variety of ways. Their prevention and intervention staff provide services in many of our schools. They co-facilitate groups and after-school programs, life skills groups, and programs after-school for at-risk youth.

[01:08:33] In addition, we are a part of the Prevention Alliance of Loudoun, which they lead. It's a coalition focused on mental health, substance abuse prevention, education, and they also provide a leadership opportunity for students. The Suicide Prevention Alliance of Northern Virginia is something we are part of as well, and they have provided funding support for our Sources of Strength students and our peer students who are trying to do campaigns focused on mental health and wellness.

[01:08:59] New this year are partnerships with Love Like Adam, which is hazing prevention, the Cook Center for Human Connection, which is where we have parentguidance.org, which is a free resource for parents, and that is spotlighted on our website as well.

[01:09:16] The Williams Center for Wellness and Recovery just opened their doors in Leesburg. They are an addictions treatment provider, outpatient, detox group, individual for adolescents and for adults. And then our ongoing partnerships, which I'll touch on, the Ryan Bartell Foundation, A Place to Be, and Laws, Domestic Violence and Assault Services. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Green, who will just provide a brief overview of our mental health team members,

[01:09:51] their roles, and the work that they do. Thank you. All right, thank you, Ms. Evans. At all levels, our Unified Mental Health Teams, or UMHTs, work to support the social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health of students at the secondary level UMHTs have been promoted as primarily systems level teams this is based on research and data that indicates that effective systems level work prevents problems that would otherwise occur and encourages school staff to be proactive rather than reactive systems level conversation should occur about all tiers so for example teams may be

[01:10:30] discussing tier 1 mental health presentations processes for identifying students in need of group or individual counseling as well as the outcomes of the services they're providing. In some cases, UMHTs at secondary are also including time for student-focused problem-solving conversations, but not in all of them. Sometimes they do that in other types of meetings. And although it's common to think of the UMHT as made up of the school-based mental health staff, school counselors, social workers, and psychologists, in reality, at the secondary level, it also includes members from other professional disciplines who can provide support to students and offer different perspectives based on their skills.

[01:11:11] In elementary the UMHT is a problem-solving team so that really focuses on specific student needs and how to support individual students. The decision to structure the elementary UMHT differently resulted from consultations, observations and other feedback from elementary teams who shared with us the need and value they would find from having a designated problem-solving team staffed with school-based mental health personnel and really focusing on those students who need the social, emotional, and mental health support. Though this team is primarily problem-solving focused, there are times where

[01:11:47] they may be involved in systems-level discussions related to student mental health, social, emotional, and behavioral well-being. For example, the UMH team might discuss bullying concerns at a specific grade level or increased numbers of suicide screeners among a subset of students. Across all levels, UMH team members include school-based mental health staff, such as school counselors, social workers, and psychologists. At the secondary level, the administrator, dean, student assistant specialist, and school nurse are also required members, but they're optional at the

[01:12:20] secondary level. Across levels, other staff members may attend or be included on an as-needed basis or for specific schools where those demands are higher. So that may include attendance officers, family liaisons, school refusal cohort members, SIFBs, and so on. This isn't an exhaustive list of all the members who could be included. All UMHT members at every level work to support the social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health of all students. There's quite a bit of overlap in the goals and work done by each UMHT member, but they also bring unique perspectives, input,

[01:13:00] knowledge, and skills to the table based on their role, training, and experience. So this slide just provides a very broad description of each of the major groups represented. All right, so this slide is a very condensed version of the supports provided by UMHT members it's not an exhaustive list but highlights some of the key work done by UMHT members in support of student mental health all members participate in aspects of counseling and suicide prevention additionally members of the UMHT provide support in providing education and counseling around substance use

[01:13:36] concerns engaging in restorative circles or conferences when needed participating in crisis Teams at the school and central office level and some UMHT members also support the special education process. For example school psychologists complete comprehensive evaluations and at the secondary level those often include a significant focus on student mental health and students that they've worked with in other capacities through individual counseling for example.

[01:14:05] There's other capacities in which these members work including things like behavioral consultation, supporting PBIS as internal or external coaches, leading programs like peer or sources of strength, and of course working to connect our families with community resources.

