'I know why kids are killing. They're hurting'
Since last September, 36 Chicago public school children have been murdered.
Thousands more were traumatized by those killings and the violence that pervades many homes and neighborhoods.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
Still more struggle under the poverty, isolation and mental illness that often spur violence.
When those kids arrive at school each day, this is what the Chicago Public Schools offers:
• Until this fall, just one counselor for as many 1,200 elementary students. At high schools, it's one counselor for every 350 kids.
• Social workers at most grammar schools just a few days each week; psychologists come by even less frequently. Most of their time is taken up with special education students.
• Little training for kids in anger management, conflict resolution and problem-solving, despite a state requirement to teach those skills. Illinois in 2003 became the first state to create standards for such "social and emotional learning," but it's just starting to take off in Chicago schools.
"We can't expect them to learn if we ignore what I call 'their stuff,' " said Carol Briggs, principal of Kohn Elementary in Roseland. "I know why kids are killing. Their needs are going unmet and they're hurting."
There must be a better way.
In a four-part editorial series this week, the Chicago Sun-Times is calling on the school system to fundamentally rethink how it deals with the social and emotional needs of its students. Schools are drowning under the weight of these needs, casting about with little help or support. We are calling on the school system to deal with these problems head on.
To start, the school system and the public must rally behind an effort launched this week -- one that signals a major break from the understaffed, crisis-oriented approach most schools use now.
Five "turnaround" Chicago schools that reopened with new staffs Tuesday are trying a well-established program that directly addresses kids' social and emotional needs. It teaches kids the skills some don't get at home: how to get along, how to stand in another person's shoes -- skills that research shows improve behavior and test scores.
The program also offers group or individual counseling for needier kids by freeing up in-house staff or using community mental health agencies. Another 35 schools with existing programs that confront kids' needs more directly also will move toward this model this year.
The goal is to bring this approach to all schools by 2011.
But the school system will never get there if support, money and -- most importantly -- the will doesn't follow.
The demands on the cash-strapped system are endless: raise test scores, lower class size, add more preschool slots.
If addressing a child's social and emotional well-being doesn't top the list, this year's pilot will be just that: yet another one-time experiment.
Even worse, we fear the school system will move on this, but will do it poorly and without the staff support it deserves. Federal special education law and Illinois law require school systems to move toward more comprehensive services for kids. We want Chicago to get it right.
We aren't interested in telling the school system what to do, knowing full well there is no money to pay for it.
That's why the school system must rank social and emotional learning over other pressing needs. CPS and its supporters also must hunt under every rock to find new cash, including continuing the push to reform the way Illinois funds its schools -- a cause taken up this week through a boycott of the first day of school.
Another creative solution has been proposed by Bryan Samuels, chief of staff to Schools CEO Arne Duncan. Samuels is negotiating with the state, exploring ways to get Medicaid to pay for these student support services -- more than 80 percent of CPS kids are Medicaid-eligible. The state has a vested interest in helping: A 2003 law calls for building a comprehensive children's mental health system in Illinois.
The Chicago school system and its supporters also should push for more money from Washington. National advocates are looking for more help through the No Child Left Behind law and a bill in Congress that would increase the number of social workers, counselors and psychologists in areas with at-risk kids.
Any new dollars found by the school system should go toward student support services, particularly at the neediest schools. Not every school, not every kid, needs help. Intensive help should be reserved for the toughest kids and the toughest neighborhoods.
At a minimum, this is where the school system should be:
• At least one social worker at each school who has no special education responsibilities, and at least two social workers at larger grammar schools and high schools. The School Social Work Association of America recommends one social worker for every 400 students and more for needy populations.
• One counselor for every 250 students, as recommended by the American School Counselor Association, down from CPS' current high school rate of 1 to 350. For years, elementary counselors oversaw as many as 1,200 students. After a push by the teachers' union, all grammar schools this school year should have at least one counselor. But that's still not good enough.
• Hire more psychologists. The National Association of School Psychologists says a school psychologist can't serve more than 100 needy kids.
• Each school needs a social and emotional learning curriculum and a full-time staffer to train teachers in its use -- and to make sure it isn't filed away in a back office.
These are costly and ambitious recommendations, but doing anything less is negligent and short-sighted.
Many of our kids and teachers are drowning. A lifeline of just a few feet is not enough.
Tomorrow: Promoting peace