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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Wind River Indian Reservation, Ethete, WY
| Partners: | Wyoming Indian Schools Indian Health Service Wind River Office of Law Enforcement Services | |
The Wyoming Indian Schools (WIS) is a small K-12 school district comprised of one elementary, one junior high, and one high school on the Wind River Indian Reservation in West Central Wyoming. This is the nation's second largest reservation, home to approximately 4,000 Northern Arapaho and 2,000 Eastern Shoshone. The 750 students in the WIS district are in dire need of services and bear a disproportionate social and personal burden associated with violence and substance abuse. There is a high prevalence of drug use and arrest rates, and excessive rates of suicide, homicide, juvenile delinquency, and accidental death. Existing early intervention programs do not adequately meet the needs of the youth. Because the WIS district has no tax base it must depend on services through a variety of state and federal funding sources for the K-12 population. The Indian Health Service is the only non-reservation provider of mental health services; the existing mental health provider can only serve 40 percent of children and families in need. These problems, coupled with a sharp rise in antisocial behavior, violence, limited English proficiency, a high drop-out rate, child abuse and neglect, and extreme poverty, underscore the need for additional resources for the students on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
In addition to the primary partners, the school system has worked with a range of organizations and agencies to provide the necessary services to fill the widening gap between need and services. These include the Bureau of Indian Affairs Social Services, the Shoshone and Arapaho tribal courts, the Parent Information Center, and the Child and Youth Advocacy Center.
The program will use the services of health care educators, practitioners, social workers, counselors, psychologists, grandparent advisors, and school resource officers. They will work as a team out of the Intergenerational Family Resource Help Center to provide prevention and intervention programs focusing on the mental and emotional health of the preschool population. Alcohol, drug, and violence prevention and early intervention programs will target individual students and their peers. These programs will seek to reduce gangs and violence, and incorporate anti-violence and anti-drug curricula throughout the school and community. The Intergenerational Family Resource Help Center will also coordinate and increase the provision of mental health services. A school resource officer (funded through the U.S. Department of Justice's COPS Office) will forge the needed link between tribal law enforcement and the school. This officer will work with social workers, mentors, psychologists, educators, counselors, and school and other law enforcement personnel to enhance school safety. An education and intervention component is designed to build mutual respect between law enforcement and students. School reform will be part of a comprehensive effort to improve teaching and bring about rigorous academic standards, high teacher expectations, and success in the meeting of performance standards and accreditation.
The WIS, in cooperation with staff at the Montana State University, have developed an evaluation plan.
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[Laramie, Wyoming]