Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!
These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:
Children in “stricter” middle schools are less likely to go to college — and more likely to get arrested.
Federal spending on children falls.
Schools’ student-to-counselor ratios are dangerously high.
To read more, click on the following links.
Thank you to the Minnesota Vikings.
Last week, the professional football team spent a day visiting the LIFE Prep School, a City Connects school in St. Paul.
Community service is a common part of the team’s life, and we’re grateful to them for being a City Connects community partner for the day. Their visit shows how important it is to connect students to shoes, health care, and community-based fun. Continue reading
Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!
These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:
Success Plans in City Connects schools.
Children’s learning lags as the planet warms.
Schools consider adverse childhood experiences as they decide on discipline.
A student implements restorative justice in a Colorado school.
To read more, click on the following links.
It’s a new school year, so City Connects Coordinators are reinforcing existing relationships and building new ones.
At Catholic Central Elementary School, in Springfield, Ohio, where City Connects’ Coordinator Josh Richardt works, he tells students in pre-k through fifth grade, “I am so glad you’re in school today.”
There is also a sign hanging in the hallway that says, “You belong here.”
These messages weave students, especially new ones, firmly into the school’s fabric. And they build on a key finding from the developmental sciences: Relationships matter. Continue reading
Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!
These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:
“Splinter” districts increase racial segregation in schools.
More states are requiring mental health education.
A Washington, D.C., charter school where character counts as much as academics.
To read more, click on the following links.
City Connects coordinators connect students to everything from eyeglasses to health services, but they also connect kids to music lessons.
“Enrichment is so important,” Mary Walsh, City Connects’ Executive Director says. “Students have to have basic services, but they also have to have opportunities for creative growth.”
One example is Micah, a fourth grader whose story we told in our 2018 Progress Report. His City Connects Coordinator connected him to a “music program that offers performance opportunities, which was a match for his specific musical interests, and because transportation was available.” Continue reading
Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!
These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:
The City Connects model shows the benefits of taking a systemic approach to integrated student support.
Scans of top teachers’ brains are being used to learn more about how they connect with students.
Colorado launches free, full-day kindergarten.
A California school district says managing challenging student behavior is a job for all teachers, not just for those in special education.
To read more, click on the following links.
City Connects Coordinators across the country are working hard to make this a great year for students and their families.
We are excited to welcome two additional states, Tennessee and New York, to the City Connects network.
Over the summer, City Connects attended the 2019 American School Counselors Association Annual Conference in Boston, where we met school counselors, social workers, mental health professionals, and were able to talk about City Connects with many of the conference attendees. We are also hoping to be present at the 2020 National School Social Work Conference being held in March of 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, for its Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget, Ohio added $675 million to implement and support effective “wraparound” services for students across the state. This legislation named City Connects as an acceptable use of funds based on the success of our ten-year partnership with schools in Dayton. Finally, City Connects is partnering with Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills and its Department of Children and Youth Affairs to plan the implementation of the City Connects in some of the most economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods in Dublin.
Here at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, home to City Connects, we’ve wrapped up our August Institute, a professional development program that introduces new coordinators to the City Connects model.
And nationally, in the coming weeks, coordinators will be working with teachers, staff, and families to create personalized plans for every student, connecting children to the right services at the right time.
In Salem, Mass., for example, coordinators are already: Continue reading
