The Medical Lake School District has always worked to support the academic needs of its students. Now it’s getting some extra help in providing support for its 882 military students.
The district received a grant from the Department of Defense Education Activity that will help staff support the social and emotional, as well as the academic, needs of military students.
Kim Headrick, director of teaching and learning, said she and Ann Everett, who coordinates both special education and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are creating the program for the grant.
“We’ll begin planning and professional development in the fall before rolling out the program in January,” Headrick said.
As part of the professional development, staff will attend meetings and workshops that focus on how to help military students with social and emotional needs, as well as providing Positive Behavior Intervention Support for them.
“We’re going to be looking at balancing supporting social and emotional needs with academic performance simultaneously,” Headrick said. “There can be so much going on in a student’s life and staff won’t know anything about it until they see difficulty in a student’s learning.”
Some staff got an idea of what they would like to include in the program after attending a workshop at Fairchild Air Force Base hosted by the Military Child Education Coalition, an organization that works with schools to ensure quality educational experiences for all military-connected children affected by mobility, family separation and transition. At the workshop, staff discussed several topics, including the social/emotional implications of transitioning and the effects of deployment, separation and loss.
“We did a lot of brainstorming at the workshop,” Headrick said. “In addition to working with local schools, we’ll reach out to the coalition for ideas. We’re still in the beginning stages.”
One of the goals of the program is to develop a readiness center at Michael Anderson Elementary, the middle school and high school.
“The readiness center will be a safe place for students where they can go and get the emotional support they need,” Headrick said.
Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].
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