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Student services update: district reports improved attendance, expands wellness and mental‑health staffing
Summary
Director Mark Palmerston told the board the district has filled most wellness coach positions, increased school‑based therapists from one to 10 this year (goal 21), and reported declining chronic absenteeism and a 4.3% suspension rate with recent year‑to‑date improvements.
Mark Palmerston, director of student services, gave the board a comprehensive update on student supports on May 14, saying the department’s work centers on a whole‑child approach that combines in‑school supports, health services and records/resolution work.
Palmerston described three major buckets of work: people (staffing wellness coaches and school‑based therapists), programs (social‑emotional learning, restorative practices, SARB processes) and partnerships (ESS, Family Services Agency, Fighting Back Santa Maria, KEDA, county behavioral health). He said the district has staffed 39 of 42 wellness coach positions and expanded school‑based therapists from 1 to 10 this year with a plan to have 20 of 21 positions staffed by next school year.
He provided operational figures for health services: 1,315 students have identified health conditions and care plans; LVNs respond to approximately 400 acute medical calls per month and perform about 47 daily medical treatments; LPTs have performed 685 risk assessments to date this year. On attendance, he said dashboard data show a continued decline in chronic absenteeism and that current daily attendance is at about 95%. He reported the overall suspension rate was 4.3% (a slight year‑to‑year increase noted in the dashboard, but recent internal data show declines in some sites, for example, a 3% decrease at El Camino Junior High).
Palmerston said next steps include expanding restorative practices, improving data sharing with partners to track the learning impact of services, institutionalizing crisis and behavioral health response, and pursuing expanded billing for certain services to offset partner costs.
