Student Support Services personnel work behind the scenes to better the lives of students and ease the burden on teachers.
Freeman Elementary School counselor Candace Naliboff (right) helps students like Mario Sandoval and Angelica Quezada learn how to solve problems in a positive way.
School districts that cry poverty as they cut counselors, psychologists and nurses are being "penny-wise and pound-foolish," says Janet Levers, president of the Woodland Education Association.
Lamenting her district's decision to cut four counseling positions and half of a psychologist position because of a $3 million shortfall, she says, "Kids will fall through the cracks" as a result.
"The cuts will eventually be reflected in lower test scores, an increased number of dropouts and problems resulting from emotionally troubled kids not getting help.
"And," she adds, "it will be up to teachers to pick up the pieces."
Teachers can't take care of all the problems that support services personnel should be handling, says Karen Cancino, a social worker in San Francisco and member of CTA's Student Support Services Committee. "There's not enough time in the day. A lot of teachers are trying, but they don't usually have the resources, and many don't know who to turn to for help. If we all work together, it benefits the teacher, the student who is having problems, and all the other students who are also in the class."
Support personnel - counselors, psychologists, nurses, social workers and librarians - work behind the scenes at public schools to better the lives of students and ease the burden on teachers. "We are all part of the same team," says Cancino. "We are partners in education."
Often influenced more by budgetary factors than by what's best for students, support services positions may be seen as "necessary" when times are good and "expendable" when times are lean. State law does not mandate that districts hire support personnel, with the exception of psychologists for special education IEPs (Individual Education Plans). Since there is no categorical funding for support positions, districts must pay for them out of general funds.
"In times of financial crisis, support staff is always at risk of being eliminated first," says Earlene Dunbar, who chairs CTA's Student Services Support Committee. "It's very sad."
Support staff do not necessarily have the same job protections as teachers. Terminations may not always be based on seniority, salary increases for teachers may bypass them, and state income tax breaks like those for teachers are not available to them. Sometimes, they feel like neither fish nor fowl.
"We're teachers when it benefits the system to be called teachers," observes Dunbar, but if, for example, there is a grievance filed on behalf of teachers, "administrators like to argue that we're not teachers."
Support personnel can make the lives of teachers much easier, says Cancino, who conducted a workshop at CTA's Good Teaching Conference last spring titled "You Are Not Alone: Knowing and Utilizing Student Support Services."
"Teachers are trained to teach," she says. "If they also have to play the role of social worker, psychologist or nurse, it takes away from teaching and learning in the classroom. If a child enters a classroom with serious family, emotional and social problems, teachers need help - even teachers with excellent classroom management skills. Sometimes it only takes one child to be disruptive, and learning comes to a halt."
"Politicians are more interested in standardized testing than looking at the whole child," contends Cancino. "I could tell you story after story about kids who want to do better but have so many obstacles they cannot. They may have a parent in jail. They may have been sexually abused. They may have to work to help support the family. They may be homeless and living in a car. They may come to school hungry.
"But we expect them to pass these tests and perform at optimum level - and don't want to help them deal with things that interfere with learning. We consider ourselves so child-centered in this country, but we are far from that. It infuriates me."
State finances, knee-jerk reactions to tragic events like the Columbine shooting and fads should not dictate whether schools hire or fire learning support staff, says Cancino. "In Minnesota, Illinois and Virginia, these positions are well-funded. Why not in California?"
If help is provided on the school site, say support personnel, children with problems can be identified early and families can get help in a setting that's comfortable and familiar.
In the face of an $8 million shortfall, the Vista Unified School District has eliminated 19 counselors and seven nurses this summer. Teaching positions were also cut, says Randy Wiens, president of the Vista Teachers Association, but reductions in support staff were disproportionately large. "We had 15 nurses and seven of those positions were cut - the nursing staff was cut in half overnight."
The caseload per nurse in Vista will rise from 2,400 to 3,500 students. The plan to assign one nurse to four middle schools means that one nurse will be responsible for 6,000 students, says Wiens. That's eight times the 750-student caseload per nurse suggested by CTA and the California State Nurses Organization.
Vista has also eliminated all elementary school counseling and social worker positions. "As an association, we oppose this," says Wiens. "We believe that these services need to be provided, or early intervention and behavior modification will not occur."
