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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Georgetown, Texas
| Partners: | Georgetown Independent School District Bluebonnet Trails Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center Georgetown Police Service Division | |
The Georgetown Independent School District (GISD) serves 7,300 students (including 2,000 preschool students) located in one of the nation's five fastest growing counties. This generally affluent suburb is also home to pockets of socioeconomically-disadvantaged citizens; one in five children live in poverty and 25% of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Sixty percent of the residents are non-Hispanic white, 25% are Hispanic, and 11% are African Americans; over half of the persons at the poverty level are minorities. The school district is made up of seven elementary and two middle schools, one ninth grade campus, and one high school. There is an alternative high school and a placement center for suspended students. The GISD is challenged by rapid growth and ethnic diversity. Surveys indicate that Georgetown students are experimenting with and initiating drug use at an earlier age than just five years ago. There are currently no publicly-funded mental health services available in the community. There are limited resources for early childhood interventions and no programs specifically target parents of infants and preschoolers. Head Start has a waiting list, and recently 12.7 % of kindergartners tested below level on the Early Prevention of School Failure test.
The agencies collaborating on this initiative include the GISD, the Georgetown Police Department, the Georgetown Project, and the Bluebonnet Trails Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) Center. These agencies have a solid history of cooperation among themselves and with other agencies.
The cornerstone of the GISD SS/HS program will be the new Family Resource Center, serving 100 children and families, and the creation of a network of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention systems through parenting, conflict resolution, mentors, and prevention curricula. GISD HS/SS will implement parent training and home visit programs. A comprehensive approach to alcohol, other drugs, and violence prevention and intervention programming will include a research-based curriculum, the hiring of a student services coordinator to implement programming, peer mediation and peer counseling projects, student leadership opportunities, the hiring of a full-time counselor with a speciality in substance abuse, and a community mentoring program. To address the total lack of publicly funded mental health and addiction care programs, the Bluebonnet Trails MHMR Center will be among the organizations providing client coordination, counseling, and medication related services. School resources officers (funded through the Department of Justice's COPS Office) will be hired to enhance school safety initiatives that include surveillance, lighting, fencing, and crisis management. Educational reform activities include staff development, teen leadership training, and advocates for at-risk students. The school district will continue to fine-tune its school conduct code and establish special teams for each secondary campus. The successful drill program will be expanded.
Evaluation will be conducted by the Center for Social Work Research at the University of Texas in Austin.
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[Houston, Texas]