[01:14:25] So as pretty much everything we do in LCPS, our social, emotional, and mental health services are embedded within the MTSS framework aimed at supporting students at all levels. So UMHCs are involved at all tiers, and supports for students' social, emotional, and mental health are provided at all tiers through things like classroom or school-wide mental health presentations, group counseling, and individual interventions. Teams review data related to services at all tiers and make decisions about the types of support to provide an effectiveness of those supports at all tiers. At the secondary level the school mental health implementation

[01:15:04] inventory is used to allow teams to examine their success in implementing various aspects of the UMHT at each tier. At the elementary level we have a similar implementation rubric and although UMHTs have a primary focus on issues related to social emotional and mental health and wellness they also work to integrate themselves with other teams involved in academic and behavioral work so support for students isn't siloed or redundant.

[01:15:27] And that is all we have so we'll open it up for any questions you may have. Thank you Dr. Green for the present and Dr. Ms. Evans. Now Ms. Evans are you a doctor? Forgive me if I didn't no I'm not a doctor sorry not to call you out you can call me that I'm just making sure I guess I'll just use doctor here I don't know miss Sheridan do you have any questions or any no even if you were you wouldn't that's fine no I just wanted to thank you for the presentation

[01:16:05] and the update and and again it's always such a great reminder to see the support that our students receive in the school it's so important and such a vital part of the education process and perhaps I'm not going to say it goes on look to it maybe it's an undervalued because people aren't aware until they need it the support that's in place so i just thank you and thank you to all your teams thank you michelle so i like that i think that's a lot of hard a lot of work that's being done and i think my first meeting i had with mr lody and i think it's you know one of the um

[01:16:42] in the strategic plan which i'll kind of bring it back i do believe in this sort of continuous improvement culture so that it's not about perfection it's not about like we are there And many of the things that we deal with at home, it's always continuously improving that, and that's why we're here.

[01:17:00] So it's not about whether we accomplish or not accomplish, but what are we doing to continue improving on that. So this sort of I ask because this sort of update where we had the task force done, I think task force came back and provided some recommendations to it.

[01:17:16] And then whatever, for lack of, we just didn't hear since, I think it was shared almost like last year, I believe, January or February, I'm trying to remember. That's when the team came and provided the update.

[01:17:32] And since then, I'm sure a lot of actions happened, but we just haven't heard any updates for what those, I mean, I'm just opening the recommendations and what we've said that we should be doing. and what we accomplish, and if there are certain things that we're not able to accomplish, then I think we as board members would like to help facilitate that to make that happen.

[01:18:01] So I know that one of the recommendations was to, there's an RFP, I guess, for getting it online. I think then we scrapped that during the budget cycle. So I'll begin with that. Is that still something that is needed?

[01:18:16] It's helpful because we're going to bring in 24 by 7, sort of support it. I think we scrapped that, I believe. So I don't know if you can speak to that. I will start with that point. I can speak to that, Mr. Madhavi. And before I do, I just want to, on behalf of the team of wonderful school-based mental health professionals that we work with, but also with the leadership team we appreciate you and Ms. Sheridan and other champions for student mental health on the school board in allowing us to provide a division for student

[01:18:54] mental health services with the new leadership with Ms. Evans and also Dr. Green and others who have been school-based mental health professionals and they are certified and licensed in that area And so that brings us way ahead of the curve as well with their leadership.

[01:19:11] And we thank you for that. Also, the school counselors will certainly provide the supports needed. And it's a great way in phasing in what we continue to wish to do with the mission. The online services, teletherapy services that parents could elect was another desire that we wanted to provide.

[01:19:33] And the board, we had $600,000 allotted for that. We, with our partners, developed an extensive RFP process and submitted that widely and solicited feedback from various groups that could provide that service.

[01:19:50] What we learned from that process was that this is fairly a new approach to teletherapies and not all agencies are able to provide that service directly for as many students that we wish to provide that if families wanted.

[01:20:06] So the capacity was one issue. And then the two companies that had strong proposals were reviewed by a multidisciplinary team. Their dollar amounts were in the millions, and $600,000 did not scratch the surface.

