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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Redmond, Oregon
| Partners: | Crook Deschutes Education Service District (CDESD) Deschutes County Commission on Children and Families District Attorney's Office | |
The Crook Deschutes Education Service District, located in rural central Oregon, is composed of three school districts (Bend/LaPine School District #1, Redmond School District 2J, and Sisters School District #6), serving 20,000 students in grades K-12. The county is projected to have the fastest growing youth population in Oregon. The youth population is predominately white, with only 4.5 % Hispanic, 1% Asian Americans, 1% Native Americans, and .3 % African American. Deschutes County is fraught with social problems including homelessness, poverty, crime, and substance abuse. During the 1997-1998 school year, there were over 15,350 behavior-related incidents of serious and violent crime. Total juvenile crime soared by 38% between 1987 and 1996. The overall suspension and expulsion rate is alarming and consistent. Other serious indicators include a 134% increase from1990 to1998 in students referred to probation, a rise in the number of students in juvenile justice placements, and child abuse and neglect cases.
The CDESD will continue to work in partnership with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, the Bend Police Department, the Redmond Police Department, and the Deschutes County Department of Human Services.
The goals of this project are to increase the number of Family Access Network (FAN) advocates in schools; increase after-school programming; enhance mentoring opportunities for at-risk youth; provide more community justice professionals in schools; assure a consistent and comprehensive violence-prevention program for families, children, and schools; and offer a comprehensive continuum of mental health services. The Committee for Early Childhood Education (CEED) oversees the extensive network of early childhood services already in place. The CEED has identified two primary needs for the preschool population: the establishment of a FAN advocate office within existing childhood program sites and the provision of additional staff training and research-based program implementation. Alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention efforts will continue to be addressed through the Safe Schools Alliance (SSA) and the county-wide interagency FAN Steering Committee. Over 20 after-school programs build youth social skills and provide alternative activities. FAN advocates will continue to work in schools to identify at-risk students and then link them with available services. Currently there are 15 schools within the county receiving limited school-based mental health services through the Deschutes County Human Services. The identified need is for provision of these services at each of the 35 schools and early childhood centers. Safe school policies will be enhanced by the SSA's zero tolerance policies toward violence and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use or possession.
The CDESD plans to select a local evaluator to provide quality information for increasing the effectiveness of the management and administration of the initiative.
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[Springfield, Oregon]