Program Overview Schools & Centers Publications Staff Profiles Keyword Search:   Comer Site Med center Site Yale Site     Comer School Development Program 55 College Street New Haven CT, 06510 (203) 737-1020 Tel. (203) 737-1023 Fax			About Comer SDP Program Overview     • Strategic Alliances • Schools & Centers Student and Staff Support Team (SSST) The Student and Staff Support Team: A Historical Perspective Dr. Comer and his colleagues -- a group of mental health professionals and a special education teacher -- believed that even in very chaotic communities, most students are not psychologically ill. They maintained that, given a positive school environment, virtually all of these children could function at an acceptable level. They established a goal of improving school climate and set about doing this in two principal ways. The first involved the establishment of social programs supported by both parents and staff and implemented through the school calendar. The second way was to change the manner in which child development information and student support services were delivered. The mechanism created to address the latter issue is the Student and Staff Support Team. Operational Expectations of the Student and Staff Support Team There is a Student and Staff Support Team within the school that meets weekly. The Student and Staff Support Team is composed of an administrator, the school psychologist, school social worker, school counselor, special education teachers, the school nurse, and any other professional support staff. The Student and Staff Support Team uses a diagnostic/prescriptive model that is designed to provide interventions for individual students. The SSST creates preventive strategies that modify the school setting in a way that creates optimal conditions for development, teaching and learning. It develops in-class support activities wherever possible, rather than "pull outs." The SSST involves parents in the development of programs for their children. By furnishing parents with the opportunity to offer input from the earliest stages of an initiative, the team is less likely to violate cultural norms, and more able to build on strengths. This encourages a climate of parental support for overall strategies and interventions designed to aid the development of children. The SSST works through the SPMT to create programs which are child development sensitive and valuable to the entire student population. In its ongoing, informal discussions with the principal and the School Planning and Management Team, the SSST provides information on child development theory and mental health principles. In order to provide programs which help students to function and develop, the SSST establishes a formal and informal network of contact people at the central office level and with child service providers within the greater community. The SSST monitors and/or revises program interventions on a meeting-by-meeting basis. The SSST maintains a log of the individual students served. This log includes a status assessment which is kept current by the appropriate team member and maintained in compliance with local board policies, as well as with state and federal regulations. The SSST develops procedures for monitoring school climate and solicits schoolwide input so that climate-related issues are continually being addressed. If the SSST functions as a planning and placement team for students in special education, all meetings adhere to federal, state, and local guidelines for special education.
			Copyright © 2001 School Development Program, Yale Child Study Center. All rights reserved. Comments or suggestions to the site editor. Photos from the book "Child by Child: The Comer Process for Change in Education," are by Michael Jacobson-Hardy and Laura Brooks. Used by permission of Teachers College Press. Home URL: http://www.schooldevelopmentprogram.org/ Last modified: July 2004 (GM)