South Orangetown Central School District

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

South Orangetown CSD is committed to placing student and staff wellness first to establish a positive, safe, and supportive learning environment. Leading with trauma-informed practices and increasing the use of Social-emotional learning is essential because children need social and emotional support as they navigate the unprecedented challenges of alternative learning contexts, and because social-emotional learning helps students access academic content through building essential self-management skills, resilience, and connections. The following were considerations for reopening:

• South Orangetown CSD will engage with families and provide activities to help them feel comfortable coming back to the school campus through our communication plans. This also needs to be considered for staff.
• We have developed plans to perform nonacademic check-ins related to social-emotional well-being for all students.
• Further implemented tools for identifying feelings as we anticipate wearing masks may alter our understandings of how individuals are feeling. Also developed lessons on alternative ways to communicate feelings.
• Developed student-created videos that teach and have a positive message on the importance of physical distancing in the classroom
• Developed individual plans for students who need additional support to physically distance or who may not be able to wear a mask due to a manifestation of their disability.
• Developed a “Trauma-Informed Reentry Plan” to address the specific needs of our community related to the COVID-19 closure and to support students dealing with the issues of racism and equality.
• South Orangetown CSD has and remains mindful and sensitive to the needs of those who are grieving the loss of a family member or coworker.
• South Orangetown CSD will consider developing protocol on handling crises from virtual platforms.

The South Orangetown School District has developed two key documents which outline our plans for re-entry:

1. K-12 Comprehensive School Counseling Plan – This is a plan that has been designed to meet the educational demands of the 21st century in order to better serve the South Orangetown school community. A 21st century counseling program is one that is results-based, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, proactive in nature, and designed to reach every student
2. SOCSD Trauma Informed Re-entry Plan – This is an addendum to our Comprehensive Plan the focuses on meeting the needs of our students and staff as they return to school as:
   1. We recognize that all students and staff have been impacted by stress and trauma caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and
   2. We recognize the stress and trauma caused by implicit and explicit social values and mores related to aspects of our social identities that are either privileged or marginalized.
   3. The South Orangetown School District develops this plan to support our students, staff and community in moving forward. It enhances our current multi-tiered system of support for students by identifying key data and timelines for data review to support all students in meeting their fullest potential.

Additional Resources
Social Emotional Learning: A Guide to Systemic Whole School Implementation
Equity Framework
Girls Leadership
National Equity Project
Harvard Resource Mapping Strategy
Resources for Addressing Crisis
Discussing Race in the Classroom
SEL Roadmap
Guide to Systemic Whole School Implementation
NYSED SEL
NYSED SEW Resources
Compassion Resilience Toolkit
SEL Online Learning
Mental Health Education