By Meagan Wilks,
Director of Special Services, Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, 19.8 percent of Indiana high school students seriously considered suicide, which is the third highest rate in the nation. Because of statistics like these, schools have an obligation to support the social and emotional needs of students.

Meagan Wilks

This has challenged many schools to think differently about how students learn and behave. Research shows that adversity, trauma and stress have significant effects on a child’s social, emotional and cognitive development.

TVSC has taken actions to recognize and respond to students that have been impacted by traumatic stress. Our goal is to not only provide tools to cope with extreme situations, but create an underlying culture of respect and support. Becoming more trauma informed begins with looking at what we are currently doing to address social and emotional needs.

In 2013, Tippecanoe Valley implemented a Mental Health Task Force which is dedicated to discussing and implementing programs toward the social and emotional needs of students. As a result of this task force, staff and students have been trained in QPR, a program that teaches three steps to help prevent suicide: Question, Persuade and Refer.

Other convocations sponsored by task force include; Remedy Live, an online support group to guide teens searching for hope, and motivational speaker Chad Varga, who inspires others to overcome any adversity, exceed their potential and achieve their dreams. This year, there has been a focus of professional development in the area of mental health and social-emotional learning.

At the beginning of the school year, educators were trained by Ross Greene Associates in the Collaborative Problems Solving Approach. This approach provides a structure and ideas on how behaviorally challenging kids should be understood and treated in ways that are more compassionate and effective. Additionally, Dr. Lori Desautels and Heather Forbes taught educators how complex stress can affect learning and behavior.

Stressed brains do not learn the same as brains that feel safe, feel connection, and can manage emotions. As a part of these workshops, educators learned alternative strategies to help reduce stress, build relationships and jump start brains into motion for learning. Social and emotional services are provided to students by our school counselors. Tippecanoe Valley also continues to maintain partnerships with outside mental health agencies including Bowen Center, Four County Counseling Services and Crosswinds to support students.

To ensure the effectiveness of our services and training about mental health, TVSC has begun to track the social and emotional learning of our students using Panorama, an evidenced-based program that helps schools support the critical skills and mindset that enables success in school and in life, with research-backed measures and actionable data reports. TVSC has used Panorama to help educators support individual students with skills in the areas of growth mindset, self-efficacy, emotional regulation and self-management.

The World Health Organization says that mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own capabilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution.  This statement aligns perfectly with TVSC’s vision: Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation does whatever it takes to equip all students to be outstanding – today, tomorrow, and beyond.

As we look to prepare our students for the future, TVSC is committed not only to providing students with academic rigor and advancement, but also to addressing the social and emotional learning of all students.