Social Emotional
Support
Social Emotional Support
The pandemic and the resulting closure of campus and move to distance learning has created social-emotion stresses for children and parents. To support students, families, and staff, the AAS counselors will provide support prior to school reopening and ongoing through the school year.
Prior to School Beginning
- Complete a community-wide social/emotional needs assessment to pre-plan and prepare additional supports to be ready at opening;
- Provide continued non-academic connection time between students and with students and staff (i.e. Wolf Pack Time, lunch bunches, etc.);
- Offer small group debrief sessions or similar crisis response model for students, parents, and faculty/staff to process their feelings and concerns about returning to school;
- Provide professional development to all staff in small groups about supporting, recognizing, and responding to social-emotional needs (including a consistent message about returning to school and key concepts such as validating feelings and how to access additional support);
- Develop a staff well-being support plan (including awareness of available resources, system for getting extra help, etc.);
- Create a video or other clear visual to share new health and safety procedures with families before coming back on campus to help set expectations.
Initial Days/ Weeks of School
- Keep focus on connections, routines, and feeling safe rather than pushing straight into academic content (i.e. first days to transition everyone back into routines and rebuild connections);
- Provide social-emotional education around emotion management/self-regulation strategies, problem solving, mental health, etc;
- Increase counselor availability and create drop-in spaces near counselor offices if someone needs a break;
- Re-advertise referral procedures and outside resources to school community (students, parents, staff);
- Conduct short classroom check-in meetings with counselor co-lead to see how students are doing;
- Continue to provide appropriate parent education to support the transition back to school.
Long-Term Support
- Provide a consistent PK-12 social-emotional curriculum to all students;
- Provide small groups for moderate needs through counseling department and provide referrals to community providers as appropriate for severe needs;
- Create a regular multidisciplinary PK-12 well-being team to meet regularly and action plan on identified overarching needs;
- Use a universal social-emotional screener tool to better identify students in need of additional support including reviewing data/historical information to identify those likely at higher risk;
- Regular opportunities for contact with all students and counselors;
- Create well-being education options that community members can access virtually at any time 24/7;
- Continue a regular welcome routine in mornings (i.e. welcoming staff presence at all entrances where students come in and bus drops off);
- Continue to provide appropriate parent education opportunities to support student and family needs.
