Episode 509: School Social Workers: Teachers' and Students' First Line of Defense

When it comes to student learning, we need to assess the full picture. School social workers are an integral part of this whole child approach. Join us in conversation with Dr. Abifee Thomas and Caitlin Tripp of Atlanta Public Schools to learn more!

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Hello, teachers. Welcome to the Classroom Conversations podcast. We're five seasons into creating the platform for Georgia's teachers, a place where educators can share and learn. Our series is presented by the great minds at the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting, and 'tis I, your host Ashley Mengwasser. I'm always feeling rather social, but today I'm feeling rather social work. We wanted to produce an episode that shares the invaluable role of school social workers for the benefit of students, their teachers, and their schools. We've already covered school nurses' and school counselors' vantage points and prior episodes, so go back and give those your ears. In the field of education, there are generous, community-minded spirits among us who only want to make others' lives better. "He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own," Confucius said. I believe that wise guy was predicting the value of teachers and school social workers just centuries ahead of their time. And now a history lesson. Social workers were first hired through schools in the early 1900s when the role was filled by civic organizations and private agencies outside of the school. Then by the 1930s, they were brought into the school but referred to as visiting teachers. The primary role during that time was to serve as a link between home and school, encouraging attendance and addressing needs of the family. In modernity, there is a bit more to this, and the really beautiful thing about the role of social workers in schools is the mutuality between the school social worker and the classroom teacher. You'll hear about that today. There are two peas in a pod, and there are two Ts in a podcast, Dr. Thomas and Ms. Tripp. School social worker, Dr. Abifee Thomas, and Ms. Tripp have a good thing going at North Atlanta High School, part of Atlanta Public Schools, and they're with me here now. Welcome, women.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Thank you so much.

Caitlin Tripp: Thank you.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So happy to be here.

Ashley Mengwasser: You both look happy.

Caitlin Tripp: It's wonderful to be here with you.

Ashley Mengwasser: Is this your first podcast you've ever been on?

Caitlin Tripp: It is.

Ashley Mengwasser: First for you, too, Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yes, very first. Very first.

Ashley Mengwasser: I love being here with you for that milestone. Let's start with our school social worker, shall we? Dr. Thomas, what led you to the field of social work in the first place?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Social work was not on my radar-

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: ... initially. I had gone to college and I thought I was going to be a medical technologist, and then I took a class with someone who didn't speak English as well as I needed to hear English, and so I had no idea what was happening in that math class. I was like, "I have about five or six more of these classes. I think I better change-"

Ashley Mengwasser: I think I'm going to pass.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: "... my major." My roommate at the time was a social work major and she and I were having some conversation about what options I have for a major, and she was telling me all of the work that she can do as a social worker, and I said, "That actually sounds like something I would be interested in." So I went down to the school of social work, talked to a head person in charge, and changed my major.

Ashley Mengwasser: And the rest is history.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yep.

Ashley Mengwasser: What are some of the areas out there that can be served as a social worker? Would you tell us about more?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yeah, sure thing. Social workers can work in community-based organizations. I actually did that for a few years up in The Bronx, New York. We can work in medical settings, both mental health medical and physical medical. I worked at a hospital before.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, you did?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Mm-hmm. Some people are working in just plain therapeutic settings. They're doing independent work as therapists, private therapy. You can move around. People are working in physical rehab settings as well and in nursing homes. So there are lots of places where social workers can go and earn a living.

Ashley Mengwasser: But you chose the school setting, and you left the hospital setting for it. Why is that?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: I liked the school schedule. And then the other piece... I started working in the school system up in New York. I just really like the opportunity to meet people where they are, and when I'm working with children, I get to see them in their purest form.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's true.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: And I get to work with them to help shape who they might become.

Ashley Mengwasser: I love that.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: And so, I like that.

Ashley Mengwasser: Let's bring in our classroom teacher who knows these scoundrels firsthand, all the students that smile up at you. You're in your 10th year of teaching.

Caitlin Tripp: I am.

