Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Supports topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District social worker outlines 183 referrals, hunger and mental-health supports and $20,035 in grants
Summary
Jessica Fitch, Oregon City Schools social worker, told the board she logged 183 referrals over three years — roughly 90 for basic needs and 52 for mental-health concerns — and described partnerships, grief groups, mental-health-first-aid training and $20,035 in grants to support students.
Jessica Fitch, the district social worker for Oregon City Schools, told the board on June 16 that her office received 183 referrals for social-work services over three years, and that many of those needs are for basic necessities and mental health.
"Ninety of those referrals were for basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing concerns," Fitch said, adding that 52 were for mental-health-related concerns and 41 were for attendance and other issues. She said roughly half of referrals in her first year involved students living in kinship care arrangements — with relatives or family friends serving as caregivers.
Fitch outlined district partnerships and programs designed to address those needs. She said the district partners with the Toledo Islamic Food Bank to load two crates of roughly 100 food bags monthly that are distributed across seven school buildings. She described ‘‘grief support’’ groups launched through the Good Grief program at two elementary schools and a plan to expand them to additional sites.
She also described efforts to embed mental-health clinicians in schools and a recent train‑the‑trainer program so staff and, eventually, peer leaders can recognize mental‑health crises. "The goal for that is to be able to train our teachers, our staff, our bus drivers, custodians . . . to recognize when they are having a mental-health symptom, crisis, any sort of decline," Fitch said.
Fitch told the board she secured $20,035 in grants this year. She listed specific awards: $3,500 from the Oregon Schools Foundation to start an Eagle’s Nest "care" closet at Facet (used districtwide), $2,500 through a food-services partnership to supply shelf‑stable items for the closet, and $500 from Four Imprint to buy more than 200 cinch sacks to distribute discreetly to students. She also said the district won a school-bus-safety grant to install lighted stop-sign arms on buses.
Fitch said those hands‑on supports are part of a broader MTSS/PBIS approach to move students through tiered interventions — universal supports, targeted teams and individualized services. "My goal is that the more I focus on those larger implementation of those things, we will see more student success," she said.
Board members thanked Fitch for her work and grants that reduce stigma and provide material support for students. The presentation preceded routine business; no board action was required on the social‑work items at the meeting.
