Under category 2, lake county office of education (lcoe) proposes to provide a system of individualized community supports to school students and families across lake county

The Lake County Regional Office of Education #34 (LCOE) will use a $1 million Project Grant award from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance to deliver services under the STOP School Violence Program. LCOE oversees 214 schools and 110,000 students across Illinois and will provide statewide web-based school safety training hosted on its website. Training will focus on preventing school violence, including strategies to improve school climate. LCOE will also hire school support personnel such as psychologists, social workers, and violence interrupters to provide intensive supports for marginalized youth in online learning settings and those at risk of harm. Re-entry supports are planned for students returning from alternative settings. The three-year award beginning October 1, 2022 will support county-wide technology-enabled student access to mental health, wellness and community resources.

Lake county office of education (lcoe) directly oversees 214 schools and 110,000 students across the state of illinois, while also administering the state-wide online learning program (illinois virtual school and academy - ivsa) which provides professional development and training to school personnel, and online and virtual learning options to students throughout illinois. Lcoe seeks to provide a mtss model of supports both county and state-wide under program areas 3) training school personnel and educate students on preventing school violence, including strategies to improve a school climate, and 5) hiring of school support personnel such as climate specialists, school psychologists, school social workers, school-based violence interrupters, and others directly supporting the prevention of school violence. By linking lcoe staff, students, and families to school, community, state and national supports, lcoe will increase student and parent engagement with their schools and help to ensure that, despite the collective trauma of the past two years, teachers and students are physically, mentally, and physiologically prepared to teach and learn in whichever setting works best for them. The purpose of our proposed project is to provide: • statewide, web-based school safety training hosted on preventing school violence, including strategies to improve a school climate. • intensive supports for marginalized youth who have been referred to online learning/virtual school settings who may be at a higher risk of harm to self or others are in need of trauma informed supports. • intensive supports for students attending safe schools and/or students who have been part of the juvenile justice system. • RE-entry supports for students who are returning from online alternative learning to traditional brick-and-mortar school after exclusionary discipline, school refusal, mental health issues and other students in need of higher levels of supprot through school support personnel including: school psychologists social workers school-based violence interrupters, and others directly supporting the prevention of school violence. • county-wide supports to all students in lake county to provide a technology-enabled means by which students can ask for and receive mental health, wellness, community and other supports.