Ashley Mengwasser: First of all, huge milestone. Congratulations.

Caitlin Tripp: It is. Thank you very much.

Ashley Mengwasser: A clap for that. How did you become an educator, Caitlin?

Caitlin Tripp: I'm one of the weirdos that picked my major as a junior in high school and just did early applications to college that summer between junior and senior year, went in for secondary education, and stayed all the way through.

Ashley Mengwasser: And never switched.

Caitlin Tripp: Never switched.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Caitlin Tripp: That doesn't happen. That's very unusual. But I had done tutoring for younger students when I was in high school. I taught ESOL to elementary kids when I was in high school, and I realized all the things that I was gravitating towards were education. And then I was like, "Okay, I know I want to teach. What do I want to teach?" And my favorite courses were history, so I thought we'll try that out and we'll change if we need to, but we never needed to. I've stuck with it.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, the rest is history. That line really rang true for you-

Caitlin Tripp: Quite literally.

Ashley Mengwasser: I should have saved it. And one thing you said to me that always makes my heart vibrate is teaching is just so fulfilling. Tell me why you think that is.

Caitlin Tripp: I think teaching, unlike a lot of other professions, is truly vocational. There's a degree of which you need to be truly, to some degree, called to do it. And if it's not your calling, then it's one of those fields that you really probably shouldn't dip your toe in. It is incredibly fulfilling to me. Spending time with students and getting to know them and getting to see the people that they turn into is something that fills my cup over and over again. Certainly there's going to be things that drain our cups on a regular basis, dealing with a difficult family situation or administrative issues or the minutia of a job, the paperwork, the emails. But the students themselves fill my cup every single day, so it's a truly profound gift to be with them, working with them every single day. People ask, "Are you thinking about leaving the profession? It's been 10 years." That question comes up a lot, and my answer to that is, as long as I'm crazy about the kids, I'm still here. Nothing can diminish that.

Ashley Mengwasser: Then we'll say you're here today because you're crazy for the kids.

Caitlin Tripp: I'm crazy about the kids.

Ashley Mengwasser: I appreciate that. Do you two work together daily or weekly, or what's the format of that, Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: We don't work together daily. We do work together in case-by-case situations. If she is aware of a family who requires my attention, then she will reach out to me and let me know what's happening, what her concern is, and then I follow up with the children. Now sometimes we have special projects. I think early in the year we did a survey for students, it was called Signs of Suicide, and so we had to go in and teach a lesson. So I had to work directly with her at that point because I had to present to all of her history classes. And we just did an assessment of what students think, what they're feeling, where they believe their resources are, and then we tell them where their resources are, and we talk to them about how to talk to friends, when to get concerned about a friend who may be considering suicide. It's a whole program just designed to help children feel like they have a place to go and that they can help their friends find a place to go.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes. And you are such a pleasant face, Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: I would want to come and see you as a school student. And as an educator, Caitlin, how does a classroom teacher utilize their social worker as a resource?

Caitlin Tripp: They're our first line of... I was going to say first line of defense, but they really are the first person you go to when you notice that a student has these additional needs, and they do a fantastic job. Social workers train us every single year, and it's a really valuable training. I think a lot of teachers during that first week are so busy trying to get their classroom set up, but it's one of the most important things we do at the very beginning of the year. And 10 years, I've heard it now 10 times, but I think it's really important to pay attention each time because you're reminded of the signs of, yes, depression obviously for students, but also abuse and what that can look like, whether it's physical abuse or even emotional abuse, what that looks like for students and how they might behave in your classroom. Having that training from her allows me to be a better advocate for my students. I can be keeping an eye out for those things. And then when I see them in my classroom, she's the first person I go to and say, "Hey, I've noticed this. This is a problem. I'm concerned about this." If you're doing your job well as a teacher and you're creating an environment where students feel that they can come to you, you're the student's first line of defense, perhaps, and then immediately you can take that information to the person who can connect them with the right resources. So it's honestly, as a teacher who gets students telling them all kinds of things about their lives, it's reassuring to know that I have a partner.

