Mark reached out to our consulting group (retirees from education, law enforcement and emergency management who work with schools on emergency response, crisis management and developing partnerships with public agencies), inviting us to share some of our insights and materials. Of course, we agreed.
In 2008, the Santa Clara County Mental Health Department contracted with Code Red Training Associates to conduct a K-12 (kindergarten through high school) Prevention and Early Intervention Mental Health assessment involving the county’s multiple public school districts. The findings are an easy read, in lay language with student stories and pictures. It received wide distribution in California’s mental health community. As a current member of county’s Mental Health Board, I know our findings are still valid, perhaps even more pronounced with the ongoing economic situation.
Santa Clara County is large, just under 1,300 square miles, with a population around 1.7 million, 250,000+ K-12 students in 33 public school districts with 400+ schools, ranging from one-school rural districts to an urban/suburban district with 52 schools. Each district has its own governing board. The county’s median value of housing is $704K and the median household income is $84K. This is the home of high tech, with wealth (think Goggle, Apple, Facebook, etc.), poverty and immigration (35%). The county is often considered a microcosm of California.
Each school has its own culture, but the core educational culture is amazingly similar regardless of the school, district, city or state. Still, it was unexpected that every one of the 33 districts in the county reported a nearly identical message regarding the mental health of their students.
It’s important that non-educators understand that one start point for schools and safety is the mental health status of the students. The problems facing students and educators are as consistent as they are quite obvious. It doesn’t matter which geographic or socio-economic environment: the mental health problems of our children are profound and a major focus and concern of educators (across Santa Clara County).
You can find the link to the assessment at:
Comments
Mark says:
Hey Carla,
Your assessment is an impressive document. Looks like it is the result of a lot of focused effort. I've uploaded the document to the Main Groupsite Resource Library so that it is available for download for anyone that can benefit. Great work. I look forward to reading more of your findings related to school safety.
January 21, 2012 at 1:37 PM | Permalink