BY GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — Swampscott High School is working towards improving the mental health of its at-risk students.
Last summer, Superintendent Pamela Angelakis unveiled a three to five year plan for its schools, which put the focus on the psychological safety of students. She said one of the goals was to form a mental health task force, which now meets regularly in the district.
Out of that task force, the idea of forming a transition program for students was born. It is set to begin in the next school year. A major component of the program, tentatively named the High School Transition Program, would be to transition students back to school after they have been hospitalized, Angelakis said. The hospitalizations could be for mental health issues or for physical conditions that have caused them emotional stress.
Craig Harris, school psychologist, said during a presentation at a Wednesday night school committee meeting, that 12 students have been hospitalized this school year, with one reported that same day. Five of those students had been hospitalized multiple times.
Angelakis said the transition program is based on the Brookline Resilient Youth Team (BRYT) program. In the past, she said students returning to school have often ended up in out of district placements, because the high school lacks a transition program.
“This isn’t just in Swampscott,” Angelakis said. “Psychological safety is something every district is looking at. This is across Massachusetts.”
Harris, Martha Raymond, director of integrated preschool, and Erin Wilson, student support services chairperson for the high school, told the committee that more support is needed for students suffering from mental and emotional health issues. The trio presented examples of four different students suffering, without listing any names, as an exhibit of why more support is needed.
One student, they said, is a 16-year-old boy who suffers from depression and anxiety. The student was frequently absent, which caused his grades to drop.
Another student, a 14-year-old boy, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety, was struggling to manage emotions throughout the school day and could not focus on academics.
Three of the four students presented as examples were eventually hospitalized. Three out of four were placed out of district and one of those students dropped out of high school, according to their presentation.
Mental health support at the high school for general education includes an adjustment counselor, teachers and staff, and a health curriculum. For special education, there is an adjustment counselor, an outside therapist and a consulting clinical psychologist.
“Right now, general education wise, there is one adjustment counselor for 700 students,” Wilson said. “We do have an outside therapist that comes to the school once a week, and probably services five to six students. We really feel like we need more support.”
The goal is to have a home base for students with emotional disabilities or students transitioning out of the hospital, Harris said. He and his two colleagues outlined a plan for an Emotional Support Classroom, which would be staffed with a special educator, classroom aide, school psychologist, and would include specialized curriculum, data gathering and monitoring. Existing staff in the school system would be shifted into the various roles for the classroom.
Entrance and exit criteria would be needed for a student to attend the class. Placement would be voluntary, for both general and special education students, with the classroom geared toward two types of students — students transitioning out of a hospital setting and students who have an identified emotional disability. Raymond said the two biggest referrals for the program would be from guidance and the school nurse.
Placement could be short-term for four to six weeks, or longer term, with a year long placement for progress monitoring. Harris said the curriculum would be focused on teaching students what they need in order to practice those skills independently.
“The goal is for a smooth and supported transition back to the school environment,” Harris said.
Raymond said some students, with emotional and mental health issues, skip school and can go weeks without attending classes. She said part of the support would include a person who calls that student’s family daily to convince the student to come in, if even for a short period of time.
“The fact that we’re making this a reality in one year is a huge accomplishment,” Angelakis said. “It’s a huge success in having this program next year for our kids.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