Ashley Mengwasser: Dr. Thomas, how are your classroom teachers a great partner for your practice?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So, let me make this one disclaimer: I am one of two school social workers at North Atlanta High School. I will be remiss if I did not acknowledge the wonderful work that Kadijah Felder-Patterson does to help us get the work done. We really rely on our teachers to pass along information. They have a relationship and access to children that we don't always enjoy. They see them every single day, and so the students connect with them in ways that they don't always connect with us because they haven't met us yet in many cases. So we really rely on teachers to have a sharp eye. We rely on them to listen intently. We expect for them to hear the clues, and they bring those clues to us, and we try and solve the puzzle.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay. She's like a detective, really, Caitlin. And you mentioned that you are blessed to have two social workers in your school. I imagine that's not the same everywhere, and what happens if it isn't?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Okay. I came from a district where there was a social worker for every three to four schools. And when I came to APS in 2021-22, that's when APS adopted the plan to have a social worker for every single school in the district.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, wow. So that's new.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: That's totally new, and it's really a wonderful thing for students. So my school, North Atlanta, is awfully big. We have 2,200+ students, and so it is an impossible feat for one social worker to do the job and to do it satisfactorily. And I'm not talking about with respect to whether or not my principal thinks I did a satisfactory job. I'm talking about self-satisfaction. I don't want to leave things undone. I got the support to bring on another school social worker. We found someone who is incredible, she is smart, she's a hard worker, she doesn't mind getting in and getting her feet wet and getting her hands dirty. There are, I think, maybe four or five APS schools that has multiple social workers, that has two social workers. So it really does help to split the load. I have 10th and 12th this year. She has 9 and 11. So next year I'll have 9 and 11, and she'll have 10 and 12. That way we are able to follow our students from the time they get there in 9th grade to the day they graduate 12th grade, so they don't have to get to know a different social worker every year. So that's how we do it.

Ashley Mengwasser: That makes a lot of sense. Parse out for me the differences between these roles. We've heard a little bit about the school social worker. We're about hear more. How does that differ from the school counselor's role inside the school?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Sure thing. So the role of the counselor is really to focus on what's happening inside the school building. They're working with scheduling-

Ashley Mengwasser: I see.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: ... and they're working with students in the counseling capacity as well, but when the need reaches outside of the school building and the barrier that a student is facing comes from the community-

Ashley Mengwasser: Outside school.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: ... or from the home, that's when a social worker comes in, and that's the difference. The difference in what a counselor does and what a social worker does is that the social worker is the link between the school and the family, the school and the community.

Ashley Mengwasser: I get it. Earlier, I dabbled into some history to set up how our school social workers, how they truly began as school attendance officers who brought to the fore just a general awareness of individual differences in learning, and I know that's something you champion in your school. So let's move on to our topical discussion today. Talk to me about the term, Dr. Thomas, school avoidance. What is this?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: The connotation about school avoidance is that when a child does not come to school as prescribed, if that reason has something to do with... That is where school avoidance come in. There are some students who are simply truant. They don't come to school as prescribed. That is a lawful mandate, that any child between the ages of 6 and 16 have to be in school or a home-school program. So those students who don't abide by that, I think it's anywhere between zero and five unexcused absences is acceptable, but then when you get to six unexcused absences, you become truant. The students who are truant who are not coming to school for nothing that is related to, "I just don't want to come," or "I had a flat tire," or "My mom didn't wake me up," if it is related to the kid having some anxiety related to being in the building, some anxiety related to the drive to the building, that is what we talk about.

Ashley Mengwasser: Deem avoidance. And the former would be just absenteeism.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: Just not come into school. I got it. Are you seeing evidence of this in your classroom at North Atlanta High, Caitlin?