"A lot of kids rely on us because they don't have medical insurance through their parents," says Wiens. "School nurses may provide the only medical services available for some of our at-risk kids."
Counselors are essential too, he adds, especially when students learn of the murder of a parent or sibling or the suicide of a friend. "Last week some students were killed in an accident and counselors were part of the crisis team to deal with students."
He credits elementary school counseling programs, including gang intervention activities, with minimizing the number of fights and altercations over the past 10 years. "Starting this year, the K-5 population will no longer have that kind of training and interaction. We will probably feel the impact of that five years from now."
"We need support positions more than ever before because life is much harder for kids now than in the past," says Patty Blume Taylor, an elementary school counselor who serves as president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association and vice chair of CTA's Student Support Services Committee.
"More students are living in poverty and more students are lacking basic health care. There are more divorces and more suicides. More pressure is also coming from the state, which wants testing, testing and more testing of students. Students are under a lot of stress as they try to meet the state standards so they can go on to the next grade - and prepare for college."
Instead of cutting back on support positions, she says, "we should be increasing them."
Counselors: Lightening the load
Clockwise from lower left front: Nico Vasquez, Morgan Gobron, Letty Ruiz, Jonnie Galvan and Crystal Gomez, all members of the Thursday afternoon Grief Group at Freeman Elementary School in Woodland, learn to deal with the emotional baggage they bring to school each day.
Crystal Gomez's mother died six years ago, but the pain remains fresh. The 10-year-old says she has been worried lately that the same fate will befall her grandmother. The children seated around the table at the Thursday afternoon Grief Group at Freeman Elementary School in Woodland nod understandingly.
"That scares you, because your grandma is taking care of you," says elementary school counselor Candace Naliboff, a member of the Woodland Education Association. "Do you let her know when you're worried? Does it make you feel better?"
"I start crying," says Crystal. "Grandma says that my mom is always with me."
"Even if people die, they stay with you, inside you," says Naliboff. "I'm glad your grandma talks to you about that."
Jonnie Galvan tells the group that she also worries about her grandmother dying because her grandfather recently passed away. She says she can't sleep at night and often feels sick when she's supposed to be asleep.
"What can Jonnie do before going to bed so she will stop worrying about Grandma?" asks Naliboff.
Morgan Gobron suggests listening to sad songs.
"Sometimes sad songs make you feel better because you realize that you're not alone, that other people are sad, too," says Naliboff. "When somebody dies, nobody goes through grieving the same way or in the same order. You might think you're done being mad, and then you get mad again. You might think you'll never see the person you lost, and then you feel like the person who died is with you again. It's important not to keep those feelings inside. Talk to someone you trust, and you'll feel better."
When students are depressed, confused, angry or overwhelmed, talking to a school counselor or psychologist can make a world of difference. When a trained professional helps a student deal with the emotional baggage he or she carries to school each day, the load is lightened. Sometimes just knowing that someone cares gives students the strength to carry on.
Counselors and psychologists can help students navigate the confusing pathways from child to teen and from teen to adulthood. They can help settle disputes on campus, whether among friends or between rival groups of students. They can sometimes prevent violence by identifying students who may be potential time bombs. And, if violence occurs, they can help the school's students and staff deal with the emotional aftermath.
As part of her job, Naliboff holds class meetings where students learn to compliment each other and solve problems in a positive way. She also runs the conflict manager program, where older students learn to solve problems on the playground. Unfortunately, her district has decided that an elementary school counselor is no longer needed at her site and she has been assigned to another school. She hopes the programs at Freeman will continue in her absence.
"The decision comes at a difficult time. Lately we have seen increased violence on campus, because there are more students from dysfunctional families. Teachers are starting to panic because they will have to pick up the pieces. When a child comes to school crying and upset and doesn't want to come into the classroom because the police were at his house the night before to stop domestic violence, the teacher will have to deal with it. It will take time away from teaching. How that cannot affect achievement is beyond me."
Freeman Elementary will soon be like the majority of California schools, where students rarely have access to counselors. With an average of one counselor serving 979 students at the K-12 level, California has the highest ratio in the nation. Many schools in the state have a counselor assigned to thousands of students.
"Counselors are the first to be trimmed when schools cut costs and the first to be called upon to prevent violence and soothe students in its wake," writes Duke Helfand in the Los Angeles Times. "It is often when the shooting is over - after the deaths at Columbine High School in Colorado or at Santana and Granite Hills high schools near San Diego - that lawmakers and educators howl for counseling services."
