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Williamsville presents K–12 wellness, counseling and developmental‑assets findings to board
Summary
District wellness staff summarized the 2024–25 K–12 counseling program updates, alignment with ASCA and state standards, expanded mental‑health partnerships and a student developmental‑assets survey with more than 2,000 responses.
Dr. Denise Steffenbach presented the district’s annual K–12 wellness and counseling report, outlining curriculum alignment, mental‑health partnerships and results from a developmental‑assets survey of students in selected grades.
Steffenbach told the board the district updated its comprehensive counseling plan to explicitly align with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) standards and New York State Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) standards. The elementary counseling team revised its scope and sequence and mapped content to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, Steffenbach said.
The district also reported expanded partnerships with Spectrum Mental Health to provide clinical services at the middle and high school level and continuing growth of the Family Support Center. On surveys, the district moved to a Search Institute developmental‑assets profile and received responses from about 2,000 students in grades 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. Steffenbach said the district scored strongly on external support assets but identified "constructive use of time" outside school as an area for growth; middle school students showed a dip in positive identity measures.
Steffenbach said the district will focus in the coming year on mentoring and notification‑based interventions to address chronic absenteeism, and on broadening trauma‑informed and restorative practices. She told the board teams would use building‑level and district results to develop goals at all levels.
