![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Yonkers, New York
| Partners: | Yonkers City Public Schools County and City Mental Health Department Yonkers Police Department | |
Yonkers, the 4th largest city in New York state, is situated in its wealthiest county (Westchester), but has large pockets of extreme poverty. With a population of 189,960, the school district is comprised of 38 magnet schools, serving over 25,000 youth. Its multicultural population is 73% minority, of which 31% is African American and 42% is Hispanic, many of the latter arriving from the Dominican Republic and Mexico with little or interrupted formal schooling. Approximately 71.2% of students are on free or reduced cost lunch. Yonkers' crime and drug statistics are six times the rate of its wealthy Westchester neighbors; about 80% of the crime is drug related. Median household income is $46,488, about $16,000 lower than the county average. Youth are at increased risk for every negative social indicator, including violence, alcohol/drug use, low school performance, school suspensions, and teen pregnancy.
In addition to the core partners, other partner agencies include Family Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester; Westchester County Department of Probation, as well as the Youth Services Bureau and Parks and Recreation Department, City of Yonkers.
A comprehensive network, maintained by a multidisciplinary advisory council, will provide a continuum of integrated services to meet developmental needs of, and enhance resiliency factors in, children through young adulthood. Early childhood educational efforts include providing home visits, family support, and early literacy to young children and their families, all day pre-kindergarten for all students, training staff, promoting parent involvement/education, and working with teen parents. Alcohol/drug and violence prevention includes social skills programming in elementary schools, conflict resolution/peer mediation for all students, and student assistance counseling. In mental health, schools will use student support teams composed of professionals and a network of coordinated case conferencing. The initiative will replicate a pilot mental health program in at least one high school. Safe school policies will include law enforcement partnerships to bring local police officers into schools (funded by the U.S. Department of Justice's COPS Office). Establishing or strengthening of alternative or transitional programs for middle school students, or those returning from incarceration, is included. Educational reform efforts will concentrate on a pre-K-12 academic curriculum to strengthen student skills, parent training, and staff professional development in topics such as diversity training, crisis prevention/intervention, and personalization through reduced class size and advisor/advisee relationships in secondary schools. To increase safety within schools, procedures and protocols will be reviewed, monitored and evaluated. Policies/procedures will be implemented regarding school discipline, expulsion for serious offenses, drug, alcohol, and tobacco use.
The Yonkers SS/HIS will use process and outcome evaluation techniques.
-###-
[Raleigh, North Carolina]