Too often, secondary school counselors only have time to do scheduling for students, says Karen Young, a United Teachers Los Angeles member who chairs the Secondary School Counselors Committee for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
"In a lot of schools, counselors are considered to be out-of-classroom teachers. They are asked to do a lot of miscellaneous things like fill in for sick teachers, staff the tardy room or detention center, provide discipline and proctor tests.
"Instead of counseling students with real problems - and preparing students for college and careers - counselors are dealing with things like, 'Johnny didn't have his pencil today,'" says Young.
According to an Education Week article, "Counseling: the Missing Link," counseling services are spread too thinly in many cases. Counselors are often torn between "knowledgeable, ambitious parents who want to make sure their children get honors courses, extracurricular activities and letters of recommendation for admission to prestigious colleges" and "the most troubled students, whose very survival may depend upon a counselor's intervention." The rest of the students are essentially on their own.
David Lee, a counselor at El Camino High School in Oceanside, tries to serve most of the nearly 500 students assigned to him. There are intense times of the year when the focus is on college-bound juniors and seniors, as well as students with emotional issues. But, in addition to individual mental health counseling, he works with support groups for students confronting eating disorders, anger management issues, confusion over sexual orientation, relationship violence and teen pregnancy. "I also work with students identified as low-achievers who need motivation and students who have been suspended."
Despite his heavy workload, the Oceanside Teachers Association member loves his job. "I've been doing this for 16 years and can't imagine doing anything else. Kids have lots and lots of issues. They need to feel like there's an adult at school who will listen to them. They need someone to talk to who won't grade them or judge them. It gives me an opportunity to value and understand their culture, respect their achievement and be a support to them. For me it's a calling - it's not work."
Likewise, counseling eighth-grade retainees has been especially rewarding for Johnny Burks at Rudsdale Middle School Elite Academy in Oakland. For years the Oakland Education Association member was a counselor at a large urban high school with a caseload of 500 students. "I was mostly a scheduler," he says. "I was a scholarship counselor who helped them apply for college."
When he was reassigned to the middle school created for students who need special help, he wasn't happy at first. But the experience has proved to be positive because of the smaller caseload - 150 students.
"These kids need help very badly, and I'm able to give them personal attention," he says. "If they have problems, I'm accessible. And these kids have an abundance of problems. There are poverty issues, family dysfunction issues, and legal and probation issues. Being able to help gives me a lot of satisfaction. I have seen tremendous growth and development.
"Some students who were not passing last year are now on the honor roll."
Psychologists: Put to the test
Woodland Unified School District psychologist Sherri Venezia conducts a battery of tests to determine a student's progress in the special education program at Zamora Elementary School.
Eric, age 11, isn't just playing with four red and white blocks, he's attempting to put them in the same patterns as shown in his booklet. Finally his blocks match - a diamond inside a square - and he turns the page to try a new problem.
"You're so patient. You really work hard," says Sherri Venezia, a psychologist for the Woodland Unified School District. "You have a really good attitude."
Eric, a student who attends special day class, is taking an IQ test as part of his triennial re-evaluation, required under law to see if his individual education plan (IEP) is still appropriate. After the block test, Venezia, a member of the Woodland Education Association, asks him to do some word association exercises.
Eric is at least three years behind his grade level in reading and has emotional and peer relationship issues and problems with self-regulation. But he is making progress, says Venezia.
A few decades ago, school psychologists mostly worked solo when it came to doing evaluations and consultations. Today, they tend to be part of a team consisting of teachers, parents, counselors, nurses, speech therapists and health care professionals.
Most school psychologists spend the majority of their time doing assessment to meet rules regarding the accommodation of students with special needs. They also do crisis counseling in emergency situations and fill in for counselors if students need immediate attention.
"We do a lot of testing, consultation and meetings to determine whether there is a learning disability or whether further assessment is needed," says Venezia. "We work on suspension and expulsion issues. We work closely with mental health staff. If the child has a therapist, we exchange information to support the student. We help to make determinations about attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and communicate with doctors about it. We are also responsible for doing assessments for children who don't qualify for special education, but have special needs that should be addressed."
