Sarasota expands early learning and student-support teams; district launches VPK classrooms, boosts mental-health staffing and school health services

Sarasota County Schools presented a multi-part update on early learning, school health and student support services at Wednesday—s workshop, describing planned expansions to prekindergarten (VPK), increased clinical staffing in school clinics, and scaling up of district mental-health supports.

Early learning and VPK - Conversion and expansion: Director of Early Childhood Tracy Cardenas said the district converted 15 grant-funded general-education and ESE blended preschool programs to offer VPK and added five more VPK classrooms at Atwater, Englewood, Glen Allen and Toledo Blade, bringing the program total to 19 classrooms for the prior year. Board discussion referenced an enrollment figure of about 296 VPK students in the current year. - Professional learning and assessments: Staff said they have trained VPK teachers in early-literacy assessments (FAST/STAR early literacy) and the Brigance developmental inventory; staff reported that the VPK cohort outperformed other learners entering kindergarten on the district—s early assessments in one comparison cited during the presentation. - Transition and community partnerships: The early-learning office said it coordinates with the Early Learning Coalition, Children First, Head Start, local child-care providers and other community partners and uses a pre-k-to-kindergarten transition checklist to improve readiness.

School health - Clinic complexity and screenings: School health supervisor Susie DeBose reported sharp increases in clinic complexity; staff documented nearly 300,000 health-room visits districtwide this year and said about 35,000 resulted in students being sent home or referred for off-campus care. Department of Health partners and local providers performed screenings and services: staff cited approximately 13,000 vision screenings, 9,600 hearing screenings, 9,300 BMI screenings and 3,500 scoliosis screenings during the year. DeBose also described dental-screening and sealant programs at 11 elementary schools.

Mental health and student services - Staffing and ratios: Executive director Deb Jackalone and colleagues said the district has steadily reduced student-to-staff ratios by adding counselors, psychologists and social workers; staff said the increased staffing allows more direct student interventions. Superintendent Brittetta Connor and Jackalone emphasized teacher, principal and district coordination. - New district mental-health resilience team (M-HEART): The board was told the district will add five school psychologists next year to form a mobile mental-health/resiliency team (called HEART in presentation notes) to provide direct services, coaching for school-based mental-health providers, crisis response and community referrals. Staff said the team will integrate with school-based counselors, behavior coaches and home-school liaisons and provide on-site coaching. - Proactive behavior response and professional learning: District behavior coaches provided many days of on-site support to students with significant externalizing behaviors. The district also trained 65 school-based staff and home-school liaisons in an evidence-based school well-being program and plans to roll out a coordinated well-being program to schools with parental consent.

Discussion vs. decisions - Discussion: Board members praised the district—s early-learning expansion and asked for ongoing cohort tracking to measure long-term outcomes (third grade and beyond). Members also asked for clarity on how students are triaged between school-based services, interagency support and referral to outside clinical care. - Direction: Staff said they will continue to monitor cohorts using Focus and the district—s assessment platforms and to enroll additional VPK seats where capacity and community partnerships allow (Sky Ranch VPK was planned for 2026-27). - Formal action: No board vote occurred at the workshop; staff said some initiatives are grant-funded or already budgeted.

Ending: District leaders asked for continued board support for staffing and partnerships and said they will return with more programmatic-review findings and cohort data later in the summer.