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Director outlines fee-waiver pilot, attendance interventions after data shows rises in identified high-need students
Summary
Director Ace Thompson said district identification of high-need students has improved (36 students with housing insecurity, 51 in foster care, 71 home-hospital referrals) and announced a fee-waiver portal and a partnership with the platform 'My Friend Ben' to streamline confidential family supports and reduce barriers to extracurricular participation.
Director Ace Thompson told the committee the Office of Student Support is shifting from broad, system-level work to targeted supports for smaller, higher-need populations and reported specific counts: "When you look a little bit further though, that's that's 36 kids," he said of students identified with housing insecurity. He added foster-care counts at about 51 students and said home-hospital referrals numbered 71 this year, the highest in four years he examined.
Thompson described steps to tighten registration and identification processes, to automate workflows, and to launch a district fee-waiver website to reduce stigma and administrative friction. He said the district will partner with an online platform the presentation called "My Friend Ben," adding, "Ben, I found out, is short for benefits. It's not a person." Committee members asked how confidential waiver status would be shared at school level; Thompson said principals will sign off on activities initially and school adjustment counselors may be involved on a case-by-case basis.
