Washington, DC
Neal to Tour Minnechaug High School and Teach Government Class
(SPRINGFIELD) Congressman Richard E. Neal will visit Minnechaug High School today to announce a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Education grant and teach a government class.
“As we educate our children it is important to make the learning experience as welcoming as possible,” said Neal. “The U.S. Department of Education is initiating innovate strategies for success and I am pleased the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District is at the forefront of meeting individual student standards.”
The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District became one of only 60 recipients in 24 states to receive an Elementary Counseling Grant from the USDE’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education/Office of Safe and Healthy Students. This federal initiative has been established to support counseling programs in schools, with the goal of increasing the number of qualified mental health professionals available to expand availability, quantity and quality of counseling services. The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District is expected to receive $366,733.00 per year for the next three years to implement its proposed project: HWRSD—Strengthening Student Success.
The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District will use these funds to hire three additional school psychologists to assist in the implementation of an innovative, data-driven and comprehensive approach to behavioral health services that are accessible to all students. The model is based on the new State blueprint for a system that offers a flexible framework of tiered interventions for academic and social/emotional health. The grant will allow the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District to expand current models of school-wide positive behavioral support, such as the Responsive Classroom program, and to train psychologists, counselors and teachers in strategies that support students with more significant needs.
As a result of this grant, other anticipated benefits include: expanding community-based mental health referral capacity to increase availability for families, advanced staff training in psychological first aid and critical incident response, comprehensive transition plans for students returning from hospitalizations expanded, community-wide suicide and self-injury prevention resources, and expanded parent education opportunities.
