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The Livingston Union College District improved power absenteeism, suspensions and scholar well-being by investing in class counselors, in accordance with a brand new research by the UCLA Middle for the Transformation of Colleges.
The research examines how Livingston Union, a small, five-campus Ok-8 college district in Merced County, carried out complete college counseling — a system of built-in tutorial and psychological well being help for college students and households — to outpace California on key metrics of post-pandemic restoration.
Livingston Union lowered power absenteeism from a post-pandemic peak of 18.3% in 2023 to 14.2% in spring 2024, exceeding a objective of decreasing power absenteeism by 3% by the top of the college yr, in accordance with the research. In 2024, California reported a power absenteeism charge of about 20% statewide.
LUSD additionally lowered suspension charges from 3.4% to 2.8% between 2022 and 2023. In the identical timeframe, California’s suspension charges jumped from 3.1% to three.5% between 2022 and 2023. The district’s suspension charge for college students with disabilities additionally decreased by 5.5% between 2011-2012 and 2018-2019, whereas colleges throughout Merced County noticed a rise in suspensions.
Alma Lopez, lead college counselor at Livingston Union, mentioned that faculty counselors run common “scholar data studies” and meet with college students who’re incomes a number of Fs in sure topics, struggling to make it to high school, or have obtained a number of workplace referrals for detention or suspensions.
“We’re trying on the knowledge to determine the scholars initially, after which digging a bit of deeper to try to discover what’s the basis reason for the problem they’re having,” Lopez mentioned. “After which what might be an intervention for that scholar in a specific scenario.”
A scholar struggling to finish assignments, for instance, might 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 research abilities. A scholar battling power absences might obtain assist with transportation, whereas one other might 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 research additionally discovered that faculty counseling typically improved scholar 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 disappointment, which remained about the identical for the following two college years.
Elizabeth Alvarez, a mother or father of a seventh-grade scholar at Livingston Center College, reached out to a faculty counselor after her daughter began experiencing nervousness and abdomen aches throughout her transition from elementary college to center college. Alvarez mentioned her daughter already knew she might go to her counselor for assist as a result of she had interacted along with her counselor throughout campus actions at lunch and within the classroom.
“When my daughter met along with her, and he or she got here dwelling and confirmed us all this stuff that the counselor had given her — all these methods, video games and handouts about coping abilities — after which the counselor touching base with us, it was straightforward for us to realize that belief,” Alvarez mentioned. “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 accordance with EdResearch for Motion. For Bishop, the writer of the UCLA research, Livingston Union’s progress displays that very same precept on a bigger scale.
“What strikes me about Livingston is their management stability,” mentioned Bishop. “In different case research, there’s lots 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 colleges in California, Livingston Union counselors meet with each scholar and their household in fourth and seventh grades to debate any tutorial and private challenges. In addition they train classes in profession steerage or social-emotional studying, present one-on-one counseling for college students, and join mother and father to sources like meals banks, grief counselors and authorized help.
“The truth that we have now these long-lasting relationships permits us to work carefully with our households, as a result of they know us they usually belief us,” mentioned Lopez, who has been a counselor at Livingston Union for 20 years. “When a household leaves my room, they usually say, ‘When are we going to see you once more?’ they’re seeing worth in that intentional time devoted to every scholar and their household.”
Alvarez, who grew up on a farm in rural Merced County and attended Livingston Excessive College, mentioned she struggled to navigate her personal journey as a first-generation faculty scholar with none steerage at college. In an agricultural county the place many mother and father work 12- to 16-hour shifts a day, Alvarez mentioned Livingston Unified’s counselors fill a vital position in serving to information a scholar’s future.
Throughout the surge in psychological well being requests on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, LUSD additionally made a robust pivot to distant counseling, classroom classes and alternatives for social interplay by digital recess and sport nights, Lopez mentioned. In addition they offered help for youngsters who misplaced essential social-emotional growth abilities.
“We’re seeing new dynamics with behaviors and changes to studying,” mentioned LUSD Supt. Andrés Zamora within the research. “To today, we stay 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 school rooms.”
For a lot of college students, early and dependable intervention in the course of the pandemic made an enduring distinction. Lopez recalled when a mom reached out for assist after her son had misplaced his father and three different relations in the course of 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’d meet with him just about, I’d see a bit of bit extra of him in his house, sitting up, holding his child sister, beginning to open up,” Lopez mentioned.
After colleges reopened, Lopez mentioned that the scholar walked into her counseling workplace and requested to proceed speaking about his grief.
“The impression in his attendance, grades and studying easy methods to advocate for what he felt he wanted was fairly outstanding to see,” Lopez mentioned.
Vani Sanganeria is a reporter for EdSource, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism group masking training in California.
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