JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
Person responsible for reporting: Dr. Renee White, LCSW, Manager and
Lisa Orem, Director of Special Services
Date Presented to BOE: February 25, 2014
Program Description:
For two years Joplin Schools has met the immediate social, emotional and
behavioral needs of students by having ancillary professional staff to help students and
families still suffering from the effects of the tornado. It is imperative to have integrated
into the school environment a cascade of supports and services that, as a matter of
common practice, identifies and ameliorates the impact of trauma on the school family
and fosters the development of healing and resilience. Titled “Project HOPE” the project
is now in it’s third year of operation.
Project HOPE brings expertise of mental health assessment and intervention,
persistence to graduation interventions, community resource linkage, and behavioral
specialization to the academic environment with the end goal of stabilizing the
social/emotional/behavioral disruptions so that the student is able to have academic
success. To this end, there are six broad categories of services:
1. Mental Health Counseling
2. Home/School Liaising
3. Family Engagement Activities
4. Staff Emotional/Social Support
5. Staff Coaching & Professional Development
6. Integration of Building Level Processes
Mental Health Counseling Services:
The school-based mental health counselors are responsible for assessing the
acuity of emotional distress, developing individualized intervention plans, and facilitating
individual and group counseling. Specific to the trauma impacts from the tornado and
other significant life disruptions, the counselors are utilizing Cognitive Behavioral
Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) therapy, which is an Evidenced-Based
Practice (EBP). Additional therapy groups have been formed to meet the needs of
specific students to reduce anger and aggression, self-harm, and violent relationships.
New this year, the counselors are facilitating group mental health/substance abuse
treatment services two class sessions per week in the Skill Development Elective at the
high school level. Enrollment in this course is specific to targeted students who have
established poor academic success and have a significant out-of-school circumstance that
impedes academic consistency (i.e.: homelessness, violence in the home, minimal or no
parenting oversight, pregnant/parenting).
Home/School Liaison and Family Engagement Services:
The Home/School Liaison staff are cross-trained to accomplish several tasks that
were previously segmented into specific positions that covered several buildings and
overlapped with other positions. The three primary tasks of the Home/School Liaisons
are: crisis case management and community resource linkage, persistence to graduation
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
strategies, including mentoring services, and group education. Specific to crisis case
management and community resource linkage, the workers are the ‘first responders’ to
social problems that impact academic stability for a student and their family. Some of the
situations are quite quickly remedied, while others take several months to assist the
family with stabilization of their economic and/or social circumstances. Persistence to
graduation strategies occupies a great majority of the workweek for these staff. Two
strategies are employed: Check & Connect, a nationally recognized dropout prevention
program, and informal mentoring services. Relational support is strongly correlated to
increased academic success, especially with regarding to increasing school attendance.
Lastly, group education is facilitated by staff to targeted students with specific presenting
problems. At the high school level the Home/School Liaisons are facilitating the
education and life skills development piece of the “Skills Development” Elective. At the
middle school setting, group education is occurring during lunch, Encore or other setaside times; topics including leadership/self-esteem, school success/time management,
and successful peer relationship skills.
At the request of Jasper County Juvenile Judge Gayle Crane, two School/Court
Liaisons were recently added to the school district. These staff liaises between the Jasper
County Diversion Court Team, the school system, and the student’s and their families
who are enrolled in Diversion Court services. This is a Tier 3 intervention that hopes to
establish a strong educational commitment by the student and parents via weekly court
appearances and legal sanctions, if warranted.
Staff Emotional/Social Support:
With the transitions into new school buildings there is an increased awareness of
assisting staff with the settling in process and mitigating relapses, as transitions can “retrigger” traumatic reactions and, thus, generate emotional distress. To this end, the
Program Manager and Mental Health Counselors have facilitated several stress
management/resiliency presentations to all staff and targeted students at Soaring Heights,
Irving, East Middle and JHS. These activities have been funded by a grant via United
Way of SW Missouri and SE Kansas.
Staff Coaching, Professional Development, and Integration of Building Level
Processes:
Two educators who have extensive experience in the management of student
behaviors, environmental adaptations and coaching of staff are tasked with this daily
work throughout the District. The Behavior Specialists and the two behavior
paraprofessionals intervene on the most severe behavior difficulties. They assist the
building teachers and administrators in the assessment of the function of behaviors and
the development of behavior intervention plans. They model and coach the staff on deescalation, positive reinforcement and environmental modifications that support student
behavior change. Additionally, they facilitate presentations to staff on topics related to
building level processes known as Positive Behaviors In Schools (PBIS) an evidencedbased practice (EBP).
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
Although majority of Project HOPE’s work has been direct interventions with students
and families, we have endeavored to build capacity by sharing knowledge and skills with
District staff via professional development, building-based trainings, and intensive
involvement in Student Intervention Team processes (SIT, SOAR, SWIFT, PST, RtI).
