Citizen Portal
Sign In

Albany PPS outlines decade of expansion amid rising homelessness and behavioral needs

Albany City School District Board of Education · January 10, 2026
Article hero
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Pupil Personnel Services described a shift from crisis response to proactive, trauma‑informed supports, reporting a 71% rise in students experiencing homelessness since 2016, a 33% drop in physical interventions, expanded telehealth and behavioral clinics, and the loss of a recent McKinney‑Vento grant that reduced case‑management capacity.

Pupil Personnel Services presented a decade-long transformation at the Albany City School District on Thursday, saying the department has moved from a reactive discipline model to a preventive, trauma‑informed framework that now coordinates health, social‑emotional and safety work across schools.

“The data demonstrate a staggering increase in need,” the PPS presenter told the board, saying the district has seen a 71% increase in students experiencing homelessness since 2016. The presentation highlighted expanded programs — family and student support teams, in‑district behavioral health clinics and Cartwheel Telehealth — intended to connect students with care and reduce out‑of‑district placements.

Why it matters: Board members pressed PPS on how the department is meeting growing demand as key funding streams change. Leaders said the district did not receive a recent McKinney‑Vento grant they had sought, a loss that reduced staffing for case management and intensified the search for alternative funding and partner supports.

PPS also reported gains on some behavioral metrics: presenters said total reportable violent and disruptive incidents decreased (from 155 to 101 in the most recent comparison) and that the use of physical interventions declined by about 33% as the district expanded training and prevention. The district described its expansion of crisis‑response training — noting hundreds of staff have received trauma/crisis interventions training over recent years — and said it deploys an evidence‑based threat‑assessment tool (CSTAG) to prevent school violence.

Board members focused questions on several operational points: the definition and reporting criteria for “material” incidents under the Dignity for All Students Act, how the district tracks and supports McKinney‑Vento families (including transportation reimbursement nuance), and ongoing efforts to partner with health and case‑management platforms such as Healthy Alliance and Unite Us for prevention services.

PPS said telehealth and partnership strategies are part of outreach to fill gaps: “we are in talks with Healthy Alliance and Unite Us on a platform to provide that type of prevention,” presenters said. They also described collaboration with Northern Rivers and Whitney Young Health to place clinicians in secondary schools and expand clinic access.

Next steps: PPS will provide the board with more detailed, building‑level reports and raw data used to create the presentation slides, and will continue to seek alternate funding streams to restore lost McKinney‑Vento positions and expand case management capacity.