WILMINGTON, MA – Wilmington School Superintendent Mary DeLai published her weekly blog post on Saturday, sharing some of the progress the district has made over the past two years in the area of supporting students’ behavioral health and social emotional learning. Read DeLai’s blog post HERE or below:
At the Wilmington School Committee meeting of March 23, 2016, we received an unexpected but welcome visit from Wilmington High School senior Jessica Lifton. She came that evening to share her very personal story about her struggles with mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, and anorexia. Her message was that our schools need to do a much better job teaching students about mental health, providing them with coping and stress management skills, and building resilience. As are most who heard her compelling words, I am proud of Jessica and inspired by her strength and courage. And I could not agree more with her message. Schools across the Commonwealth and across the nation are just beginning to firmly embrace the notion that supporting students behaviorally is just as important as supporting them academically. While we in Wilmington certainly have more work to do, I am pleased to report that this work has begun in earnest.
In November of 2014, a passionate group of staff came together to form Wilmington’s first Behavioral Health Task Force. This group has taken on the work of identifying and planning the implementation of best practices to support behavioral health and promote social and emotional learning. For example, next year we will begin implementing Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Supports (SWPBS) in our schools. This evidence-based best practice provides students with clear and consistent behavioral expectations aligned to school wide values and beliefs. Students are recognized for demonstrating these expected behaviors, thereby providing positive reinforcement. Students who are unable to meet expectations are provided additional direction and support at increased frequency or intensity to ensure their success.
We have also been researching social emotional learning (SEL) programs with the goal of implementing a strong evidence-based program across all grade levels over the next three years. Next year, we will be piloting Responsive Classroom at the early childhood grades. This program is designed to help students understand and talk about their feelings, develop empathy for others, build coping skills, and manage conflicts with peers. Social emotional learning has been noticeably absent from our curriculum but funds have been requested as part of the FY’17 School Department Budget to purchase the materials and provide the professional development needed to implement SEL in our district.
This year, we have also been utilizing a number of additional strategies such as mindfulness training for elementary age students and self-empowerment and resiliency training at the middle and high school level. In addition, we piloted the use of Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) at the West Intermediate School. The pilot was so successful that we expanded it mid-year to include staff at the Shawsheen Elementary School and one sixth grade team at Wilmington Middle School. This program engages students who are having difficulty meeting expectations in discussions of their needs and concerns as well as adult needs and concerns and, together, the student and the staff member develop mutually agreeable strategies for preventing the maladaptive behaviors that the student is exhibiting. We have also been examining our disciplinary practices with an increasing emphasis on “restorative justice” in place of punitive consequences when possible.
In her presentation, Jess talked about the need to strengthen our health curriculum so we proactively teach students about mental health. Massachusetts has not updated its health standards in nearly twenty years so clearly this revision is overdue. Despite this, we are forging ahead with members our health team looking at national and other state standards to begin the work of revising our curriculum. This past year, we identified a significant gap in our health instructional program with a lack of health education in the fifth grade. That will hopefully be addressed next year as funding was requested in FY’17 to provide the necessary staffing and support to offer fifth grade health.
Our Behavioral Health Task Force is also in the process of developing a comprehensive and cohesive program of educational opportunities for students as well as parents and families. We plan to offer student assemblies featuring outside presenters to whom students can relate and who can share their experiences and struggles with various behavioral health challenges. We plan to offer workshops to parents and families to assist them in supporting their children. This year, on May 12th, Wilmington Public Schools will offer our first ever Behavioral Health Provider Fair at the Wilmington Middle School. Mental health providers, community partners, and state and local agencies have been invited to provide information to and answer questions from parents, families and community members.
Professional development for staff is also vitally important to our efforts. Training and will continue to be provided to staff for all of the evidence-based practices and programs discussed above. I know that as a school community, we are eager to implement the long-awaited supports and practices that we know help kids succeed. We do have to be patient and respect the fact that educators have a lot on their plates right now. We have been and are continuing to address curriculum gaps in a number of areas, implement new instructional programs that align better to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, and introduce instructional strategies that support more differentiation in the classroom. We all know and believe that the behavioral health initiatives are equally important. But it takes time to provide the comprehensive training necessary for educators to be confident in implementing these practices and time is something that we struggle to find in our schools. We are committed to providing high-quality, job embedded professional development to all staff. We need to remember that it will take several years to train hundreds of staff members and to scaffold the adoption and change process.
We are very excited that, due in part to a generous grant from Lahey Medical Center, we now have five counselors and psychologists in the district who are certified instructors of Youth Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid is to an acute mental health crisis what CPR is to an acute cardiac crisis. When an individual is in physical distress, a CPR-trained person can utilize the skills that they have learned to keep someone alive. Mental Health First Aid teaches you how to help people who may be exhibiting signs of mental illness or in a crisis. In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help. This program is also proven to also reduce the stigma connected to mental illness. Wilmington Public Schools is offering this course to staff four times this spring free of charge. Our hope is to one day have all Wilmington staff trained in MHFA.
As you can see, we are working hard to better support our students’ behavioral health and social and emotional growth and development. Much of the work is being done by a committed group of passionate and dedicated staff. In order for these efforts to be successful, however, we need strong, centralized leadership. It is for that reason that we have requested funding in our FY’17 budget for a new district position, Coordinator of Behavioral Health and Social Emotional Support. This individual will be an integral part of the newly reorganized Department of Student Support Services. As of July 1, 2016, this Department will be led by Mrs. Jen Mahon, currently the Director of the Boutwell Early Childhood Center. This change in organizational structure allows for the integration of all student support services into one department, including special education, Section 504, English language learners, health and wellness, and behavioral health services. We feel this new structure will allow for greater clarity of roles, consistency of expectations and procedures, and stronger communication and support for students, staff, and families.
While we have a long way to go, I believe we have also come a long way in these last two years. None of this would be possible without the dedication and commitment of our staff. In some districts, staff have not always embraced the notion that they need to promote both the academic and behavioral success of students. That is not the case in Wilmington. Our faculty and staff already know and believe this to be true. We know that students cannot learn if they are not ready to learn and readiness to learn is often adversely impacted by social and emotional challenges, not just academic challenges. I am proud to work in a district that understands and embraces these challenges. Jess challenged us to bring attention to mental health issues. “This is your chance to help future generations have the best chance at a long, successful, happy life,” she stated. “Will you take it?” she asked. My answer to Jess is yes, we will take it.
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