Project Cal-Well is a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education focused on building capacity for sustainable school-based mental health systems in local educational agencies (LEAs) throughout California. As part of a series highlighting the work of Project Cal-Well partners in Cohort 2 (2019-2024), this document summarizes how Northern Humboldt Union High School District leveraged Project Cal-Well funding to shift to a Multi-Tiered System of Support approach to implement a sustainable school mental health system, strengthen connections with community partners, and empower staff to take a proactive approach to supporting students’ mental health.
Behavioral Support Strategies
Sacramento County Office of Education: Transforming Schools Into Centers of Wellness
Project Cal-Well is a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education focused on building capacity for sustainable school-based mental health systems in local educational agencies (LEAs) throughout California. As part of a series highlighting the work of Project Cal-Well partners in Cohort 2 (2019-2024), this document summarizes how the Sacramento County Office of Education leveraged Project Cal-Well funding to implement a vision for supporting mental health that centers on “schools as centers of wellness.”
Overview of Promoting Student Resilience (PSR) Grant Program
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education awarded $4.75 million in Promoting Student Resilience (PSR) grants to three local educational agencies (LEAs): Baltimore City Schools; Chicago Public Schools; and St. Louis Public Schools. The communities in these three LEAs had experienced recent significant civil unrest (i.e., demonstrations of mass protest that involved law enforcement).
The funds supported LEAs’ efforts to build capacity to address the comprehensive behavioral and mental health needs of their students by supporting systems-wide approaches that link schools, mental health service providers, and community-based organizations.
This resource provides a brief overview of the grantees, their activities, support provided, and lessons learned.
Management Factors for Successful Program Implementation
The team tasked with evaluating the California Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) Grant created this brief document to outline what is known from research about management factors that contribute to a program’s success. Activities and mindsets that contribute to successful program implementation are organized into 4 key areas:
- Day-to-day project management
- Administrative-level support
- Training
- At-risk student referral systems
While this document was intended to guide implementation of school climate improvement programs, the key tenants can be applied to other school-based program implementation scenarios.
Mindfulness-Based Practices for Schools
Mindfulness practices cultivate attention to one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, and how they affect one’s actions. Mindfulness is a promising approach to teaching educators and students self-awareness and self-regulation skills associated with success in school and through adulthood. It can be taught as standalone strategies for teachers’ own benefit and/or for use with students, and can be integrated into existing school structures and routines.
Research has linked mindfulness-based practices with outcomes indicative of a positive school climate and academic improvement, including:
- Cultivation of compassion and empathy
- Increased well-being, positive emotion, popularity, and friendship
- Improved self-regulation
- Reduced test anxiety
- Increased student focus and concentration on cognitive tasks in the classroom
- Improvement in reading competence
This brief describes the benefits of mindfulness for teachers and students, and shares ideas for integrating mindfulness throughout the school day, identifying evidence-based mindfulness programs to match strengths and needs, helping educators implement mindfulness programs and practices, and providing intensive supports for students facing additional challenges.
A Case Study of San Juan High School’s Safe and Supportive Schools Project
San Juan High School, a low-income, ethnically diverse school struggling to boost student achievement in California’s San Juan Unified School District, demonstrated consistent gains in its School Climate Index (SCI) over the three years of the California Safe and Supportive Schools Program implementation. This case study reflects on the programs and strategies that the school implemented and draws upon data collected as part of the program’s evaluation. Some of the key strategies discussed are:
- Stakeholder engagement and student voice
- Social-emotional learning
- Freshman mentoring
- Restorative justice
- Project-Based Learning
- Intervention efforts
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