At-risk students get help

Laguna Beach High School is seeing success with a new program geared toward its most at-risk students.

Counselor Gretchen Ernsdorf presented a report on the program at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.

The pilot Positive Behavioral Support program began in the fall 2007 semester. The program offers academic and behavioral intervention for at-risk students with a drug or alcohol offense or with low attendance and grades.

Ernsdorf monitored attendance reports, grades and discipline issues, then began contacting students and parents.

Thirty drug and alcohol first-offenders were identified. They developed success goals and chose adult mentors who contact them weekly. There have been two mentor luncheons.

To date, 66% of the participants’ grades have improved. They participate more in school activities and report increased satisfaction. Only one student has committed a second offense.

Of the students with attendance issues, there has been more than a 50% decrease in related Saturday school and detention assignments, compared to the first semester of the 2006-07 school year.

Ernsdorf said several truancies were inaccurately recorded, as the students had been excused for sports or other activities but still marked absent.

There has been a 34% decrease in the number of students with one “F” grade in the first semester of the current school year, compared to the same time period the previous year, as well as a 25% decrease in students with two or more “F” grades.

Ernsdorf concluded that the biggest contributor to failing grades is truancy. Parental contact is key to reducing truancies, but accurate attendance reporting by teachers also improves so-called truancy rates, Ernsdorf said.

She recommended that the pilot program be extended into the current semester to continue to collect data and further develop programs and practices.