Reducing student suspensions and getting kids back into school is the goal of a new intervention program for the Vernon School District.
New Practices (NP) is a venture where the district, community agencies, parents and students respond to the complex problems facing students.
The program integrates local expertise from knowledgeable facilitators, offers flexible services, and supports a way in which students can make decisions about their lives through increasing knowledge, self-awareness and skill development.
Truman Spring, director of student support services, said the program offers an opportunity for schools to keep at-risk students engaged in the learning process through opportunities for self-discovery, and sends a positive message about the importance of academic achievement by keeping kids in school.
“They were looking at the extraordinary amount of suspensions that have been taking place over the last few years and the conversation was how do we put something in place to reduce suspensions and how to put some proactive responses into the high schools,” he said.
Spring, program teacher Rana Grace and superintendent Joe Rogers met in late August and talked about the idea that suspensions were a cry for help more than anything else.
“That is, students got to that point not just by doing something silly but rather a whole series of events, possibly years in the making, got them to that point,” said Spring. “So how do we make the situation more successful for them to get them integrated back into the school.”
Spring calls NP a flexible program that meets kids and families in a setting that is comfortable for them, often at home, to be able to get to the root of what is causing the problem that led to the suspension.
NP uses a multi-disciplinary team, which includes Spring, Grace, an aboriginal school support worker, the North Okanagan Youth and Family Social Services Society, as well as other community workers.
“And that multidisciplinary crew has created an interesting situation where we bring in the community to solve the problem, so the suspension piece is no longer just a school issue,” said Spring.
“It’s rather a community issue, where we bring the players to the table to start to discuss how we can make that student feel more successful, more supported and move forward in their academic career.”
To date, NP has 75 students in the program, 52 with suspensions, and the team is working them back into the system and following them as they transition back into the classroom.
“It’s not a one-stop, one-time deal. It goes on for a long period of time until we see that we can take the wheels off their bike and have the kids move forward on their own,” said Spring.
Grace said it’s been an exciting opportunity to work with families where they’re at and to help them decrease the barriers.
“I do a lot of home visits with the kids. I sit at their table with their parents or their grandparents and come to the root of the problems and to bring support, not just to the youth but to the family to help them overcome some of the challenges in their life,” she said.
“I’m always amazed at the resiliency some of our kids have.”
Grace said the program puts kids to work in the community, contributing volunteer hours to the Upper Room Mission, where they have helped prepare and serve food.
“We have a huge group of talented individuals who I am so fortunate to work with, my NOYFSS worker and aboriginal support worker who are working with me are very artistic so we have kids down at the arts centre doing pottery,” she said. “We are doing a lot of different pieces so kids feel that mastery and we’re starting to see relevancy in school and we’re starting to make connections.
Gerry William, director of aboriginal programs for the district, has seen children dropping out of school as early as Grade 4 or 5.
“And I’ve seen that in action where an aboriginal student is having difficulty in the school because of the subject matter or the way in which they’re feeling closed in a box so I have been seeking alternatives for those students,” he said.
“Truman’s approach really attracted me so I assigned an aboriginal support worker who works closely with Truman’s team,” said William. “As indicated, I don’t think this is going to be resolved overnight, I think it’s a long-term approach.
“We’ve had failures as well as successes, but we have to see them not as failures but as an opportunity to keep working with these students in a long-term approach so success doesn’t just mean Grade 12 graduation, but success in other ways.”