SCOE: Student Safety & Wellness

30 New Student Wellness Centers Opened

SCOE Spearheads $1.7M Student Mental Health Initiative

In order to better support student safety and learning, SCOE has applied for, and received, three grants totalling $1,763,530 to support the establishment of schoolbased wellness centers across Solano County.

Grants awarded to SCOE include $509,378 from the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant issued by the California Department of Education, and a grant from Solano County Behavioral Health (SCBH) totaling $954,152. Additionally, SCOE received a $300,000 Health Systems Development Grant (HSG) from the County Medical Services Program (CMSP).

SCOE assisted with the implementation of 30 new wellness centers on school campuses and adult eduation sites throughout the county with the grant funds. Schools completed an application and interview process to receive furniture, supplies and assistance from SCOE on the implementation process.

Covid-19 created some challenges for the centers, but virtual meeting platforms have helped maintain the structure needed to support student wellness going into school year 2020-21.

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Youth Mental Health First Aid Training teaches adults how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders in youth up to age 18. In 2019-20, SCOE staff members became certified as instructors for these important courses, allowing SCOE to provide courses for the Solano community. Four free courses were offered to local educators to grow the capacity and supports at schools.

Telehealth Counseling Sessions

During the Covid-19 shelter-at-home orders, the mental health program staff were eager to address ways to continue to offer mental health support to students and staff. In partnership with the BH-Works platform by MDLogics, program staff were able to quickly provide telehealth counseling sessions to students and their families. Students were able to log onto to their electronic device and still receive on-going mental health support from the comfort and safety of their own home. Staff were also able to modify social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum so that it could be offered via Zoom to groups of students throughout the county. Benicia fourth graders were able to attend a weekly series of SEL instruction that focused on addressing the emotions that surfaced related to the pandemic. High school students from various schools participated in a weekly series that allowed them to ask a mental health clinician questions they had related to mental health and wellness. Mental health staff continued to support educators as well, offering virtual trainings on topics related to addressing mental wellness during difficult times.

School-Based Mental Health Support

In the 19/20 school year, the student services program instituted universal mental health screening for all Golden Hills Fairfield and Vacaville students. Each student was offered the opportunity to complete the screening aimed at highlighting areas of concern, including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, trauma exposure and early psychosis symptoms. Trained mental health staff were able to quickly identify the areas where support was needed for a student, and route them to appropriate support services which included on-site therapeutic support and linkage to a variety of community-based organizations. Additionally, the data obtained from the universal screening tool helped to guide whole classroom support, as well as targeted programming within the Wellness Center. Offerings such as trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness were made available to the students at the Fairfield campus.

SCOE Youth Development Program Mentorship

Eight members of the Solano Youth Coalition (SYC) attended the 22nd annual Teens Tackle Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs, and Youth Wellness Conference at UC Berkeley held in February and March. As youth presenters for the middle and high school conferences, SYC members led workshops for over 300 youth on tobacco prevention, healthy relationships, mental health and stress reduction.

Coming Together for the Solano School Safety Symposium

Police and FBI Data Helps Shape the Discussion

Solano County Office of Education partnered with other Solano County agencies including the District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, Probation, and Health & Social Services to collaborate on school safety. The group also partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Vacaville Police Department to bring data, research, science, and systems to Solano school districts through the Solano County School Safety Symposium.

More than 300 attendees from local school site teams, law enforcement, and public safety agencies attended the event held at Sunrise Event Center in Vacaville. The focus of the Symposium was to help schools and school resource officers apply strategies and data to assess threats and prevent school violence. Discussions were geared toward building our capacity as a community to understand behaviors, identify threats, and implement interventions and supports for students.

The Symposium was a great step in continuing our efforts to support students and keep our schools safe. This collaborative work will continue with a Solano County School Safety Symposium for parents and guardians. We are grateful for the overwhelming community support for school safety and the great work each agency is doing to support students.