The Three Pillars of Safe and Supportive Schools: An Integrative Model for Fostering Student's Well-Being

Lazarus, P. J. (Philip)
Florida International University, 10700 SW 8th Street, 33199

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Hallway, 10-07-2019, 15:30 - 17:00

Keywords

safe and supportive schools, students mental health, emotional well-being

Summary

This presentation will focus on a model that has been recently developed to create safe and supportive schools and foster students’ mental health. This is termed the three pillars approach. It is also consistent with the multi-tiered systems of support and the dual-factor model of mental health.  Pillar One includes creating a positive and supportive school culture (e.g., improving the climate of the school, establishing school-wide positive behavior supports, establishing school-family and community partnerships). Pillar Two includes fostering students’ emotional well-being and mental health (e.g., delivering social-emotional learning to all students, identifying students who need more intensive Tier 2 and 3 interventions) and Pillar Three includes preventing and responding to school violence (e.g., establishing a school safety team, training school threat assessment teams).  Each pillar contains at least 10 specific practices that schools can include as well as a method to measure their level of implementation. Schools can use this model to prioritize their needs, ensure that there is balance of supportive practices within each pillar, and over the course of years develop strategies and programs that can be effectively implemented, measured and enhanced. 

Auteurs