Now that social promotion has been banned, parents are asking more frequently whether it's possible that their child might have a learning disability, says Mary Helen Carney, a psychologist with the San Bernardino City Unified School District for 23 years.
"There's a policy in our district that students won't be retained if they qualify for special education services," says Carney, a member of the San Bernardino Teachers Association. "Parents are hoping to avoid retention. This is a fairly recent development. In most cases where this happens, there is no learning disability."
Because psychologists do so much mandated work with special ed students, the needs of other students frequently go unmet, says psychologist Gene Ramos, a member of the Oceanside Teachers Association. "A lot of time it's on a crisis basis. There may be molestation, a death in the family or a trauma where we see the child on a short-term basis. But the first priority is for mandated services."
Because he has such a high caseload - 1,500 students - Ramos doesn't have time to address some of the issues he would like to, such as ways to prevent violence, bullying and suicide.
In Venezia's district, severely handicapped students - with autism, Down's syndrome and mental retardation - who were once placed in county programs are now under the jurisdiction of the district psychologists.
Nevertheless, the district has cut back a half-time psychologist position and increased the workload of others.
"We used to have a community counseling center," says Venezia. "Through an agreement with the school district and local universities, interns trained in psychology and social work came in to help kids and their families. But the district closed it last year - over the cost of just one salary for someone to oversee it."
"It's sad because more kids than ever need counseling these days. Instead of increasing services, they are cutting back."
School Nurses: Life savers
Since School Nurse Ann Marie Duquette serves all of Kern County, some of her special education students are two hours apart.
Ask Ann Marie Duquette what constitutes a typical day, and she will reply that there is no such thing for any school nurse. One day a nurse might diagnose a child with scoliosis and tend skinned knees. On another day, a nurse might assist a child going into seizures from a milk allergy or recommend that a child with lockjaw see a specialist.
Even though there's no typical day, there are some things that never change, says Duquette, a nurse for the Kern County Superintendent's Division of Special Education. "Because of our high workloads and huge ratios of students to nurses, it's very difficult for nurses to do prevention. Usually we are functioning reactively rather than preventively, although we are trained to be preventive."
The California School Nurses Organization recommends a ratio of one school nurse to 750 students, but the average ratio is nearly double that - one nurse to 1,418 students. According to one study, there are some districts where nurses are responsible for up to 10,000 students.
For school nurses overseeing special education children requiring medical technology support, the recommended ratio is one nurse per 100 students. Duquette has a caseload of 300 students with a wide range of disabilities and serves 46 school districts.
"I do a lot of traveling and provide service for schools all over the county," says Duquette, a member of the Kern County Education Association. "All of Kern County is my territory. Some of my students live two hours away."
Among her responsibilities is teaching school staff how to do catheterizations, tube feedings and blood glucose testing for medically fragile children. Sometimes she performs "telephone triage," and dispenses medical advice from afar. "Plus, we do everything a general education nurse does, such as scoliosis screenings, vision and hearing screenings, and IEP meetings."
Nurses, like most other support staff, are not mandated by law. However, certain services they provide, including health screenings, are state-mandated. Some school districts expect their nurses to cover so much territory that clerks have to fill in the gaps. Other districts contract out for nursing services.
"It's a real problem," says Duquette. "Assembly Member Dean Florez (D-Shafter) has tried to get us mandated twice, but the bill has died in the black hole of the finance committee, because it's too expensive to have a nurse on every campus. When districts have to make cuts, they like to cut nursing positions because they say we don't bring in ADA. Sometimes I think that's all they care about. We may not bring it in, but we help maintain it. We help kids stay healthy so they can stay in school. And everyone knows that healthy kids learn better."
Karen Condon, a nurse in the Madera Unified School District, is responsible for 4,000 low-income high school students at two campuses. "Needless to say, I don't get to do any of the frills." Fortunately she has an assistant to help with paperwork, treat minor problems and serve as an interpreter. There are many things she would like to do, such as teach a course in proper nutrition to help address the problem of obesity among students. But there just isn't time.
Because some high school students may be injured in vocational classes that include welding and wood shop, the Madera Unified Teachers Association (MUTA) member makes it a point to hold teacher training on the avoidance of blood-borne diseases, including AIDS and Hepatitis B and C.
"I maintain a confidential list of students on campus who are HIV positive, which is not revealed to teachers, so it behooves us as educators to protect ourselves - and other students. The Hepatitis B virus can live on a desk for two weeks, even dry. I supply all teachers with gloves and Band-Aids."
