Fulton Schools’ support services makes strides for vulnerable students

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Assistant Superintendent of Schools Chris Matthews gives an update on Fulton County Schools Student Support Services during the school board’s Dec. 10 work session.

Credit: Courtesy of FCS

Fulton County Schools Board of Education members learned during their Dec. 10 work session about how the district’s Student Support Services identifies students in crisis, offers counseling, helps improve reading skills, and gets aid from corporate and nonprofit partnerships.

In his presentation to the board, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Chris Matthews said social workers with Fulton County Schools identified and helped more than 25 students in imminent crisis soon after implementing the Linewize digital monitoring tool.

“Within the first two weeks of going live with this implementation, we identified, intervened and supported more than 25 students who are in an imminent, dire mental health crisis,” Matthews said about the Linewize monitoring. “And thus we were able to secure timely and critical support for them and their families in real time, whether it be at eight o’clock at night or two o’clock in the morning.”

The Homeless Support Team helps more than 1,200 students in the district who are in transition, Matthews said. FCS has a successful partnership with Soles for Souls, which provides new socks and shoes to affected students and their families.

Matthews presented a comprehensive update on the district’s Student Support team. He said school social workers have completed more than 15,000 interventions with students during the school year.​ Reading interventions in grades one through three also support the district’s Every Child Reads initiative.

The School Psychology and Intervention teams have already completed 2,168 evaluations  and more than 26,000 targeted consultations. The Counseling and Student Support team has worked to build and deepen community partnerships to provide robust support for students.

“Toyota’s Driving Possibilities has partnered with Fulton County schools to remove basic need barriers for our students by providing resources through our S.A.F.E. centers, such as food, hygiene products, clothing items, other items for our students and they have just been a fantastic partnership for our safe centers,” Matthews said.

Matthews said Operation Bridge Back, a re-engagement intervention to increase attendance, is starting to see results. Of the 472 students engaged, 77 percent of them have shown at least a 10 percent increase in attendance.

Students with disabilities have shown an increase in reading on or above grade level through the work of the Services for Exceptional Children team’s efforts in Milestones achievement across content areas. FCS’ partnership with Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency offers pre-employment services for students with disabilities during the school day, empowering them to gain essential employment skills and independence.

The district’s implementation of the Attendance Improvement Framework in the 2023-2024 school year resulted in end-of-year attendance improvement data, Matthews said.

“We saw already a 3.7 percent decrease in chronic absenteeism and a 6.5 percent increase in students with satisfactory attendance,” he said.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Rough Draft Atlanta.