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Marcy staff say SEL screener caught students missed by behavior logs; board hears pilot results
Summary
Marcy Elementary staff told the Hamilton School Board they piloted Savers/MySavers SEL screeners for K ash—, flagging 49 students (many without prior behavior slips) and prompting tier 2 interventions; teachers said the tool helped identify a student with self-harm risk. The board will continue districtwide discussions.
Marcy Elementary staff presented results from a pilot of the Savers and MySavers social-emotional learning screeners, telling the Hamilton School Board the short assessments identified students who had not previously shown up in discipline data.
"We piloted this program this year as an effort to get a better understanding of where our students were at with social, academic, and emotional risk behaviors," said Britney Jarman, one of the presenters. She said teachers completed Savers for kindergarten and first grade while students in grades 2 ash— completed MySavers. The screeners take roughly 1 ash— minutes per student and are normed against national references, Jarman said.
Presenters reported that the screener flagged 49 students at Marcy. "Thirty-eight of those students had no behavioral incidents in our school up until February 17," Jarman said, adding that flagged students were placed into tier 2 interventions (check-in/check-out, small groups or one-on-one mentoring) and that most families were receptive. Staff notified parents in advance, offered opt-outs and sent letters to families of flagged students describing planned interventions; presenters said about two parents opted out of the screening.
Karen Deacon, a first-grade teacher who spoke at the meeting, described teacher reactions as largely positive and said the tool was more user-friendly for young students than earlier instruments. Deacon told the board the screener directly led staff to connect one child to help after the student flagged for significant personal-safety concerns: "There is absolutely no way we would have caught this without having gone through this survey," she said.
Counselor Abigail Much described how the MySavers student-facing screener reads questions aloud and uses kid-friendly language; she said the team plans a spring re-screen to compare fall and spring results and to measure whether tier 2 interventions produce improvement.
Board members asked about over-flagging and how classroom-level thresholds would be used. Presenters said about 10% of students is a typical rate for tier 2 interventions and that only a handful of classes reached the 20% threshold the school uses to plan teacher-level lessons. The presenters said they already have shared findings with district MTSS leaders and other counselors and that some other schools have expressed interest.
The board did not take formal action on the presentation. Administration said it will continue monitoring results and report back to the board after spring screening.