Tina Gonzalez, also a MUTA member, feels that she does the work of five nurses. "I'm not exaggerating. I wish I could clone myself and get everything done."
She serves two elementary school sites with 1,000 students each - most of them low-income. Sometimes, when she arrives on campus, there is a line outside her office - not only students, but also family members. "If you help one, they all come to you."
"Many families are undocumented, so they're afraid to go to a hospital or a health care clinic," says Gonzalez. "They don't have health insurance, so they come here."
She has seen it all - from a sixth-grader pregnant by an abusive stepfather to mothers who are the victims of domestic violence. She finds safe places for them to stay while help is sought. She's arranged transportation for homeless families to get food stamps and found doctors willing to donate their time in special situations.
Although she loves her job, she says it can be overwhelming. "The best thing is that I feel like I'm saving someone's life all the time."
Academic Counselors: Encouraging students to reach
Maria Elena Gallegos helps immigrant students at Foothill High School in Sacramento survive culture shock.
"What does it mean to be an American?" asks Maria Elena Gallegos, a counselor at Foothill High School in Sacramento. The answers are as diverse as the roomful of newly arrived immigrants - Russian, Ukrainian, Bosnian, Croatian, Vietnamese, Hmong, Hispanic and Korean. The room, in fact, is softly humming with languages as some students translate for others.
"America is a mixture of things from other cultures," says Valeriy Rotar, a Russian immigrant. "Some here is culture from my country - some from other countries."
Gallegos breaks down aspects of American culture - music, sports and holidays - and students agree that many so-called American cultural traditions come from elsewhere. When it comes to music, for example, rhythm and blues music has roots in Africa, rock and roll in England, salsa in Latin America and classical music in Europe.
"If you knew that American culture was made up of other cultures, would it still feel as strange to you?" asks Gallegos. "America is really a culture of immigrants like yourselves."
But there are differences, insist the students. "In my culture, we have respect for older people," says Rotar. "In my culture, children stop and wait for older people to finish talking."
"In America, many people show respect for elders, but not everyone," says Gallegos. "We have a thing called freedom here. I've heard some of you say you don't know how to deal with that. When I grew up in this country, adults spoke and children did not. Things have changed over the years. Freedom is wonderfully fluid. As a country, we are constantly changing. You would experiences changes in your own country if you were still there."
Much of Gallegos' counseling job involves helping students who feel like strangers in a strange land. "It's culture shock," she explains. "There's a lot of freedom here, and American-born students are taught how to deal with it and be responsible for making choices. Students from other countries are shocked at the choices we have and what they see - such as being able to talk back, date and kiss openly in public. Newly arrived students may also feel unwelcome and think people are picking on them.
"I try to let them know they are not really so different from the other students," says Gallegos, a member of the Grant District Education Association. "They have more in common with American teenagers than they think. I want them to realize that within themselves they have many American values. I want them to know that they belong here."
The dialogue shifts back to the original question: What does it mean to be an American?
"It means to be successful personally," says Ema Eza of Mexico. "That matters because you have the opportunity to be successful in this country."
Gallegos beams at the answer. "Ema really got it," she says. "You are in an American school and I know it's difficult to adjust to American culture. But you are all doing a great job of learning to become Americans."
Gallegos, one of five counselors at the school, is responsible for helping English language learners. "To me, they are the most interesting population," she says. "Helping them requires wearing so many different hats. And I learn so much from being with so many different groups."
When a student first arrives on campus, Gallegos evaluates his or her skills - usually by looking at transcripts. Some students may have taken physics and geometry in their homeland while other others may not even be literate in their own language. Some may have huge gaps in their studies because they have fled war-torn nations. Other students were born in America, but never progressed in their English skills.
Based on transcripts and their ability to understand English, she schedules their classes - with college in mind.
"I encourage all students to go to college," Gallegos says. "I make them aware of what it takes to get into college here. There are kids going to Sacramento State University who started here in ninth grade. I encourage these kids - absolutely." She also remains in constant contact with parents, who may not understand that high school requires homework and studying. "Parents need to supervise and monitor their work," she says.
Gallegos is more than a scheduler and academic overseer; she is also a friend to her students. "It's important to talk with them and know who they are," she says. "Students need someone they can talk with about their problems."
