Kent County Public Schools received a notice of $83,333 grant award to continue funding the Mental Health Coordinator position. As a result, the coordinator created a plan to address the mental health and behavior issues caused by COVID-19 and was submitted to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). The grant was approved for July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

 

Emotional and mental health well-being is an essential ingredient for students to gain the most from their school experience. All adolescents experience ups and downs as they progress over the years.

However, for students who require emotional and mental health support, school psychologists, school social workers, and school counselors are available to help navigate students toward healthy next steps.

 

Kent County Public Schools recognizes the importance of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) instruction, supports and community building.

The Student Services department has developed additional strategies, resources, and guidance for student and staff well-being.

School crisis teams have been trained in RISK2 and CARE2 and are available to assess student safety when incidents arise. Parents and guardians have been provided with information to access school and community resources.

Along with all staff receiving instruction on suicide prevention and trauma training, school counselors and social workers present annually to our staff providing information on signs and symptoms.

 

Kent County Public Schools will continue to utilize Changing Perspectives, Second Step, Positive Connections, and the Pyramid Model to address social-emotional learning.

 

Changing Perspectives offers highly flexible, customizable schools and youth programs for supporting social-emotional learning: curricular resources and customized school consultation services for grades pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. These services can be engaged independently or combined based on each partner school or program’s unique needs and goals.