The Livingston Union College District improved persistent absenteeism, suspensions and pupil well-being by investing at school counselors, in keeping with a brand new examine by the UCLA Heart for the Transformation of Colleges.
The examine examines how Livingston Union, a small, five-campus Ok-8 college district in Merced County, applied complete college counseling — a system of built-in tutorial and psychological well being help for college kids and households — to outpace California on key metrics of post-pandemic restoration.
Livingston Union lowered persistent absenteeism from a post-pandemic peak of 18.3% in 2023 to 14.2% in spring 2024, exceeding a purpose of lowering persistent absenteeism by 3% by the tip of the college yr, in keeping with the examine. In 2024, California reported a persistent absenteeism fee of about 20% statewide.
LUSD additionally lowered suspension charges from 3.4% to 2.8% between 2022 and 2023. In the identical time-frame, California’s suspension charges jumped from 3.1% to three.5% between 2022 and 2023. The district’s suspension fee for college kids with disabilities additionally decreased by 5.5% between 2011-2012 and 2018-2019, whereas faculties throughout Merced County noticed a rise in suspensions.
Alma Lopez, lead college counselor at Livingston Union, stated that college counselors run common “pupil info experiences” and meet with college students who’re incomes a number of Fs in sure topics, struggling to make it to highschool, or have acquired a number of workplace referrals for detention or suspensions.
“We’re wanting on the information to determine the scholars initially, after which digging a bit deeper to attempt to discover what’s the foundation reason behind the problem they’re having,” Lopez stated. “After which what may very well be an intervention for that pupil in a selected scenario.”
A pupil struggling to finish assignments, for instance, may very well be inspired to affix a six- to eight-week group intervention on motivation and progress, whereas one other may be part of a tutoring group centered on examine expertise. A pupil scuffling with persistent absences may obtain assist with transportation, whereas one other may join classes with a medical or psychological well being supplier to handle well being points.
Alma Lopez, lead college counselor, helps show faculty banners at Livingston Center College.
(Geneva Sum / EdSource)
The examine additionally discovered that college counseling typically improved pupil belonging, security and well-being at Livingston Union. Within the 2019–2020 college yr, about 8 in 10 college students demonstrated excessive tutorial motivation and felt well-supported in social-emotional studying, whereas 2 in 10 reported frequent unhappiness, which remained about the identical for the following two college years.
Elizabeth Alvarez, a dad or mum of a seventh-grade pupil at Livingston Center College, reached out to a college counselor after her daughter began experiencing anxiousness and abdomen aches throughout her transition from elementary college to center college. Alvarez stated her daughter already knew she may go to her counselor for assist as a result of she had interacted together with her counselor throughout campus actions at lunch and within the classroom.
“When my daughter met together with her, and she or he got here house and confirmed us all these items that the counselor had given her — all these methods, video games and handouts about coping expertise — after which the counselor touching base with us, it was simple for us to achieve that belief,” Alvarez stated. “It’s been three years, and my daughter nonetheless has all of these handouts, some on the fridge, some in her bed room.”
College students who’ve steady help from a trusted counselor report higher tutorial and psychological well being outcomes, in keeping with EdResearch for Motion. For Bishop, the creator of the UCLA examine, Livingston Union’s progress displays that very same precept on a bigger scale.
“What strikes me about Livingston is their management stability,” stated Bishop. “In different case research, there’s a variety of turnover. The work [Livingston Union] is doing speaks to the concept you want leaders to stay round for good issues to occur.”
Not like most faculties in California, Livingston Union counselors meet with each pupil and their household in fourth and seventh grades to debate any tutorial and private challenges. In addition they educate classes in profession steerage or social-emotional studying, present one-on-one counseling for college kids, and join mother and father to sources like meals banks, grief counselors and authorized help.
“The truth that we now have these long-lasting relationships permits us to work carefully with our households, as a result of they know us and so they belief us,” stated Lopez, who has been a counselor at Livingston Union for 20 years. “When a household leaves my room, and so they say, ‘When are we going to see you once more?’ they’re seeing worth in that intentional time devoted to every pupil and their household.”
Alvarez, who grew up on a farm in rural Merced County and attended Livingston Excessive College, stated she struggled to navigate her personal journey as a first-generation faculty pupil with none steerage in school. In an agricultural county the place many mother and father work 12- to 16-hour shifts a day, Alvarez stated Livingston Unified’s counselors fill a crucial position in serving to information a pupil’s future.
Through the surge in psychological well being requests on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, LUSD additionally made a powerful pivot to distant counseling, classroom classes and alternatives for social interplay by digital recess and sport nights, Lopez stated. In addition they supplied help for youngsters who misplaced essential social-emotional improvement expertise.
“We’re seeing new dynamics with behaviors and changes to studying,” stated LUSD Supt. Andrés Zamora within the examine. “To at the present time, we reside a few of that, and our counselors are taking the lead on how we help studying and are being very influential in how that impacts lecture rooms.”
For a lot of college students, early and dependable intervention throughout the pandemic made a long-lasting distinction. Lopez recalled when a mom reached out for assist after her son had misplaced his father and three different members of the family throughout the pandemic.
“The primary time I met him, he was in a fetal place with a blanket wrapped round him, simply actually hurting. And every time that I might meet with him nearly, I might see a bit bit extra of him in his house, sitting up, holding his child sister, beginning to open up,” Lopez stated.
After faculties reopened, Lopez stated that the coed walked into her counseling workplace and requested to proceed speaking about his grief.
“The impression in his attendance, grades and studying learn how to advocate for what he felt he wanted was fairly exceptional to see,” Lopez stated.
Vani Sanganeria is a reporter for EdSource, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism group protecting schooling in California.
