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District student support services report increased EL attendance, pantry partnerships and wellness initiatives
Summary
Student support services described attendance interventions, a Feeding San Diego food pantry partnership, a canine contraband program, PK family literacy work, and expanded wellness and mental‑health training.
District student support services staff reported to the board on attendance strategies, family engagement work and wellness programs across district sites.
The team described weekly site‑based intervention teams that coordinate attendance follow‑up with counselors, attendance clerks and community liaisons; staff said the district’s English‑learner attendance rate rose to 93.5% this year, about 1 percentage point higher than the prior year. The team said they use a communications platform (SchoolStatus) for outreach and coordinate home visits and referrals when schools have exhausted on‑site interventions.
Staff described a canine detection partnership that deploys trained dogs to school sites to identify contraband items; they said the dogs had helped identify items such as aspirin and other non‑instructional items and that the program has been well received. The PK Institute family literacy program ran its largest cohort this year, with about 25 parents participating in separate English and Spanish sessions.
Family engagement work includes a twice‑monthly food pantry at Lovecrest (in partnership with Feeding San Diego) and separate distribution at Lindo Park; community liaisons help identify families in need, which staff said led to increased identification of families who qualify under the McKinney‑Vento definition of students in transition/homelessness. Staff also highlighted one school’s Purple Star designation for military families and said the district continues to support Purple Star applications across sites.
Wellness partnerships with organizations including Evernorth and Elizabeth Hospice funded bimonthly professional development and a district retreat; the district also provided Youth Mental Health First Aid training to staff and plans to offer additional sessions.
Staff answered board questions about pantry distributions and identification processes. The presentation was informational with no binding action items.
