Addressing students’ social-emotional needs is an area that was top of mind as the district reopened its doors in September. The district created an SEL committee that began working during the summer on a variety of topics.

“The social emotional committee was formed to address the needs of our students and to integrate student engagement, mental health and students/staff social responsibilities as part of classroom instruction,” said director of guidance Gina Curcio. Committee members were from central administration, guidance, building administrators and faculty.

A subcommittee was also formed to create the framework to support teachers and students. “We targeted transitioning students, such as incoming kindergartners, sixth and ninth graders,” Ms. Curcio said. “Additionally, we created a tier 1 intervention for all students in a teacher framework that consisted of SEL lesson plans that were age appropriate for all students K-12. Every teacher was trained on the framework, including warning signs, and how to report anything alarming. They were also given a tool kit with a variety of resources for all of their students.”

Reorientation was a focus, so students and staff could get reacclimated. The SEL committee focused on making students feeling safe and understanding what was going on around them. “Learning how to be academically successful is crucial to their success but they also need to learn how to deal with stress and what school expects from them,” she said. Teachers were trained to provide students with strategies to self-regulate and implementing structures that motivate them to learn.

The SEL committee created a teacher framework for the first two weeks of school. “The first two weeks were crucial to engaging and fostering social emotional wellbeing as well as administering academic assessments to obtain baseline data on how to develop the whole child,” Ms. Curcio said. The lesson plans were narrowed down into different themes: community, regulation, stress, resilience and empathy.

The framework for these lessons was then broken up into different tiers, depending on if students needed further intervention from members of the district’s mental health team.

Throughout the district’s schools, psychologists, social workers and counselors have been working on creating virtual interventions of their program. Sessions with students have been held via Google Meet or in person with safety precautions being followed. The first priority for counselors was scheduling students, and providing interventions for any concerns, Ms. Curcio added.

Pictured here are lessons from Kristen Scheriff, elementary guidance counselor. She has been implementing a live and remote guidance curriculum to her students. The pictures were from lessons she created and implemented on friendship so as to assist students with social relationships