Community Impact Report

During the previous six-month reporting period, the Warrick County School Corporation continued implementing its Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program across all its schools. The initial focus of program implementation is training school personnel to model SEL skills for students, which has reduced stress and compassion fatigue among teachers and administrators. As a result, the program has resulted in a 13% decline in office referrals for disruptive behavior and a 10.5% decrease in student suspensions compared to previous years. In addition, seven schools now have regulation areas where the number of students participating has increased while the number of sessions needed per student has decreased.

During the 2021/2022 school year, the Warrick County School Corporation’s (WCSC) Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program implementation continued in all ten elementary schools, two middle schools, and was initiated in one high school. There are numerous stages to complete in order to fully incorporate SEL strategies into a school. The initial focus of program implementation in each school is the adult SEL structure. 

A critical component involves teachers and other school staff being prepared to model SEL skills for the students. Thus, the first steps focus on training school personnel. These steps have immediate benefits by reducing stress among teachers and administrators as well as helping to lessen compassion fatigue. 

The program implementation is proceeding as anticipated; however, working with COVID-19 restrictions has created some challenges. A substantial number of students opted for remote learning throughout the 2020/2021 school year. Due to the pandemic, many studies have noted an increase in both depression and anxiety for all age groups. The challenge of concurrently teaching in-person and virtually further increased the stress experienced by school personnel. 

Data related to program implementation indicates the following: 

• The most recent district-wide Faculty Stress Survey was completed in May 2022. Comparison with prior surveys consistently demonstrates a higher percentage of staff in schools with SEL activities have lower stress ratings. 
• Data relating to office referrals for disruptive behavior also demonstrates the success of SEL. Comparing the most recent data with the baseline data collected during 2018/2019, the average number of office referrals per week declined by 13%. The schools that have been implementing SEL activities for more than three years demonstrated a decline in office referrals between 24.3% and 60.9%.
• The number of student suspensions follows similar trends. During the most recent school year, the number of elementary school suspensions decreased 37% from the prior year and 51% when compared with baseline data.

During the fall semester of 2021, program implementation continued in all 10 elementary schools and two middle schools, and was initiated in one high school. The school corporation has added six behavioral specialists to their staff since the SEL program was initiated.

The initial focus of program implementation in each school is the adult SEL structure. A critical component involves teachers and other school staff being prepared to model SEL skills for the students. Thus, first steps focus on training of school personnel. These steps have immediate benefit by reducing stress among teachers and administrators and helping to lessen compassion fatigue. 

During the fall semester of 2021, WCSC completed four professional development sessions for school staff members. They also offered a professional development seminar for seven members of the Easterseals staff.

Many of the student-focused educational activities are offered through collaboration with Youth First School Social Workers that are placed in the schools. SEL instruction for students occurs one-on-one and in small groups as well as in the classroom, grade level, and school-wide. The program implementation is proceeding as anticipated; however, working with COVID-19 restrictions has created some challenges. A significant number of students opted for remote learning throughout the 2020/2021 school year.  Through the pandemic, many studies have noted increases in both depression and anxiety for all age groups.  The challenge of teaching in person and virtually concurrently further increased the stress experienced by school personnel. Throughout the fall 2021 semester, WCSC continued the process of establishing full SEL programs in elementary schools throughout the district. 

Highlights of the implementation activities included:

• Twelve of the 13 participating schools have established their SEL Teams and completed the introductory activities for the SEL.
• New Learner Program Assistants and Trauma Training Program Assistants are available in all 10 elementary schools.
• Six schools have fully implemented the use of regulation rooms, and regulation areas have been established in every classroom for five of the schools. 

During the 2020/2021 school year, the Warrick County School Corporation initiated Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programming in all ten of their elementary schools and established a pilot program in two middle schools. Funding through the Warrick County Community Foundation supported the hiring of three additional Social Emotional Behavioral Assistants who are focused on the implementation of this program. 

The initial focus of SEL strategies is establishing the adult SEL structure. Initial training focuses on ensuring teachers and other staff members are prepared to model SEL skills for the students. Activities related to the adult learning component demonstrated an immediate benefit by reducing stress for both teachers and school administrators. As teachers are experiencing increased levels of stress due to COVID-19, the school district also developed programs that provide the necessary support for a teacher to step out of the classroom if needed, and many of the schools have also established private areas for teachers to reset before returning to the classroom. The teachers’ utilization of these resources also models SEL skills for the students.   

During the spring semester of 2021, the school corporation offered 50 SEL training opportunities with 225 staff members participating. An additional 63 training sessions, with 295 staff members participating, were offered related to general mental health topics.

Staff from Youth First, Inc. is providing student-focused educational activities. Student instruction generally occurs one-on-one or in small groups due to COVID-19 restrictions. Some training for students also occurred at the classroom, grade level, and school-wide.  

While program implementation is occurring as planned, COVID-19 has resulted in some complications due to the significant number of students who opted to learn remotely. For some students, extended time at home without the structure of the classroom has exacerbated many of the concerns related to emotional health. Since COVID-19 began, many students have reported an increase in depression and anxiety. 

This project established two primary objectives to determine program success. 

1) Average scores on Faculty Stress indicators will be 3.0 or lower.

A Faculty Stress Survey was completed in January 2021. Survey results for the schools participating in SEL programming indicated 55.1% of staff members had a stress rating of 1 or 2, with 1 representing the lowest stress level and 5 representing the highest. By comparison, only 30.5% of staff in non-participating schools had a rating of 1 or 2. 

2) The number of office referrals for disruptive behavior will decrease by 10%. 

In the elementary schools, the number of students referred to the office for behavioral concerns increased by almost 2% between the 2018/2019 school year and the 2019/2020 school year. In the most recent year (2020/2021), the number of office referrals decreased by 63%. 

Similarly, the decline in the number of school suspensions for schools implementing SEL programming was 42% higher between the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 school years, than for schools not yet implementing SEL activities.

During the fall semester of 2020, the Warrick County School Corporation has initiated Social Emotional Learning programming in all of their elementary schools.   Nine of the 10 elementary schools have established regulation areas, and two additional Social Emotional Behavioral Assistants have been hired.