More than 13 percent of students enrolled in Santa Barbara County K-12 schools are considered homeless, and more than 260 students were in foster care during the 2022-23 school year.
“In our county, the biggest issue that we face with our foster and homeless youth is that they are changing schools a lot, and so there’s not school stability,” said Amy Willis, Santa Barbara County Education Office director of Transitional Youth Services. “They’re trying to deal with trauma on top of instability in school, and it often affects their ability to learn.”
Each county school district has a liaison that works with foster and homeless youth to create a support system for those students on campus.
“Our goal is to really collaborate with the liaisons to address the data related to chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, and graduation rates,” Willis said. “There’s a discrepancy between those students. That’s our broad-stroke goal to improve those statistics for those foster and homeless youth.”
According to Santa Barbara County data from the 2022-23 school year, the general suspension rate for students is 3.8 percent, while those experiencing homelessness are at 4.7 percent, and students in foster care are 15.4 percent.
The county saw a 21.7 percent chronic absenteeism rate in its general population, a 21.8 percent rate for students experiencing homelessness, and 41 percent rate for students in foster care.
For graduation, the general student rate is nearly 92 percent, but students experiencing homelessness have an 85 percent graduation rate, and students in foster care have 73.6 percent.
To address the needs of these student groups, Transitional Youth Services recently partnered with YouthWell, a Santa Barbara County nonprofit dedicated to improving youth mental health, to provide liaisons with mental health first aid training where they learn more about trauma-informed care and how to help those battling issues related to mental health.
First aid helps identify when someone might be struggling—intervening before a crisis can occur, said Rachael Steidl, the YouthWell executive director.
“The early signs of someone starting to struggle, we have kids isolated and stressed out [who] need tools to manage basic mental health every day, and we want to recognize these symptoms to provide tools,” Steidl said.
“Oftentimes, these are students who are having significant mental health challenges,” Willis said, “and so, because this training covers anxiety, depression, substance use, other disruptive behaviors, it is relative to the students that we work with.”
Nearly 36 liaisons and faculty participated in the mental health first aid training in October, which certifies these staff members for three years based on national mental health standards. The idea of the training was to certify every liaison, but not everyone could attend. However, every district had a faculty member representing their schools.
Willis added that she’d like to see recertification opportunities open up in the future to give those who couldn’t attend this first class a chance to receive mental health training.
“I think the more equipped our school staff are in working with students who have mental health challenges, the more likelihood there is that the student will feel safe at school and possibly for our foster and homeless youth attend school more—which will lead to improvements in chronic absenteeism rates and graduation rates,” Willis said. “We also talk about [how] being more engaged in a school will lead to an improvement in suspension rates as well.”
Alongside the youth mental health first aid training, YouthWell offers a two-hour Question, Persuade, and Refer program that trains people on how to respond in crisis.
“The key difference between the two is mental health first aid is an all-day curriculum so it can be challenging for teachers and such to have that time, but it’s a much more well-rounded program,” Executive Director Steidl said. “There’s also a teen version that we’ve been teaching at the high schools to both understand signs and symptoms and support their friends by connecting them to adults.”
While the October training left room to address specific pockets of students in the county, the programs can be tailored to meet the needs of other marginalized communities, and YouthWell’s services are available year-round.
“Going into the holidays—it’s also coming up on finals for high school and college students—stress levels are higher, applications are due, we see an increase in student stress and families in general,” Steidl said. “It can be a wonderful yet overwhelming time for many.”
Highlights
• For the 16th year in a row, Allan Hancock College provided students who are single parents with a turkey and other Thanksgiving meal staples for free. Sixty individuals and families stopped by the Hancock EOPS-plus program’s Turkey Fest booth outside the college’s Santa Maria campus on Nov. 26, where Hancock staff provided them with everything needed to prepare a delicious Thanksgiving meal. The packages included a turkey, potatoes, beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, stuffing, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and butter. Also included were turkey preparation and cooking instructions.
• NatureTrack, a Santa Barbara County nonprofit dedicated to helping children experience the outdoors, opened its fifth annual $5,000 Nancy Stearns Scholarship for North Santa Barbara County High School students. Applicants must have a 3.0 GPA or higher and be enrolling in a four-year accredited college to study natural science. Students need to submit their full high school transcript and a 500-word essay explaining their educational and career goals as they relate to nature. NatureTrack will prioritize students who need financial assistance to attend school and will award students up to four years based on performance and their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences field. Visit naturetrack.org/scholarships for more information.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 5-15, 2024.
