EPIC reports expanded student-wellness team contacted more than 6,100 families in first semester

The EPIC ONE ON ONE CHARTER SCHOOL Board heard a presentation Jan. 23 on the district’s new student-wellness and support services program and its first-semester results, including 6,139 family referrals and expanded in-house counseling capacity.

Managing Director of Student Wellness and Support Services Elizabeth Suddath told the board the district increased its wellness staff from seven last year to 29 this school year, and that the expanded team handled 6,139 direct contacts with families between August and December. “Our team as a whole has worked with 6,139 families,” Suddath said during her presentation.

Suddath said the wellness work includes a range of services: school counseling, mental-health referrals, crisis response, trauma-informed training, food and housing supports and telehealth services. Key data presented to the board included:

- 2,600 counseling referrals to in-house school counselors; - 636 referrals to mental-health partners for therapeutic services; - 84 students identified as actively discussing or planning suicide for whom staff made direct contact with caregivers and intervened; - roughly 2,300 counselor meetings recorded; - 1,692 students identified as experiencing homelessness; - 667 families who requested or received student support services (food pantry, case support); - 532 weekend food backpacks distributed to students; and - a telehealth contract with the University of Oklahoma to provide vision, dental and other screenings.

Suddath said the district’s shift to more in-house counseling allows staff to triage and keep closer follow-up with higher-need students. She told the board that prior to the in-house counseling expansion, all such referrals had been sent to external partners and that bringing services under EPIC’s staff improved continuity of care. “Prior to having these counseling services in house…everything was being referred out,” she said.

Board members asked how students are identified for contact. Suddath said referrals arrive from multiple sources: teacher referrals, family requests during enrollment, direct emails from parents and self-referrals. On tracking, Janice (finance and data lead) asked whether the 6,139 figure represented unique families; Suddath replied those were individual referral instances and that some families may have more than one referral but the number represents referrals received.

Board discussion also asked the wellness team to coordinate with the data team to overlay wellness interventions with academic performance measures; Suddath said the district is working with its data team to analyze links between nonacademic supports and outcomes, beginning with test scores and engagement measures.

The presentation emphasized training and system capacity: Suddath said more than 2,000 EPIC educators received trauma-informed and resilience training over the summer and the district has established principal-level wellness meetings (47 held so far) to coordinate supports.

The board did not take formal action on the presentation; no vote was required.