Richfield’s student support services cite declines in major incidents and expand school‑based health and SEL work
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Summary
District presenters described growth in school‑based health center use, expansion of conscious discipline and multi‑tiered SEL teams, and reported a drop in elementary major incidents and fewer suspensions even where majors persisted.
Director Christina Gonzalez and members of the student support services team told the Richfield School Board on Feb. 18 that multi‑tiered social‑emotional learning work, school‑based health services and conscious discipline practices are driving measurable changes in student behavior and supports across the district.
Jackie Sanchez Vidal, coordinator of the Richfield Health Resource Center at Richfield High School, said the center — which serves young people ages 0–21 who live, work or attend school in Richfield — saw a sustained increase in utilization in 2024 compared with 2023. “Just with comparing the year of 2023 and 2024, we have seen an increase per month of 24 more community members utilizing the services provided,” she said. “Our center is the youngest health resource center and the most utilized in the state.”
Gonzalez described the district’s conscious discipline roll‑out as “adult first” work intended to help staff create classroom routines, safe places and consistent responses that support students’ regulation. The team showed district data indicating a 34% increase in implementation of classroom “safe places” from fall 2022 to fall 2024; learning‑walk interviews found 84% of students said they had been taught what a safe place is and 82% said they understood how to use it.
Lead school psychologist Kaye Sweeney and lead social worker Monique Twy outlined how building‑level SEL teams use multiple data sources (behavior incidents, attendance and course performance) to triage needs and assign interventions at classroom, grade‑level or individual levels. The team reported a 38% decrease in elementary majors from fall 2023 to fall 2024 and large decreases in middle‑school majors; at the middle school the presenters said 14 of 26 majors this school year were related to chemical‑health issues and the district has increased funding to provide chemical‑health supports.
Gonzalez told the board that while majors have declined, the district has been able to avoid suspensions in many cases by deploying alternatives and supports. “They’re not resulting in so many suspensions, which means practices related to alternatives to suspension are actually happening,” she said.
Administrators and board members discussed data accuracy and entry processes. Directors and staff said some historical data required recoding and that district technology and data‑warehouse work is improving the reliability of long‑range trend pulls. The district’s director of technology, Justin Steele, was mentioned as having worked on data downloads and accuracy improvements.
Board members asked about gaps in services. Gonzalez and Twy identified shortages in Tier‑3 and Tier‑4 mental‑health and chemical‑health treatment capacity in the community and said school‑based delivery improves access; team members noted students are far more likely to complete therapy when it is delivered at school.
Ending: The district said it will continue to refine data systems and report back; staff asked the board to sustain funding and positions that have supported the recent SEL and health gains.