Caitlin Tripp: Absolutely. It's important to note, my student population, I have AP classes that I teach with very gifted students, and then I also teach traditional classes, as well as ESOL push-in classes with students who are speakers of other languages. So I have a very wide range of students who may attend or not attend class for a variety of reasons. But I have seen a sharp uptick in the last probably three to four years... Obviously Covid-19, I think, played a huge role in this... of students who are not wanting to come to school because of anxiety, because of mental health pressures. And they'll say, "I couldn't be there today." And they can't necessarily always verbalize beyond that, but they'll just say-

Ashley Mengwasser: "I couldn't do it. I just couldn't."

Caitlin Tripp: "I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it that day." And I've even seen certain parent-child dynamics where parents will give their students one or two mental health days a semester where they say, "I'll cover for you." But you can't pull that card too often, but they've made that deal with students. And then there have been a few cases that I've taught students where they simply cannot come to school. The idea of it is overwhelming to them. And I hadn't seen cases of that prior to Covid-19, but post-Covid-19, I've had at least three students where they have physically struggled with their parents by the idea of coming to school. It's resulted in anxiety attacks, panic attacks, and parents are grieving and unsure of how to help their students.

Ashley Mengwasser: How do we interpret this, Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So many different ways. There's no one way. When students are struggling with anxiety and the idea of being in that environment, we have to really deal with it on a case-by-case situation, case-by-case basis. Some of our students are seeing therapists and they have to... The demand for therapy, for adolescent therapy, rose dramatically-

Ashley Mengwasser: After Covid?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: After Covid, right? So then the problem that we had was having students be able to find a therapist who can see them after school hours.

Ashley Mengwasser: Because they've got to be in school.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Mm-hmm. So with so many students and families looking for therapists who could see their children four o'clock and later, that luxury just went away for so many. So we ended up, particularly the very first year perhaps, like '22, '23, we had kids checking out of school all day long because they had therapy appointments. One of the answers to that for APS is that we've partnered with community mental health professionals, agencies, and they send in therapists to work with students during the day. So for those students who don't want to miss instructional time, then they and their families will work out a different schedule for when they might see them. But those kids are able to see their therapist during the school day if they work with one of our community mental health partners.

Ashley Mengwasser: So that's an option. So there has absolutely then been a correlation between absenteeism and the Covid shutdown.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Absolutely.

Caitlin Tripp: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: And what do we think are the contributing factors? If I think about anxiety, there's fear. Is it a loss of soft skills as well that maybe died away some during Covid? Is it the burden of expectation, feeling too large? What are some of the contributing factors? Caitlin's nodding her head.

Caitlin Tripp: I think the burden of expectation is certainly a significant factor. Now, I actually surveyed my students in this past week and asked them, "What are some reasons that you attend class or don't attend class?"

Ashley Mengwasser: Nice.

Caitlin Tripp: And I got close to a hundred responses from students. And it was anonymous, fully anonymous. I crunched some numbers and I took some notes here-

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you.

Caitlin Tripp: And looking at the student responses, one of the things that I saw over and over again as I was tallying up frequent remarks from students is the number of students who talked about the fact that they are so overwhelmed with work, and in some cases, students are so overwhelmed, they're so fearful of failure that they don't want to be in those spaces.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's pressure.

Caitlin Tripp: It's so much pressure on them. And then sometimes they stay home to catch up on work. So there's this incredible pressure of expectation. And the number of students who also commented, "The only reason I come is because I don't want to get even further behind," so they're carrying that pressure as well. So you're seeing students almost reach a point where they freeze, and I've had several students reach that point over the last couple of years where they look at the work in front of them and they freeze up and they can't see a way to get past it. And we've seen this before, and I've had students who have reached that point before. We talk about it, it's how to eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? And I've used that before with students, and they look at me and they go, "I can't even get started. I can't even pick up the fork." So we're having to get really creative about creating almost lists, hit lists of, "Okay, if you just did these three assignments... Don't worry about the 17 you've missed. Just do these three. Then turn them in-"

Ashley Mengwasser: Make it digestible.

Caitlin Tripp: Make it digestible, but we're having to do that for them. Whereas before you could give someone a list and say, "Okay, just go one by one." No. I don't even want that kid to look at the list.