[01:20:27] Then what we learned was the state of Virginia was looking at rolling out teletherapy services. and miss evans can correct me if i have um or if you can add to this but the state had mentioned state of virginia that they were working to provide online um or mental health therapies access to that for families but we're keeping our um our ear to uh to listen out on what's forth coming and to date i haven't heard anything specifically that's being shepherded through

[01:21:02] the commonwealth for public schools to be able to access that so what we've tried to do is to partner with us continue to partner with as many agencies and resources and to get the information out such as our one of our newer partners on parent education and those kinds of things and services that are available so thank you i'm just going through the recommendations you provided so one of the other one that you had i think we this kind of combination of certain and things of providing additional counselor resources.

[01:21:37] And I think you also have in the budget item to add one FTE director, two FTE counseling specialists, and administrative assistants. So those are still open items, I presume? No, those were actually completed. So we now have three counseling specialists underneath the leadership of Heather Ross, and I assumed the role of the director.

[01:21:58] So we are fully staffed in the Office of Student Mental Health Services, yes. So that's great. And then the next item we have, improved visibility of the UMHT. Can you speak to that? I don't know what progress.

[01:22:13] Yes, so we've asked a lot of our school-based mental health teams to get in front of students as often as possible, whether it's advisory, whether it's in assemblies, whether it's back to school nights to help students with transitions. But we also have increased the visibility online, so making sure that the pages all look the same, making sure the crisis resources are consistent.

[01:22:35] what we were seeing is that some would have certain programs and the other pages wouldn't have those programs. So we looked at it from the central office and made sure every page looked the same for parents and students. We're making progress. I mean, good progress on that.

[01:22:50] Yeah, so all of the school pages, if you were to go to any elementary school, any high school and compare, they would look the same. So I have a further question, but I guess I think this would be really helpful to get an update for the board to list out what the team found and what the recommendations they made, and here's where we are with this thing.

[01:23:13] I know I appreciate that. I don't know, Ms. Sheridan, I'm sure you also appreciate what the team is sharing. I don't know the full board will also appreciate saying, you know, the task force was there, they identified things, and like, you know, for example, you being here was a recommendation or ask, and the fact that you and the team are here speaks volume that at least now you have dedicated staff working towards doing more things that so i'll just ask that we as a that we do get i mean the board gets an update on this particular

[01:23:47] topic and just share what the progress has been done and i'm sure all of us will benefit from that point um clarification for that would you um are you recommend requesting that we do that as an information item at a board meeting or uh within an update in writing to the board i mean i i can speak i think during the workshop time during the board members we have it i think as an information item i think they'll be really beneficial to then ask questions and and have i think it's also not

[01:24:24] only for us to the board but for the county as well i mean what are we doing i mean that's a question we all came uh and i campaigned on it and you know um it's not a live audience but I've really worked hard with my fellow board members to make many things happen so personally I feel like the contributions has been done I think it's a good way to share the progress we've done with not only with the board but with our parents and the county as well so I think that

[01:24:58] would be really helpful versus that I'll kind of jump back to sorry okay you know I appreciate that I think this is the last item on our agenda for this.

[01:25:19] So the one thing I'd like to bring back, I think, on the item number two, which we talk about exemplary staff, and we'll work on how we get that. The very first thing, I think Ms. King also at one point talked about this.

[01:25:37] So I'll keep it brief. So we went out to the Virginia School Board Association conference. If you remember our first meeting in your office with Mr. Fernandez at the time. So Focker County has implemented a really good program in connecting the student with the staff.

[01:25:57] And they have this concept of lanyard thing. So every staff that goes through this training can wear a lanyard and they become a person that any student can talk to and reach out to. Later on I learned that Brambleton Middle School had implemented something of that sort where the doors, they would have that program.

[01:26:15] And so any students, as long as they see the sign, they could reach out and do that. Funny enough, the brain person's child was Dr. Fernandez from Tuscarora. So they have leveraged his knowledge and kind of work on the program.

[01:26:31] So I'd like something for us to, it's a journey, but I think it would really go well in us working towards that, in enabling, I don't want to just do one school, but I want to bring it up here, to start something where we can provide that support for all of staff because everybody in our school is, Ms. Weisskopf is here, everybody is there to support a child.

[01:26:56] And so if that training is provided to every teacher, every staff, and a student feels safe to connect with as long as they see a lanyard or some sort of sign, I think we'll go a long way. So I'll just leave with that. I appreciate everything that you guys shared tonight. And it's two more minutes, and we'll go to a new business now.

[01:27:17] I guess with no new business, we'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you, Ms. Sheridan. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, also. Thank you.

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