(3/22/99)
The number of at-risk students in Utah--students at-risk of not
graduating from high school--now tops 40-percent.
There's a good chance your child may be one of them.
How are schools changing to meet the need?
Students are role playing the mediation lessons taught by their school
counselor.
It's unusual, but at Woods Cross Elementary, things like mediation are
taught with the same importance as math.
School counselor, Annie Galland says "We're teaching the same skills that
will help them become functioning members of society and those are just as
important I think."
It's something you hardly ever see-- a counselor's office in an elementary
school. You see them in junior highs, and high schools, but there's a growing
push to get them in elementaries, where young children are just starting to
face some of life's problems.
According to Dory Walker, an elementary guidance specialist, "There is mounting
evidence, a mounting cry from within our community and within the nation, to
say 'Let's value kids and let's focus on what they need early so we don't have
to do it down the line.'"
School counselors statewide met to look at the changing factors that
contribute to at-risk students....
divorce, violence, poverty and language barriers.
They believe spending more to hire more school counselors will save
taxpayers money down the road.
"I just think there are more factors for children, more things they have to
deal with than when I was growing up."
And the few elementaries that staff counselors have seen results--fewer
fights, safer schools, and an easier adjustment for students entering middle
school.
Even in most high schools, students far outnumber counselors.
The goal is to get 1 counselor for every 400 students.
But the ratio right now in some schools, is 1 to 700.
