Washington schools adding mental health resources

The Washington school board announced plans to use a $542,000 grant for mental health resources during its regular meeting last week.

Curriculum Director Veta Thode said most of that money would go to the school’s Navigating Emotions and Stress Through Teaching (NESTT) program. The program is the district’s latest effort to meet social emotional learning (SEL) guidelines recently set by the state.

“The NESTT Center will serve as a social emotional support for identified students,” Thode said at the meeting. “The NESTT Center will implement intensive interventions by building skills that follow the Iowa SEL standards.”

NESTT is designated as a Tier 3 mental health support by state education guidelines. Unlike Tier 1 and 2 supports, which are group-based, supplemental activities for students with little to moderate risk factors, Tier 3 support entails “intensive, individual support for a few students,” tailored to those at the highest risk.

Thode said that while NESTT is a Tier 3 support targeted at individually referred students, it would not be limited to students with special needs.

“This is considered general education support, it’s not just for special ed students,” she said at the board meeting. “This is for any student who we see has a need. That’s really important because most people see the tiers as moving toward special ed, but this is available for anyone.”

NESTT Director Nicole Gish said the program will place a full-time staff member at each of the district’s four schools. These teachers will have special education certifications and handle up to 20 students per school at a time.

“We have found that there is such a high need in the district and not enough time and resources from the counseling staff,” Gish said. “If there are students who are needing additional support more than once a week, daily instruction, that’s where we would fall.”

While NESTT has a curriculum and lesson plans, Gish said the teachers would have extensive training in the psychology of trauma and its effects on learning to supplement

The program was announced alongside the new district position of a school family liaison (SFL,) also instituted to help address students’ mental health needs outside of the school environment. Thode said the up mental health services were part of a statewide push for such programs. Both programs will be partially funded by a $542,025 state grant for educational mental health.

"Social emotional need has been on the rise,“ Thode said. “We have seen that number increasing significantly in the last five years … this is not going to be in place of mental health therapy, but it is going to assist in the SEL pieces that we can at school that might help students figure out things on their own and with supportive staff.”