Problems of a personal nature often stem from clashing cultural values.
"I had a suicidal student who was Indian and promised to another in an arranged marriage," she recalls. "She didn't want that, but going against her parents and breaking with her culture was unheard of."
"During that year I worked on finding a middle ground - not getting married and not alienating her family. It was very sensitive and took almost a year to accomplish. She was in my office constantly. At the end of the year she graduated, broke off the relationship and still had an intact relationship with her parents.
"Another student was very bright and wanted to go to a university. But in his culture, it was not acceptable to move away from his parents. I convinced him that if he went to UC Davis, it would not be that far. He applied at the last minute and was accepted. And, by golly, he went."
When tensions flare up between students, Gallegos acts as peacemaker. Recently Latino students felt others were treating them unfairly - automatically assuming they were part of a gang. "I tried to diffuse tensions by having a dialogue. We work very hard to avoid misunderstandings on campus."
Gallegos was raised in a small neighborhood in Southern California and spoke only Spanish until she entered kindergarten. "Because of that, I know exactly what my students are going through," she says. "I can relate to them and look after their needs. And it's much harder to make that transition when you're older."
She has nothing but admiration for the challenges that her students bravely face. "They have one foot in each world: One is in their native culture and one is in their new culture. They are trying to take in new experiences and make sense of them. They must balance these experiences with the culture they come from, and at the same time, not alienate their parents. They walk a very, very fine line. I feel very fortunate to be able to help them find their way."
Social Workers: Helping students stick with it
Los Angeles social worker Norlon Davis pays a visit to an Edison Middle School student's home to help the parents understand what can happen when they let their children skip school.
Norlon Davis’ first stop of the day is to check on a boy who hasn’t attended school in two weeks. Davis has visited the house twice already, but each time found no one at home.
"His mother is in critical condition; she was shot in the head several times," he explains. Apparently, she intervened in a dispute between her older son and a rival gang member and was shot nine times by the boy who was arguing with her son.
Davis is looking for the younger son, a student at Thomas A. Edison Middle School in Los Angeles. He is supposedly staying with his aunt while his mother is hospitalized. Davis is concerned about the 15-year-old eighth-grader. "He’s in special education and has anger management issues. He performs at fourth-grade reading level and gets frustrated. Several years ago," Davis adds, "the boy was shot in the hand during a drive-by shooting."
Davis pulls up to the house and leaves his car. There are mattresses and broken bottles in the yard, and the front door is open, revealing that the house is vacant. Checking with a neighbor, Davis learns that the residents moved out the previous night, one day before the rent was due. There is no forwarding address. Non-plussed, he gets back into his car to check his list of student addresses for the next stop.
Davis has a cozy office at Edison Middle School, but much of the day he can be found roaming some of the meanest streets of Los Angeles. His beat is the South Central neigh-borhood. Armed with only a cell phone — which he pays for out of his own pocket — he visits the homes of students who are either truant, having trouble at school or living in situations that endanger their safety.
Doing so can endanger his own safety, admits the Pupil Services Attendance (PSA) officer and social worker, who belongs to United Teachers Los Angeles. He has been threatened by family members on occasion and nearly bitten by vicious dogs. Sometimes, says the soft-spoken Davis, he feels as though he is visiting another planet.
His second stop is the home of Juan,age 13, and in sixth grade. Juan’s mother called to say she could not make her son attend school anymore. Again Davis finds an empty litter-strewn house whose residents fled just before the rent was due. Davis had talked to Juan’s mother on the telephone that morning, but she did not mention her address change.
On his third visit he hits pay dirt. As he pulls up to Samuel’s house, Davis finds the mother at home. Peering out the window, she refuses to open the door. Davis uses his cell phone to call her.
Like many minority parents, says Davis, she is probably afraid that he’s from immigration. Finally, after hearing him explain that he’s from "Samuel’s escuela, Edison," she fearfully opens the door and speaks to Davis on the porch.
A younger child offers to interpret, but Davis finds a neighbor who is fluent in both languages. Davis explains that Samuel has been tardy the last few days, talking back to his teachers, disruptive in all his classes and refusing to follow directions.
Samuel’s mother breaks into tears and says she, too, needs help managing her son. She says that she was whipping him the previous night for bad behavior, and he grabbed her and threatened to cut her with a knife. After she called the police, Samuel was taken to a juvenile detention center. She begs Davis to write a letter that will persuade the judge to keep her son incarcerated.
