Pullman Public Schools

We've hired additional counselors at the secondary and elementary levels. Each elementary school has a least one counselor, some of who are also psychologists. Each school has a psychologist available for services. The middle school has one counselor and one psychologist. The high school has three counselors and one psychologist, one who primarily works with  special education and IEP students. Counselors focus on three essential components – academic, career, and social emotional development. Additionally, we also have a School-Based Mental Health Therapist who works with all the schools, who in turn, has three graduate school students who are assigned to specific schools. 

We work with several community partners to facilitate our students' access to resources available in the community. These partnerships include:

• Palouse River Counseling provides individual support and programming for students and families based on a wraparound philosophy of care.
• Washington State University – Collaborative Learning for Educational Achievement and Resilience (CLEAR) currently partners with Sunnyside Elementary in the promotion of trauma-informed practices aimed at professionals' ability to enhance healthy student development and academic success.
• Washington State University—Behind Happy Faces is a program that empowers young people to start talking about issues and break the stigma associated with mental illness.

Our staff, including teachers and paraeducators, receive directed and self-directed trainings. Training topics are based on staff surveys designed for noting needs and preferences. In the past two years, some of these learning opportunities have included:

• Social-Emotional Learning – Practices and strategies to help students build awareness and skills managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions
• Differentiated Instruction - Practices and strategies for meeting the needs of different learners through varying content, process, and product
• Mental and Physical Health – Practical tips and information to support students with mental & physical health struggles including depression, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, addiction, anxiety and other areas.
• Various speakers covering topics such as:
  • Autism
  • Social Emotional Learning
  • Anxiety

Using our curriculum adoption process, we are moving toward adoption of a Social Emotional curriculum for next year.

Second Step™ – Social Emotional Curriculum for K-5

• Policy 2140- Guidance & Counseling
• Policy 2145- Suicide Prevention
• Procedure 2145P- Suicide Prevention
• Policy 3112- Social Emotional Climate
• Procedure 3112P- Social Emotional Climate
• Policy 5515P- Workforce Secondary Traumatic Stress
• Policy 5203- Staff Assistance Program
• Procedure 5203P- Staff Assistance Program

OSPI describes social-emotional learning (SEL) as:

“When we think of educating the whole child, their social and emotional development must be considered as a part of overall instruction. SEL is broadly understood as a process through which individuals build awareness and skills in managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions that support success in school and in life.”
 
All of our students receive social and emotional education using age-appropriate curriculum. In addition, because each student has unique needs, we have many other resources available to our teachers for use on a case by case basis to best serve their students' needs. If you have any questions about our social emotional learning curriculum and resources, or about our dedication to mental health wellness supports, please contact Andy Johnson, Director of Special Services at ajohnson2@psd267.org.
 
If you think your student may benefit from additional SEL or mental health supports, we encourage you to reach out to the counselor at your student's school.

WSU Mindfulness Challenge: WSU Mindfulness Challenge