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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Denver, Colorado
| Partners: | Denver Public Schools Mental Health Corporation of Denver Denver Police Department | |
The Denver Public Schools is an urban school district serving 69,000 children of many cultures and ethnicities. They speak 81 languages in 81 elementary, 18 middle, 12 high, and nine alternative schools. Almost half of the students are Hispanic, 24.4% non-Hispanic white, 21% African American, 3.4% Asian, and 1.4% American Indian. The enrollment by age is 37,712 elementary, 13,976 middle school, 16,281 high school students. Over 27% of children live in poverty, and 40% of the elementary schools have mobility rates over 100%, meaning that the number of children who enter and leave within a year more than equals the total school enrollment. Almost 35% of freshmen fail to graduate. School funding for psychologists, social workers, and other family support has decreased over the last few years despite a 21% growth in the population. The Denver Police report that approximately 3 in every 10 youth aged 10-17 have been arrested.
The three convening partners of this effort will be joined by representatives from the Denver Mayor's Office, other juvenile justice agencies, social services, child welfare, early childhood education representatives, community-based organizations, youth and parent representatives. These representatives will serve on a Coordinating Council to implement and oversee the program.
The Denver Community Partnership intends to make schools safer by training early childhood providers on early identification of risk factors and by implementing a school-based violence prevention curriculum to reach 5,000 young children. A home visitation/parent education program will be provided for 150 teen mothers during the prenatal period continuing through age 3. An additional 350 children ages 0-8 and their families will receive support services through Head Start and Child Care Centers. The early childhood team will also provide case management services and early behavioral intervention to 150 infants as they enter the foster care system. These early interventions are designed to change the negative outcomes for many of these foster children by focusing on bonding and attachment issues. Children will also be linked to services through Community/Schools Assistance Teams, and individualized plans will be developed for truant students to help them reintegrate into school. After-school programming will be expanded at six middle schools that will also serve as Neighborhood Centers. Recognizing the importance of a visible security presence to make its students feel safer, uniformed police officers and additional school security officers will be added. Schools will also be outfitted with security equipment if the need is identified. The combination of strategies will ultimately benefit all 69,000 children in the Denver Public Schools, and an additional 2,000 children who are in early childhood programs.
A multi-faceted evaluation plan will bring together the considerable expertise of Partnership members assigned to evaluate specific projects and collect community indicator and service data .
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[New Haven, Connecticut]