Class act: County-district collaboration helps families in crisis 

If a teacher notices a student coming to school bruised, or wary of close contact with others, she might shrug it off as clumsiness or shyness.

Or she might observe that a student has suddenly begun to neglect homework, or is performing poorly on tests, or seems distracted and unable to focus. Or maybe a student has become aggressive or defiant—or, conversely, listless.

As a pattern develops, that teacher might start getting a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something’s definitely wrong; the student may be abused or neglected. Although they have a legal responsibility to report such suspicions, teachers and other school personnel nevertheless agonize over the possible consequences for the families involved—up to and including family breakups and foster care.

The East Whittier City Elementary School District has developed a unique partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services to head off and respond to such family crises. School counselors, who are trained to handle emotional and behavioral problems, do their work in concert with a county social worker in a unique collaboration they call the Whittier Project.

Teachers, counselors, nurses and other staff are encouraged to be alert for signs of distress in their students. And with more than one counselor per 1,000 students—well above the state average for a K-8 district—the district refers more than the average number of cases to the county.

In fact, counselors have become so comfortable calling upon DCFS staff for advice and referrals that the logical next step was to place a social worker at the district office full time. The district responded, providing office space on site. The DCFS social worker, Arthur Sweeney, concentrates largely on cases and referrals of families from the district. He’s become so well-known by East Whittier City Elementary staff that they treat him like one of the district family.

When Sweeney receives a call from district personnel, he meets with the concerned staffer and the student to see what the best response would be for that family.

“I’m like a mini-hotline,” he jokes.

Because teachers or counselors are able to share what they know about a family’s situation, it’s easier for them to make that difficult call, says Amy Larson, the district’s director of student services. They know Sweeney is as interested as they are in keeping a family together and functioning.

“We can work with him, with the families, before it gets to the level of an official child abuse report,” Larson says.

School counselors realize that DCSF has the ability to reach farther into the home than they can, and the natural synergies of working closely with the county to meet families’ needs have helped avert a good number of foster care placements. It’s also reduced the number of suspensions and expulsions from school. “You have to work with whole family unit,” Larson says.

Working through a familiar face—a counselor known to students and their parents—also helps elicit the family’s cooperation, Sweeney says.
“I have a really close collaboration with the school counselors,” he adds. “They know the families better than I do, and I will take advice from them.” Often, he can work with a family to get the assistance it needs without having to make a formal report. 

“The families are closely bonded to the school,” he says. “They know that the school’s not trying to be mean to them, but is trying to help them.” 

The Whittier Project, which won a CSBA Golden Bell Award in 2009, has “evolved” over time, say Larson and Sweeney, and it has the advantage of not costing much, if anything, to maintain. The school district provides the social worker’s office, which frees up space at the county for other workers. Both organizations win.

“We’ve had a lot of success in terms of keeping kids home,” says Sweeney. “I really think it’s not me, but it’s the collaboration, because the school counselors’—the whole school district’s—philosophy, is that they don’t want their kids taken away, and neither do I.

“This arrangement could not happen without the complete cooperation of East Whittier school district. They’re the ones that make it work.”

WHO  East Whittier City Elementary School District and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services
WHAT  the Whittier Project teams up school counselors with a county social worker to investigate reports of child abuse or neglect and help families stay together
WHEN  since 2006
WHERE  Whittier
WHY  to improve access to social services and address the needs of at-risk students and families
MORE  www.whittiercity.k12.ca.us