Ashley Mengwasser: Ah, I see.

Caitlin Tripp: I don't want you seeing all 17. I need you to just see these three or these two. Because if I showed you the whole list, they'd stop dead in their tracks and they couldn't make the next step. It's too much.

Ashley Mengwasser: I see. I see. What other responses did that survey return? Anything positive?

Caitlin Tripp: Oh, yes. There were some plenty of positive responses. I asked students what are some reasons that they have chosen to skip school or skip a class, and then also, what are some things that make them want to be in class, make them want to show up? And the student responses there were incredibly encouraging. Students talked about teachers who made their classroom feel safe, teachers who made it safe to fail, where students could ask a question and not feel dumb, where they felt like they were being fostered and they were being encouraged to flourish in that space. They talk about teachers who value their time, teachers who realize that they have limited time with students and use it effectively to help them grow. But one of the things that I saw over and over again is teachers who are kind. That was something that was over and over again repeated by students. Standard 7 is talking about a positive classroom environment. That came through so clearly in student responses, that positive classroom environments where they felt loved, truly loved, safe, poured into, where failure was almost encouraged, right? Ms. Frizzle's, what is it? Take chances, make mistakes, get messy, right? Where that is actively encouraged for them. Those are the classes they want to be in. Even on a bad day, those are the classes that they want to be in.

Ashley Mengwasser: We talk about that consistently on this podcast series, the positive classroom climate and how integral that is to all learning success in the classroom.

Caitlin Tripp: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: Dr. Thomas, a survey like this, that was a powerful-

Dr. Abifee Thomas: That was incredible, right?

Ashley Mengwasser: ... tool for you.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Totally is.

Ashley Mengwasser: What does this tell you?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: It answers some of the questions. And the truth of the matter is that there are many answers to this one question, what impacts a child's decision-making for whether or not I go to school, once I'm in school, whether or not I go to class.

Ashley Mengwasser: Stay in school.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Because we have a lot of kids who come to school every day, but do they go to class every day? That's another story.

Ashley Mengwasser: Where do they go?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: In a building as big as North Atlanta, it's hard to tell.

Ashley Mengwasser: Bathrooms are a frequent favorite. We've all been guilty of hanging out in the bathroom. It points to a lot of factors that could be going on there for sure. But this at least gives you some places of affirmation and some places to look into. Let's talk about more on the Covid front, how virtual learning grew from that, how lessons can be learned virtually now because classwork could be submitted virtually, but maybe a student isn't required to physically be present in class to earn full credit. What lessons have you learned from virtual lessons? Anything there?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Oh, geez. Trying to balance the students who are virtual versus the students who are coming every day is not a simple task. I'm over an attendance incentive program at my school, and we're really working on boosting overall attendance. We are working with students, we're having programs, and we are giving away gift cards for students. We have four different levels at which a student might be eligible to have their name drawn for a gift card.

Ashley Mengwasser: Excellent.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: And we gave out five gift cards to students who had perfect attendance in the first semester. So we were excited to do that. But what happened was on our initial list, we had 66 students' names on that list, but when we went through that list of the students who had to come to the building, it was whittled down to less than half of that number. So I don't feel like I'm able to touch those children as much as I'd like to touch them. I think that they are removed, and if there is something happening in their worlds where they need a kind adult to help them process, to help them think, to help them find a resource, I don't have access to those children.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's just another barrier. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What's your take on virtual learning, Caitlin?