These efforts include building wide trainings on traumatized students, bus driver trainings
on de-escalation techniques, and various other topics. School guidance counselors have
been coached on suicide assessments and interventions, child abuse and neglect reporting
and support for CBITS therapy.
Number of employees involved and/or funded by the program:
Positions
Mental Health Counselors (2)
Home/School Liaisons (5.5)
School/Court Liaisons (1.5)
Behavior Specialists (2)
Behavior Paraprofessionals (2)
Clinical Psychologist (.20)
Project Manager (1)
Current Funding
CDBG-DR
CDBG-DR
Title1-D
Special Education
Special Education
Special Education
CDBG-DR
(1 yr. funding)
(1 yr. funding)
(on going funding)
(on going funding)
(1 yr. funding)
(on going funding)
(1 yr. funding)
Program required by: N/A
Program Goals-Standards of Excellence addressed by this program:
Standard 1: All areas of student achievement will be on target or exceed
expectations in core academic areas.
Waypoint 5: Meet students’ basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) so that they can
focus on learning and achievement.
Indicator: Not explicitly written.
Standard 2: Joplin Schools will graduate civic-minded, high quality citizens
who are college and career ready.
Waypoint 4: High School students will be provided various avenues to attain
credits toward graduation meeting the needs of every student.
Indicator 3: The graduation rate will increase annually up to 100%.
Standard 3: Joplin Schools will become the employer of choice through the
recruitment and retention of high quality staff.
Waypoint 3: Joplin employees are supported through high-quality professional
development and positive school climate in order to ensure
professional growth.
Indicator 2: Annual staff survey results will indicate that 80% or more of
employees perceive the professional development provided by the
district is high quality and support student success and their
professional growth.
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
All Project HOPE interventions are targeted to remediate the immediate personal
difficulties (social/emotional/behavioral) so that students and staff can successfully
participate in the educational process. Standard 1 and 2 are directed at the student
outcomes of academic success and successful entry into adulthood. Standard 3 is
directed at staff and the desire to have the most competent and prepared staff to educate
our students. Project HOPE staff have the expertise to deliver prevention, selected
intervention and target treatment to staff and students whose circumstances are impeding
their best efforts in the school environment.
Data utilized to conduct needs assessment:
As these services have been established on a year-to-year basis, each preceding
year’s data and outcomes have been used to justify services needed for the following
year. For Academic Year 2013-2014, service utilization during Academic Year 20122013 was tabulated and reviewed for each building. School principals and guidance
counselors were requested to prioritize their specific building’s needs with regards to
social/emotional/behavioral interventions. Teachers who attended Summer Institute were
surveyed on their perceived confidence of successfully handling a student’s
social/emotional/behavioral difficulties.
These data assisted Project HOPE staff in the development of six broad categories
of services for Academic Year 2013-2014. Once the categories of services were
established tasks, process goals and measures, and outcome goals and measures were
defined for each of the six categories (see Appendix A).
Evaluation Design:
Evaluation methodology includes both quantitative and qualitative design
elements. Within each of the six broad categories, evaluation methods are described
below.
Mental Health Counseling Services:
Specific to mental health counseling, data is kept on the number of students
having emotional distress and acute psychiatric crises, including suicidal gestures. At the
end of the counseling cycle, students are asked to rate their perceived level of
functioning. This information is reviewed and tabulated as an outcome measure. Within
the Skills Development Elective Course, each participant’s attendance, grade point
average and office discipline referrals were compared to the previous semester’s data, as
these three benchmarks are qualifiers for enrollment into the course. New this semester,
the 12-Item Grit Scale (Duckworth, 2007) is being utilized to assess the student’s grit
skills at the beginning and at the end of the course.
Home/School Liaison and Family Engagement Services:
Data is tracked weekly, monthly, at quarter and semester end for students
receiving mentoring, Check & Connect or Diversion Court services. The data details the
student’s attendance, grades, missing assignments and behavior concerns (office
referrals). The Home/School Liaisons and the School/Court Liaisons are responsible for
collecting and reviewing the data and adjusting the intensity of interventions when
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
indicated by the data. Student information is tabulated at the end of the school year, with
outcome goals of increasing attendance, increasing grade point average and decreasing
office referrals. Joplin Schools participates in program evaluation of the Check &
Connect program via the Missouri SW-PBS Consultant and Oversight Committee.. To
date, there has not been a program evaluation on Jasper County Diversion Court and the
effectiveness of the School/Court Liaison services. Family outreach and crisis resource
linkage services are evaluated based on immediacy of response, intensity of need and
successful resolution for each family. Additionally, the Project Manager reviews the
quantity of all services and the fidelity of the service provision on a monthly basis.
Staff Emotional/Social Support:
Quantitative data is collected with regards to amount of staff who have been
assisted by staff support activities and presentations.
