A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Partners:

Schools District of Philadelphia Cabinet for Children and Families Philadelphia Police Department

Philadelphia, the fifth largest school district in the country, enrolls more than 210,000 children, of whom nearly 80% come from low-income families. The city of 1.5 million residents consists of over 100 neighborhoods, some of which are sprawling and nearly suburban, while others typify urban blight. Sixty-four per cent of the city's public school children are African American, 20% Caucasian, 11% Latino, and 5% Asian. The average rate of high school graduation is 52%, and drops as low as 20% in some high schools. The city is not well-integrated, and poverty is more highly concentrated among the minority populations.

The School District of Philadelphia is working with the Cabinet for Children and Families, which was established in 1993 to implement system-wide changes in the delivery of services to children and families. The Cabinet is comprised of 17 representatives from child- and family-serving City departments as well as the School District of Philadelphia.

Taking Prevention to Scale supports 3 goals: to increase the number of children entering first grade with the appropriate skills for learning; to increase the number of students graduating from high school who are also prepared for post-secondary success; and to decrease the frequency, and prevent the occurrence, of youth-related violence and crime. This initiative will establish a continuum of services, ranging both in scope (from prevention to intense intervention) and in targeted age range (K-12). The major vehicles for providing the planned interventions are Family Resource Centers. Eighteen are already in place within the public schools and provide a variety of services to students and their families, including availability of a full-time registered nurse, a full-time social worker, and a part-time certified psychologist. Four new centers will be established in year one of this grant to ensure that each of the district's 22 clusters has a center. To increase promotion and graduation rates, the district has developed the multi-tiered Comprehensive Support Process, which begins with informal class supports and accommodations and works outward, if needed, to the entire school and/or outside agencies. Truancy courts, a cooperative effort of the Family Court and the school district, are currently held one week a month in a public school building. This effort will be expanded to four community-based courts with two additional school officers. The Department of Recreation currently operates 65 after-school programs, each serving 25-30 students on a daily basis. Ten new sites will be established, and 40 of the Department's existing programs will offer extended hours and Saturday programs with the intent of reducing youth crime. During the first year of project activity, the services will be made available to approximately one-third of the district's schools (over 70,000 school-age children and their families). The initiative will become system-wide by the end of the 3-year project.

The Center for the Study of Youth Policy at the University of Pennsylvania will conduct the independent evaluation.

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