Caitlin Tripp: So as a teacher who taught via Zoom for a year and a half, there were some incredible opportunities there, although it was incredibly difficult, one of the most difficult parts of my career. What I am seeing, though, is that students are starting to be really selective about the classroom experiences they want to engage in because they know that they can work from home. Because they know that classroom materials are going to be posted in classroom, they've be begun to self-select and say, "This is not important for me. X, Y, or Z is not important. I can do this from home." They see the lesson posted, they look at it, and they say, "Oh, I think I need to be there that day. Oh, I don't think I need to be there that day." They are judging the relevance of the learning experience and then deciding whether they want to show up based on how they feel about the learning experience that's been planned for them. And that is clear in the survey responses, the number of kids saying, "I saw X, Y or Z. It was easy. I could do it from home," or "I saw they were going to waste my time that day," and they're making decisions based on that. And students are also starting to use language like, "I don't want to waste my time. I don't want busy work," and they're starting to view time as a resource that is really valuable for them in a way that I didn't see pre-Covid, right? So students are starting to say, "I can do this faster by myself at home without having to wade through," or "I could read the notes at home," et cetera, and they're starting to self-select where they want to put their time and their energy. And that's disturbing and fascinating all at once to watch happen.

Ashley Mengwasser: It is. It is. It's fascinating from the, wow, empowerment, selection of how you're going to triage your time as an adult because you are going to have to do that. But it also is dangerous because they're not at that place to yet to decide, and also we need you in school every day because it's a missed opportunity every day you're not there.

Caitlin Tripp: Exactly.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, let's go back... Do you want to add anything?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yeah, I think it is a quandary for the education system across the board. I think school systems are trying very hard to meet students where they are where that's concerned, and I think one of the ways to support a segment of the student population who needed that... I think instituting the ability to do it virtually was wonderful. It was necessary during Covid, but then after we came back to school, a lot of students became very comfortable with being home and it became more anxiety-feeling for them to now leave their home where they've been nestled with their mom and dad or nestled with the family-

Ashley Mengwasser: Creature comforts.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: ... and to remove themselves from that environment just seemed an impossible thing to do. So school systems have allowed that to continue, the virtual piece. I just think that for a lot of students, it's still necessary. I think for another group of students, it may not be so much necessary as it is just the student's desire.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. It's just their want.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: And so that can make it very difficult for a teacher who's as committed to working with students as Ms. Tripp.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes, one-on-one. Let's talk a bit more about the chronic absenteeism piece. We've delved more into school avoidance and how that might come up. What are some contributing factors to chronic absenteeism, Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: I'm going to tell you one of the biggest things is our students who are living in homeless situations. Some of those kids, they don't have a choice. They may be living with mom, but they don't have the option to go live with someone else. Maybe there's a fractured relationship between the mother and the family, the extended family, or even the nucleus family. If mom can't get a hotel room for the day, then guess where our children are going to be? Wherever mom is, in the car if they have a car, or at the shelter if they're at a shelter. One of the problems that we're really trying to help students and families fight is homelessness. We don't have the magic pill where we can put everybody in a house, but we have resources. We know how to connect people with community providers who can help them apply for housing, help them apply for programs that can help pay for a first month's deposit or a security deposit for a place that a parent might be eligible for. That's a major barrier for us.

Ashley Mengwasser: There are options, though.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: There are options-

Ashley Mengwasser: And I want to talk about some of these programs and initiatives that have been instituted at your school to address school avoidance and chronic absenteeism. Would you like to talk about some of those?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yeah. We have our student attendance committees, and so we meet and we talk about who our high-flyers are, who our kids who are out of school more than they seem to be in school, and then we assign those students to a worker. We have our counselors and our graduation coaches, and we have our SELTs, our special ed lead teachers, and our community liaisons. Those people are in those meetings along with our assistant principals, and we're talking about where children are, and when was last time we saw a child, and did anybody make a phone call to this home? Do we know what's going on? So that's one of the ways we're trying to keep tabs on where our children are. We have something called the Whole Child Intervention Team, and now in those meetings we're talking about, other than attendance, what other things are impacting a child's learning, their full learning, the whole child learning?

