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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
St. Louis, Missouri
| Partners: | St. Louis Public Schools City of St. Louis Mental Health Board of Trustees St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department | |
St. Louis, with a population of 397,000, is one of the poorest cities in the nation. Almost one in four city residents, and over 55% of its children, live in poverty. The 108 public schools serve a large number of students from economically disadvantaged families. The district's student population is 78% African American. St. Louis has the second largest Bosnian population in the country and has been a major destination for Albanian Kosovar refugees. These immigrant populations need specialized services, including instruction in English as a second language, as well as mental health services. The district experiences a high school cumulative drop out rate of 61%. Like many other large urban school districts, St. Louis has increasing problems with drug use and school violence in its public schools.
In addition to the primary partners, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse-St. Louis Area (NCADA) will provide school staff training and prevention training to students at elementary, middle, and high schools. The International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis will provide mental health services for immigrant students and their families. Another partner, the St. Louis Family Court, will refer students in need of mental health treatment services to relevant providers.
The St. Louis Partnership for Safe Schools/Healthy Students aims to help youth develop the skills and resources to avoid drug use and violent behavior and to establish and maintain safe, disciplined, drug-free school environments. Early childhood psychosocial and emotional development programs will be coordinated through a case management system. The case management system has been designed and pilot tested for young children enrolled in school-based and community-based child care centers or receiving child development services. The children will be monitored and followed throughout their first year in kindergarten. Three training courses in substance abuse and violence prevention will be conducted by NCADA, and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program will train school prevention teams in all elementary, middle and high schools. School prevention teams will train site staff. NCADA will train student teams in all schools. School and community mental health prevention and treatment services will be provided in two seven-school clusters as a pilot for school-linked services to be implemented across the community. The International Institute will support mental health services for immigrant families. Existing safe schools policy statements will be examined and refined during the first year of the project and a handbook will be developed and distributed by the third year. Educational reform efforts will consist of training students in grades 2 to12 as conflict managers and establishing student-led mediation services at middle and high schools. Planned activities for school safety include installing surveillance cameras in the middle schools and installing window guards and other safety measures in every school.
Formative and summative evaluation activities will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of evaluation specialists representing education, mental health, and juvenile justice, led by Vision for Children At Risk.
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