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District reinstates Family Counseling Services partnership; 150 staff trained on risk‑of‑harm referrals
Summary
District staff told the board that Aurora East USD 131 has restored a partnership with Family Counseling Services (FCS), trained about 150 administrators, social workers, counselors and school psychologists on Aug. 26, and has begun connecting families for additional support to reduce higher levels of intervention.
Aurora East USD 131 staff told the Board of Education on Sept. 2 that the district has reinstated its partnership with Family Counseling Services (FCS) and has started operationalizing referrals for students in need of additional behavioral and mental‑health support.
Dr. Laura Arenbaugh said the district held a training day on Aug. 26 for about 150 district administrators, social workers, counselors and school psychologists to review the district’s risk‑of‑harm process and how to use the renewed FCS partnership to connect families with services. "We did a series of trainings throughout the day where we talked with staff about our risk of harm process and combined that with our new partnership with Family Counseling Services," Arenbaugh said. She added that staff have already begun initiating connections to FCS and that early feedback has been positive.
District staff and the board said the partnership previously existed and has been “brought back” to provide an additional layer of counseling support. Arenbaugh said the expectation is that the FCS partnership will help reduce the need for higher levels of support when students require mental‑health services. The district also reported that the school year began Aug. 20 and, within the first week, nutrition services served more than 83,000 meals districtwide — a data point presented alongside the update.
The board did not take action on the update; staff said operational steps are underway to refer families and monitor outcomes. Dr. Arenbaugh and district leadership indicated that they will continue to report implementation progress to the board and to trained staff.