Ashley Mengwasser: The whole child. I see.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So, we're looking at what's happening at home. We're looking at what happens in school. We're looking at grades. We're looking at attendance. We're looking at behavior. We're looking at their medical needs that a family has or is trying to get access to, and how can we help in that way? Like I mentioned earlier, we have our community mental health providers who will come in for students and will do one-on-one sessions with our students. They do group interventions with students. We ourselves do group interventions with students. We provide what we call a Safe Pass for our students who might have a difficult time this day adjusting to being in school today and they just need a moment to go someplace peaceful, where they feel supported, where they feel safe to pull themselves together so that they can go back into the classroom environment and continue learning. So those are some of the things that we have going on that we are really working on to make children know that there's a safe place in our building.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes. And you mentioned your attendance incentives program. Tell me a little bit again about Safe Place Pass.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Safe Place Pass. Our 504 specialist in our building is the one who provides those. So a student or a family or a parent can reach out to me or a teacher, can reach out to anyone in our building and say, "Hey, my child Johnny is having a difficult time. He's had some anxiety. I want him to be in school, and he wants to be in school, but sometimes it can become overwhelming, and he's been spending his time in the bathroom. I really don't want my child in the bathroom. Is there a place, is there something that you all can do to help me help him?" So the answer to that is, "Absolutely. Let's take this child here." There's a physical Safe Place Pass where the children define at the point of inquiry where their safe places are-

Ashley Mengwasser: Is. Okay.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So, their safe place may be in a teacher's room.

Caitlin Tripp: I'm on so many passes.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm so glad, Ms. Tripp. Yes.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: It may be in the nurse's office. It may be in the social worker's office. It may be an assistant... It may be anywhere that particular child feels that they've made a connection, and they get an opportunity to go to that place, no questions asked. They're saying, "I'm using my Safe Place Pass," and they get to go and they get 10 to 15 minutes to regroup, find themselves, talk about it if they want to talk about it, not talk about it if they-

Ashley Mengwasser: If they don't.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: ... want to talk about it because everybody needs something different. So some people want to talk, and some people want to be one with themselves and pull it together because they have some internal strategies and internal coping skills that they know. So when they go and they pull themselves together in that 10 or 15 minutes, they go back to classroom, and it's time to get the rest of the day going, so yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: Can you tell me a Safe Place Pass success story, Ms. Tripp?

Caitlin Tripp: Oh, man, I have so many. This is actually a program that was started by Ms. Venisha Johnson, who was our 504 coordinator, is now our ninth grade-

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Now our assistant principal. Yay.

Caitlin Tripp: ... assistant principal, so very excited. She started implementing it years ago, and I started to get on a lot of Safe Place Passes for students. And just to preface this by saying... I think one of the big things I've done from the very beginning of my student teaching experience and then into teaching is I try to make my classroom one where students want to be in the room. And I don't just want them to want to be there. I want them to know that I want them to be there. It's a two-fold thing. So my classroom has couches. It has rugs and it's lamps. I don't use the overhead lighting. It's all lamps.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Her room is so cool.

Caitlin Tripp: And it's really cozy. There are even some blankets and stuffed animals and Squishmallows in the back and stress toys and fidget toys. I make it a space that I hope students want to be in. But then I also have a whole drawer, it's like this magic Mary Poppins drawer, and it's full of first aid things, hygiene things, feminine hygiene products. I have ice packs. I have heat packs. I have all the different things to make sure that a student is cared for. I have sewing kits. I have sewn up so many articles of clothing, teaching about the Declaration of Independence while sewing up someone's hoodie. I have a small thing to fix glasses, like those little screwdrivers to fix glasses. I've saved four pairs of glasses-

Ashley Mengwasser: You go, girl.

Caitlin Tripp: ... at this point in my career. Thank you. All those things are there. And I had a student who was consistently skipping last year, and she would say, "Oh, I went to the nurse to get pads. I went here. I went this," whatever. And then she would come back at the end of class, and I looked at her and I said, "I've got all these things here for you," and she went, "Really?" I said, "Yeah." I said, "I keep them all here for you," I said, "because I want you in my room, and anything that will make you more comfortable in my room I'm going to have here for you." And she looked at me and she went, "You want me here," and I went, "I want you here," and she went, "Oh." And it just dawned on her that someone would go to those lengths to say, "No, I want you here. I want you with me, and I'm willing to facilitate that in those big and small ways to make you want to be here, but to know that you are loved, and you are wanted in this space." And I think that's why I'm on so many Safe Place Passes. After students have me as a teacher, they still want to come back because they know that they are wanted in that space actively. And even if what you're going to do is sit in the back, hang out with the Squishmallows, listen to some music for 10 minutes, give me a high sign and leave, you were wanted in that space and you went back to a space where you knew that you were loved and wanted.

