The Livingston Union Faculty District improved power absenteeism, suspensions and pupil well-being by investing in class counselors, in keeping with a brand new examine by the UCLA Heart for the Transformation of Colleges.
The examine examines how Livingston Union, a small, five-campus Ok-8 faculty district in Merced County, carried out complete faculty counseling — a system of built-in educational and psychological well being assist for college students and households — to outpace California on key metrics of post-pandemic restoration.
Livingston Union lowered power absenteeism from a post-pandemic peak of 18.3% in 2023 to 14.2% in spring 2024, exceeding a aim of lowering power absenteeism by 3% by the top of the varsity 12 months, in keeping with the examine. In 2024, California reported a power absenteeism fee of about 20% statewide.
LUSD additionally lowered suspension charges from 3.4% to 2.8% between 2022 and 2023. In the identical time-frame, California’s suspension charges jumped from 3.1% to three.5% between 2022 and 2023. The district’s suspension fee for college students with disabilities additionally decreased by 5.5% between 2011-2012 and 2018-2019, whereas faculties throughout Merced County noticed a rise in suspensions.
Alma Lopez, lead faculty counselor at Livingston Union, mentioned that college counselors run common “pupil info studies” and meet with college students who’re incomes a number of Fs in sure topics, struggling to make it to high school, or have obtained a number of workplace referrals for detention or suspensions.
“We’re wanting on the information to determine the scholars initially, after which digging a bit of deeper to try to discover what’s the foundation explanation for the problem they’re having,” Lopez mentioned. “After which what may very well be an intervention for that pupil in a selected state of affairs.”
A pupil struggling to finish assignments, for instance, may very well be inspired to hitch a six- to eight-week group intervention on motivation and progress, whereas one other would possibly be a part of a tutoring group targeted on examine abilities. A pupil fighting power absences might obtain assist with transportation, whereas one other might join periods with a medical or psychological well being supplier to handle well being points.
Alma Lopez, lead faculty counselor, helps show school banners at Livingston Center Faculty.
(Geneva Sum / EdSource)
The examine additionally discovered that college counseling usually improved pupil belonging, security and well-being at Livingston Union. Within the 2019–2020 faculty 12 months, about 8 in 10 college students demonstrated excessive educational motivation and felt well-supported in social-emotional studying, whereas 2 in 10 reported frequent disappointment, which remained about the identical for the subsequent two faculty years.
Elizabeth Alvarez, a mother or father of a seventh-grade pupil at Livingston Center Faculty, reached out to a faculty counselor after her daughter began experiencing nervousness and abdomen aches throughout her transition from elementary faculty to center faculty. Alvarez mentioned her daughter already knew she might go to her counselor for assist as a result of she had interacted together with her counselor throughout campus actions at lunch and within the classroom.
“When my daughter met together with her, and he or she got here dwelling and confirmed us all these items that the counselor had given her — all these methods, video games and handouts about coping abilities — after which the counselor touching base with us, it was straightforward for us to realize that belief,” Alvarez mentioned. “It’s been three years, and my daughter nonetheless has all of these handouts, some on the fridge, some in her bed room.”
College students who’ve steady assist from a trusted counselor report higher educational and psychological well being outcomes, in keeping with EdResearch for Motion. For Bishop, the creator of the UCLA examine, Livingston Union’s progress displays that very same precept on a bigger scale.
“What strikes me about Livingston is their management stability,” mentioned Bishop. “In different case research, there’s quite a lot of turnover. The work [Livingston Union] is doing speaks to the concept you want leaders to stay round for good issues to occur.”
In contrast to most colleges in California, Livingston Union counselors meet with each pupil and their household in fourth and seventh grades to debate any educational and private challenges. Additionally they train classes in profession steering or social-emotional studying, present one-on-one counseling for college students, and join mother and father to sources like meals banks, grief counselors and authorized help.
“The truth that now we have these long-lasting relationships permits us to work intently with our households, as a result of they know us and so they belief us,” mentioned Lopez, who has been a counselor at Livingston Union for 20 years. “When a household leaves my room, and so they say, ‘When are we going to see you once more?’ they’re seeing worth in that intentional time devoted to every pupil and their household.”
Alvarez, who grew up on a farm in rural Merced County and attended Livingston Excessive Faculty, mentioned she struggled to navigate her personal journey as a first-generation school pupil with none steering in school. In an agricultural county the place many mother and father work 12- to 16-hour shifts a day, Alvarez mentioned Livingston Unified’s counselors fill a crucial function in serving to information a pupil’s future.
Through the surge in psychological well being requests on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, LUSD additionally made a powerful pivot to distant counseling, classroom classes and alternatives for social interplay by means of digital recess and recreation nights, Lopez mentioned. Additionally they offered assist for kids who misplaced essential social-emotional growth abilities.
“We’re seeing new dynamics with behaviors and changes to studying,” mentioned LUSD Supt. Andrés Zamora within the examine. “To today, we dwell a few of that, and our counselors are taking the lead on how we assist studying and are being very influential in how that impacts lecture rooms.”
For a lot of college students, early and dependable intervention in the course of the pandemic made an enduring distinction. Lopez recalled when a mom reached out for assist after her son had misplaced his father and three different members of the family in the course of the pandemic.
“The primary time I met him, he was in a fetal place with a blanket wrapped round him, simply actually hurting. And every time that I might meet with him just about, I might see a bit of bit extra of him in his house, sitting up, holding his child sister, beginning to open up,” Lopez mentioned.
After faculties reopened, Lopez mentioned that the coed walked into her counseling workplace and requested to proceed speaking about his grief.
“The influence in his attendance, grades and studying how you can advocate for what he felt he wanted was fairly outstanding to see,” Lopez mentioned.
Vani Sanganeria is a reporter for EdSource, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism group masking schooling in California.
