Agmt24 Redwood City Community Schools FY23-24

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REV: 03-08-24 VR and identifying needs to provide intervention services to prevent families from losing access to essential resources (health insurance, housing, employment). Family Centers are tracking touchpoints throughout the school year to gather a better understanding of how services are accessed and their feelings of connectedness to the school. Families will be given a survey after outreach to measure the impact of the accessibility to services. Mental Health Redwood City School District has adopted and implemented a robust referral process to ensure that our most vulnerable students are supported and connected to services in a timely manner. As part of the referral process, we have worked to identify four core pathways for support services. The pathways: academic, mental health, attendance, and safety net services have been identified as the core areas of support needed at schools. At each community school site, an MTSS site coordinator, mental health counselor, and community school coordinator provide integrated oversight through the use of a weekly screen team to bolster early identification and support, connect students to early interventions, and address barriers to services to promote student and family wellbeing, prevent the need for higher levels of care and supports, and to dissolve the barriers to learning and classroom engagement (fewer/shorter disruptions of classroom learning). Due to the structure of our referral process and the frequency of our screen team meetings, we have been able to expedite the amount of time it takes to connect our students and families with the appropriate mental health services. Once a referral is submitted, there are immediate touchpoints and follow-ups with families, students, and referents to ensure adequate and timely assistance and placement. Newcomer Support Intake Process Each year, Redwood City School District (RCSD) welcomes close to 310 Newcomer students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Newcomer students have unique needs and challenges as they learn to navigate the new social and academic culture while preparing for high school and beyond. To address a smoother transition into a new country and school district, we are implementing a systematic approach that provides a 1:1 connection with each newcomer student and family at four of our community schools: Kennedy, Hoover, Taft, and Clifford. Through an in-depth interview, the coordinator in partnership with the family, determines the strengths and challenges that the student and family are facing in order to create a holistic plan to address barriers to learning and fulfillment of basic needs such as a lack or need of food, clothing, mental health services, health care, transportation, extended day learning, housing, legal assistance and any other possible needs that arise due to being new to the country. Our intended outcome for Newcomer students, whose families participate in our intake process, is that students and families will feel more engaged in school, have a sense of community belonging, and empowerment to self-advocate. ATTY/AGR.2024.029/Redwood City School District (Redwood City Community Schools FY23-24) (Page 7 of 9)