Ashley Mengwasser: And there is the crux of our premise, of how we encourage kids to come to school and stay at school. So what is our takeaway from both our school social worker and classroom teacher about getting kids to come to school and keeping them there? Dr. Thomas?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Okay. So I guess my takeaway is that there is no prototypical child. They all need something different. If I see my children as individuals and not see them as a collective, I do a better job at helping them. I have to know very specifically who you are and what your needs are and what's happening at home. What supports are you getting from home? What's missing from there? Whatever might be missing from home, is there a place in this building where we can find it and provide it to you? Is there a place in the community where we can find it and ensure that you have access to it? So my takeaway is just that learning and knowing that my role is to be where my child is at that time and not where I just want them to be.

Ashley Mengwasser: Beautifully said. Caitlin?

Caitlin Tripp: As a teacher, my takeaway is that in order to increase attendance to my class, and my attendance is pretty good, is to make sure that students know that they are loved and they are cared about in my space, and that I will go to any lengths to make them comfortable in that space. And by making sure that students know that they are wanted, that they're not at school because we're forcing them to be there or because we're trying to check a box, but because we truly want them there, we want them to be successful, and we know that because we want them to be successful for their own good, we want them in those seats, that it's not something that we're trying to just push through for some administrative reason. We want them there because we love them, and we want them there because we want their success for their sake. And if we show them that love, they respond in kind. They want to be in those places where they feel safe and they feel loved. Anything we can do to foster that and say, "We want you," that's what's going to be the ticket.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Yeah. We want them to know that we believe in them. We want them to have that same belief in themselves.

Ashley Mengwasser: There's no better ending than that. What happens if a school doesn't have a school social worker? Who can they turn to when they have a need?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Even if a school does not have a social worker who's housed at their building, they have a social worker who is assigned to that school. Now, that's not the case for APS because there's a social worker for every school, but for other school districts, there's a social worker who's assigned to every school. So that school's administrator, that school's counselor, those people will have access to reach out to that social worker by phone, by email, to say, "We need your services. Can you come over?" And so that's how they reach out to their social worker, so yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: There's still help.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: There's still help. There's still help.

Ashley Mengwasser: And there are other supports as well, like you mentioned the counselor. Are there any other additional resources?

Dr. Abifee Thomas: So, our counselors are our very first line of resource because we're probably more closely aligned in terms of what we do in our training. But other than that, there are school nurses, there are psychologists. They're lifesavers for us. We have our 504 coordinators, our special ed teachers. So there are lots of other resources in each building for students to access a service or to access just some good old-fashioned support.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you, Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: My absolute pleasure.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you, Ms. Tripp.

Caitlin Tripp: Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: You are true warriors for students. Isn't that your school mascot?

Caitlin Tripp: It is.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: It is.

Ashley Mengwasser: You are warriors. Thank you for getting students to school and supporting them while they're there. You're doing a great job.

Caitlin Tripp: Thanks.

Dr. Abifee Thomas: Thank you so much for having us.

Ashley Mengwasser: If you don't already, please get to know your school's social worker. She might pride herself on removing barriers for a student outside of the school so that they can come and excel within it. To my educators, maybe you've heard something refreshing and new today. Just carry it with you. You're a great teacher. Thank a great social worker. I'm Ashley. Grateful to be here with you always. Come back next week for another character-driven conversation on Classroom Conversations. Goodbye for now. Funding for Classroom Conversations is made possible through the School Climate Transformation Grant.