Since Samuel clearly needs help and is a danger to his mother and younger siblings, Davis agrees to help get Samuel placed in a group home or camp. But before he leaves, he sets up an appointment with Samuel's mother to meet him at school so he can get her signed up for parenting classes and counseling.
Other children, curious at the turn of events, appear on the porch. With an "aha" look in his eyes, Davis asks why they are not in school, focusing most of his attention on an older boy who attends Edison Middle School.
"I forgot," says the boy. "I was sick."
"You're not too sick to be riding a bicycle," observes Davis wryly. "If you're not in school tomorrow, I'll come looking for you. If you don't go to school, you might be taken away from your family and put in a group home. And if your parents allow you to stay at home instead of going to school, they could go to jail."
Davis has the boy repeat back the consequences, which he does solemnly. Davis tells Samuel's mother that she is breaking the law by allowing truants to stay with her instead of sending them to school, especially since they appear to be perfectly healthy. He ends the conversation with a reminder that he will see her at school in two days for their appointment.
"I'll be honest, I was scared when I first came to this neighborhood and started doing this," says Davis, who has been on the job four years. "But most of the time I'm not worried about being in danger."
Davis, who has a master's degree in social work, is the sole PSA counselor and social worker for Edison, a year-round, multi-track school with 2,200 at-risk students. "My goal is bringing children back to school. I use my counseling and social work skills so students can see the benefits of coming to school - especially the long-term benefits. Some buy into that - some don't. Some say, 'I'm not coming back.'"
"I deal with the most problematic children first," he says. "Problems run the gamut from worst-case scenarios of abuse or neglect to parents who don't think school is important and students who simply don't want to come to school."
In addition to bringing in much-needed Average Daily Attendance money by returning truants to school, Davis says he allows teachers to teach - because he saves them from having to deal with extreme behavior problems.
"Teachers are trained in classroom management, but they may not know how to deal with students who are emotionally disturbed, depressed or on psychotropic drugs," he says. "Teachers also don't always have time to deal with families - which is where I come in. On home visits I assess the family situation. Sometimes school is not a priority for a family - they are more concerned with putting food on the table. Most of the time, when students don't go to school, it has to do with family issues."
Some of the situations he encounters can be frustrating. He recently visited a 13-year-old girl whose mother didn't mind that she had moved in with her 15-year-old boyfriend and his family. It appeared that the girl had been beaten. He notified child protective services and the sheriff's department, which removed the girl from the home. Her mother brought her home, but three days later she was back with the boyfriend and had fresh bruises. Again, he called the authorities, who are now assessing the situation.
Another girl is taken out of school regularly by her mother so she can baby-sit younger children while the mother goes out. Needless to say, the 15-year-old eighth-grader is not doing well in school.
There are very few legal options for schools when students refuse to attend school and their parents don't care, says Davis. It can take months of legal maneuvering with the district attorney's office to force a child back to school, and time is something Davis doesn't have a lot of.
Still, he will try talking to the mother about using her daughter as a baby sitter during school hours. He will try to convince her to either hire someone else or schedule appointments after school.
During visits, Davis may offer short-term or crisis counseling to students and their parents. He also refers families to agencies that can provide emergency services such as food, shelter, health care or counseling. He tries to follow up on cases, but doesn't always have time. There is always a new crisis that needs his immediate attention.
"I would like to do follow up because students stay in school if they know someone is watching," he says. "Sometimes students think if they haven't heard from Mr. Davis in three weeks, they don't have to go to school anymore. Too many students are falling through the cracks.
"Sometimes it feels like I mostly put out fires. Most of the time, however, I do feel that I'm making a difference."
Librarians: Expertise on tap
Librarian Shaun Lloyd helps Hillary Benzell and Sarah Stein do research in the Redondo Union High School library.
"School librarians are chomping at the bit to support instruction," says Shaun Lloyd, president of the Redondo Beach Teachers Association. "We want to help teachers develop those multi-platform research projects so students can succeed in college. We want to help kids be successful."
Librarians - or credentialed library media teachers - may be a vanishing species at many schools, but they can provide invaluable services to students and teachers, says Lloyd, who runs the library at Redondo Union High School.
