What you need to know about Valley Stream District 30’s $1.4M push to overhaul family support services

Armed with $1.4 million in federal cash earlier this year, Valley Stream District 30 is turning that hefty sum into new programs to level up its social support services. The funding comes from the “Stronger Connection Grant,” a nationwide program awarding millions to low-income schools to bolster student safety and mental health resources.

District 30 Superintendent, Roxanne Garcia-France, says the funding will do more than close existing social service gaps, it will introduce a comprehensive range of new family support programs tailored to the needs of the district’s predominantly “working-class” community.

“We already had school psychologists and our school nurses, but what we did not have were social workers and a district-wide school counselor,” said Garcia-France.

The funding is meant to increase the number of social service experts in the room, but the superintendent’s “integrated support care model” aims to enhance the frequency and quality of their interactions with one another. 

The reality, Garcia-France pointed out, is that these social service members — counselors, social workers, psychologists — often operate in silos, each focused on their area of expertise. Though they may be sitting with the same child, they are often dealing with issues specific to their field, argued Garcia-France.

Without regular cross-communication between these professionals, each one is working with a fragmented understanding of the child’s situation. This may lead to recommendations and interventions that albeit useful, often don’t completely hit the mark.

“The school psychologist may be focusing her full attention on intervention services for a student, but their family is kept out of the process,” said Garcia-France. “That’s where the social worker steps in, learning about the skills the student is learning from the psychologist and working with families to implement those same skills at home.”

A dedicated family support facility, known as the Family Connection Center, is expected to open up at the former site of the district’s Washington Avenue Kindergarten Center on Washington Avenue in January. It will serve as the district’s resource nerve center to connect families with workshops and services purveyed by six federally approved organizations.

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“I’m excited to see how the new resources will help improve our school metrics in areas like absenteeism rates, school performance, testing, and social and emotional well-being,” said Garcia-France.

“Although we know mental health is a national crisis, you still have a lot of families not open to receiving support,” said Garcia-France, pointing to the fact that terms we use around seeking help reek of alienation and fail to normalize the experiences that many children with distinct challenges face.

“They still look at mental health as a stigma, so we need to flip (the language) on its head,” she said.

Part of that rebranding entails making sure families see enlisting in these resources not “as a form of weakness” but as a form of family empowerment.