Staff Coaching, Professional Development, and Integration of Building Level
Processes:
Project HOPE staff submit a monthly consultation report that details the capacity
building activities including facilitating professional development, consultation and
attendance at the building level problem solving team meetings. These reports are
reviewed and tabulated. Additionally, pre/post evaluations and satisfaction surveys are
generally a part of every presentation. Teachers attending the 2013 Summer Institute
were surveyed on their perceived confidence in utilizing new information and skills to
assist students with social/emotional/behavioral concerns. Annually, Project HOPE staff
evaluates the problem solving team process and inventory each building’s processes
related to the PBIS model. Specific to classroom coaching and individual student
behavioral interventions Infinite Campus is utilized for documentation of interventions
and Ad Hoc is utilized for reporting purposes as indicated.
Success of program based on previous year’s data:
Services Provided
MH Counseling
Home/School
Liaison & Family
Engagement
Staff Emotional/
Social Support
AY 2011-2012
2200 students &
staff received
MH counseling
and case
management via
Ozark Center
AY 2012-2013
1100 students received
MH counseling and
case management
75 staff received
individual crisis
counseling or case
management
Aug. 2013-Jan. 2014
194 students +
64 students in Elective
Course
800 group education
310 students
{48 Diversion Court;
110 Check & Connect;
97 Resource Linkage;
45 mentoring}
18 staff received
individual crisis
counseling or case
management;
330 staff from
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION
Staff Coaching,
Professional
Development, and
Integration of
Building Level
Processes
Not Available
1400 attendees at PD;
800 consultation
contacts; 260 students
received specific
behavior interventions
from Project HOPE
transitioning buildings
825 attendees at PD
168 students received
specific behavior
interventions from
Project HOPE
Please refer to Appendix A: Project HOPE Goals & Measures for AY 2013-2014
for the current year’s information. Overall, we have successfully kept students in the
regular classroom environment by supporting teachers with strategies to prevent
educational disruptions. Ninety-four families of students have been helped with resource
linkages in the community. Over 200 students participate in structured drop out
prevention programs including Diversion Court, Check & Connect and mentoring.
Thirty-three psychiatric emergencies have been mitigated and managed by the mental
health counselors as well as 197 students have received individual counseling as needed.
Over 55 students have enrolled in the Skills Development Elective course. One hundred
and sixty-eight students have had behavior interventions via the Behavior Specialists
and/or the paraprofessionals. These interventions have resulted in increased attendance,
students’ grades and persistence to graduation. Office referrals have been reduced as
building expectations are clearly articulated and teachers have more skills to manage
misbehavior. Students have also increased their coping skills, especially with regards to
circumstance in which they have little control over, such as the tornado, poverty and
family instability. Lastly, we have reached 1150 staff (duplicated) with professional
development trainings and staff resiliency support in the first 6 months of the academic
year.
Challenges facing PROJECT HOPE:
 Increase in psychiatric hospitalizations in the past three years
(AY 2010-11 – 66
AY 2011-12 - 97
AY 2012-13 – 173
AY 2013-14 – 126 {August through February 14, 2014}
 Sustainability of school-based interventions due to temporary funding
and/or other staff unable to offer time to these interventions
 Space for confidential, private, and respectful counseling and mentoring
activities.
Action taken to meet challenges in the 2013/2014 fiscal year:
 Secured $500.00 anonymous donation to offer rewards and incentives to
identified students who set and meet goals in Skills Development Elective.
 Secured $10,000.00 grant funding from United Way of SW Missouri &
SE Kansas to offer resiliency activities to staff and students in
transitioning school buildings.
 Secured $331,397.00 grant funding from CDBG-DR for personnel costs
for one year for unfunded positions.
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JOPLIN SCHOOLS
PROJECT HOPE
PROGRAM EVALUATION

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
Secured two Economic Security Corporation Youth Case Mangers to work
with Joplin Schools’ students at no cost to the District.
Utilized course offering to blend group education and group treatment to
targeted students.
Cross-trained staff to complete a variety of interventions that were
previously in multiple silo positions.
Behavior Specialists work in tandem with the Teaching Learning Coaches
(TLC) and Instructional Technology Coaches to avoid duplication.
Recommended Changes needed to achieve goals and objectives of the program for
subsequent year:
 Embed social/emotional learning into the traditional educational program.
 Secure funding for the unfunded positions or train personnel that can
complete high-priority interventions.
 Work more closely with Bright Futures Joplin in order to meet the
immediate needs as well as find long-term solutions for family instability.
 Collaborate with school nurses, guidance counselors and other ancillary
staff to ensure social/emotional/behavioral success for all students.
 Assist with Jasper County Juvenile Court to perform an extensive program
evaluation of the Diversion Court Program.
Action Steps:
 Survey principals and other constituents to prioritize
social/emotional/behavioral interventions for the coming year.
 Work closely with district grant writer.
 Work closely with Directors during budget process.
 Join the School Health Advisory Council.
 Enjoy each opportunity to serve students, families and staff!
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