Teachers today are so overwhelmed with all the emphasis on test scores and rote learning that they don't always take advantage of the support that librarians can provide, says Lloyd. She was thrilled to see that trend reversed this year at her own school. All Redondo High seniors came to the library to do "dual" research - Internet and books - for their English classes.
One senior, Allison McLaughlin, took a break from researching her art and economics finals online at the library to say, "I like to come here to do research and PowerPoint presentations. It's nice to have Ms. Lloyd provide help when it's needed. I usually do okay, but a lot of kids have no idea of what they're doing."
Most library media teachers, also known as library media technicians, are former classroom teachers. They must have a teaching credential before entering the two-year library media program. However, some schools are replacing them with library "techs" or clerks to save money. Librarians, like other support staff, are not "mandated" and are considered expendable in times of financial shortfalls.
Redondo Beach, an affluent area, has always had a high school librarian at its sole campus, says Lloyd. But at the low socioeconomic district located next door, there is usually not one to be found at three high schools and one continuation school.
"Clerks are working at all the sites there," says Lloyd. "It's a shame. The district should be spending money on someone with training who can provide leadership and vision."
"Clerks, for the most part, don't have a handle on curriculum and how to support classroom curriculum," says Lloyd. "They aren't familiar with classroom standards and how library materials can help teachers meet standards. They may not know how to help children find books they will truly enjoy. They lack training on how reference departments work - as well as training on how to build up a book collection that will support curriculum and class projects."
The state Education Code requires that school districts have one library media teacher providing professional services, but districts can get around this by contracting with their county office of education.
"In many cases, you have one credentialed library media teacher providing expertise for the entire district," says Jeanne Nelson, president of the California School Library Association. "The impact is that students are not getting the kind of face-to-face instruction needed, and teachers are not able to collaborate with librarians on class projects. Conceivably, kids can go all through school never doing a research paper or knowing how to use a library."
Nadine Bengel is the sole library media teacher for her school district in Barstow, where she is in charge of 12 libraries - at eight elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school and one continuation school. Her district used to have one library media teacher at each middle school and one at the high school, but replaced them with clerks. "They had to make cuts, and librarians were the first to go."
Bengel, a member of the Barstow Education Association who is based at the Kennedy Middle School Media Center, visits different sites. "But I don't have the time to train clerks, work with students and collaborate with 315 teachers. It's just impossible."
"Most kids in my district don't even have access to their school libraries because they are not open enough hours," she says. "There aren't enough people to staff them. At elementary sites, libraries are not open before or after school. I think it's sad. We have beautiful new books and computers, but no staffing."
One consequence is vandalism. "The continuation school had a beautiful library and nice computer lab. It was trashed because there was no staffing, not even a clerk. Without supervision, students cannot be trusted in libraries."
Even with supervision from clerks or techs, students don't make the most of libraries if they lack access to a trained librarian, says Lloyd. There is a tendency for students to be lazy and only research information on the Internet. And they might not have the wisdom to evaluate whether information found on the Net is true or false.
"You can't find answers to all the questions on the Internet," says Lloyd. "Sometimes students need to open an old-fashioned book. Sometimes it can be so much quicker for a student to do research in a regular encyclopedia set. Librarians have a real feel for various types of resources, whether they're electronic, books, visual or CD-ROM."
School libraries in California tend to be badly outdated, says Lloyd, noting that her library had a book on women's studies from 1972 that showed a housewife wearing high heels while she was vacuuming. Still, she says, her library is much better stocked than most.
Libraries were ignored for years in many districts because there wasn't adequate money to purchase books and resources. Thanks to the California Public School Library Act, schools have received an influx of money based on Average Daily Attendance for the past four years. Unfortunately, the program has just ended.
Recently, school librarians flexed their political muscle and successfully fought to have library materials remain in the governor's budget as a line item. The governor had proposed lumping K-12 library materials into the same category as instructional materials, and giving schools block grants so schools could spend the money however they wanted. But librarians fought it.
"We had to lobby hard for that not to happen," says Lloyd. "By staying as a line item, money will continue to go to libraries. If you just give the money to school districts, staff members will be duking it out over spending for textbooks versus library books."
Lloyd hopes that in the future, libraries will get the staffing, funding and reverence they deserve. "We should never forget about libraries and how important they are," says Lloyd. "And we should never forget the importance of librarians."
