SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Communication and connection were top of mind Thursday as regional mental health experts and school leaders discussed solutions to absenteeism and mental health crises within schools.
The School-Based Mental Health Forum was held at Great Oaks Career Campus and facilitated by MindPeace. The nonprofit works with community partners to continue the development and implementation of mental health support for children and adolescents, with a focus on school-based, stakeholder-selected partnerships.
WCPO has been on a search for solutions, previously hosting and joining in on conversations about youth violence. With the focus now shifting to mental health, WCPO attended Thursday's forum to understand what impacts students' mental health.
Representatives from Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati Public Schools, Oak Hills Local School District and Princeton City School District sat on the first panel.
Oak Hills Schools' Director of Student Services Rachel Searcy said the district sent out a survey to parents and students to gauge the main reasons students are not coming to school. The district received responses last week.
"We're starting to dig into our data and sure enough transportation is not actually at the top. It's towards the bottom. It is an issue that we heard but engagement — guess where that is? Right up at the top," Searcy said. "Parents, students are telling us it's all the questions around engagement."
The district will revisit the responses in January and meet with Hamilton County ESC to create focus groups that will dive deeper into parent and student voice, Searcy said.
"If we don't ask — we can hypothesize all we want as staff members — but if we don't talk to students, we will never find solutions and that's all about engagement," Searcy said.
Oak Hills Schools established a student wellness council this school year, taking the district from no social workers to a team of professionals. The council is funded through community grants, as are most mental health efforts, because the district does not currently allocate money to those resources, Searcy said.
"We can't just keep closing our eyes to the needs of students," Searcy said.
Princeton City Schools sent two people to weigh in on the discussion. They said the district has been able to improve student engagement in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The most important thing we did was really sit and talk with our students, having those weekly or monthly groups talking with them about what do they like and really going from grade level 9, 10, 11 and 12," said James Stallings, assistant director of student services for Princeton City Schools. "One thing you hear about engagement — it doesn't just start in the classroom but it can start at the beginning of the day when they walk into the building. We talk about mental health. We don't know what one kid is going through the night before, before they come in their classroom, so having that trusted adult means everything."
During the first school year following the pandemic when students returned to the classroom, chronic absenteeism in the district was at 37%. Student Services Director Dr. Ronald Fausnaugh said that number is now below 20%.
"I would just say our connections (are bringing kids back in) — our relationships. If it's not a one-on-one relationship with a staff member. It's relationships with classroom teachers. It's relationships with a school administrator. It's connections and trust with our families as well," he said.
Fausnaugh said the district is also looking into its disciplinary policies.
"Really helping our building teams understand too that out-of-school suspensions aren't necessarily always the answer and that out-of-school suspensions greatly contribute to our chronic absentee rate," Fausbaugh said.
When the microphone landed in Monisha House's hands, fellow panelists and forum attendees were given their first insight into how the shift to online learning could be contributing to absenteeism and the lack of desire for students to find inspiration from brick-and-mortar education.
House, who serves as Cincinnati Public Schools' director of school leadership, said online connection created an interpersonal disconnect for both students and parents.
"Students were just given work (during the pandemic) and so now parents are like, 'Oh, this is not too bad. Because if the students can just do work for an hour at home, then that's all they need to do. So maybe they don't need to go every day,'" House said.
The focus now is to reiterate to parents the importance of in-person education for the benefit of students' learning, mental and emotional well-being, House said.
"Parents do not feel really welcome to come in. To come back in to volunteer to come back in and just watch and see and be a part of the school community," House said. "I think that's an opportunity for us to do a better job with that to really keep them engaged."
CPS currently has its social workers meet weekly to determine what is working and what is not. The district is in the process of crafting a school board policy on mental health, House said.
