SAN FERNANDO : Pilot Program Seeks to Prevent Dropouts
A pilot program to help prevent elementary school students from becoming dropouts by working with their families will begin this fall at Morningside Elementary School.
A team consisting of a teacher, parent, probation officer, alcohol and drug counselor and a mental health social worker will meet regularly with at-risk students and family members to head off future academic or social problems, said Maria Rochart, a psychotherapist with the San Fernando-based North Valley Family Counseling Center.
“It’s a collaborative work in preventing delinquency in children,” said Rochart, who will be one of the five team members at Morningside. “We will work to reconstruct and reconnect the whole family.”
After a last-minute appeal by the nonprofit counseling center, the San Fernando City Council on Monday agreed to allocate $10,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for the project.
The program, called Families and Schools Together, will initially target a dozen 5- to 9-year-old children who are referred by teachers because they are not performing well academically, need constant discipline or show signs of neglect and depression.
The students and family members will meet with the team once a week for eight weeks, then attend monthly support meetings for two years, Rochart said. Morningside has 1,032 students--more than 95% of them are Latino--and is one of three participating schools in the Los Angeles area.
Principal Vicki Montez strongly supports the program because it meets the social needs of students. “We’re treating the whole child,” she said.
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