Borsuk: How one school district is working to meet the emotional needs of its students

Tosha Womack was walking down a hall in Brown Deer Middle/High School when she spotted a student sitting at a desk, away from anyone else. You could see only the top of the student’s head as she hunched over a notebook, writing intensely.

Womack, principal of the school, knew the girl and her complex life outside of school. Womack stopped and asked how the student was doing. You want to talk? You want to come with me?

The girl didn’t look up or speak. She shook her head.

The best part of this anecdote: Womack used her walkie-talkie to alert an assistant principal to the situation. But both the assistant and a social worker already knew what was going on and were, in fact, only a few feet away. They had spoken to the girl, telling her they’d give her some space for a few minutes. Then they would try to get her to join one of them to talk. They had worked with the student steadily through the school year.  

The school team, in other words, was on top of what was going on in a situation that is, with many variations, so common now in just about every school. Why is it that so many kids of all ages have so many problems, more so than was the case a generation ago? That’s hard to answer, but educators are seemingly unanimous in saying it is the case.

RELATED:Kids in Crisis: Putting therapists in schools helps children with mental health needs

RELATED:Kids in Crisis | For young people of color, racism's toll on mental health

SPECIAL REPORT:  Kids in Crisis

The worst part of anecdotes such as this: That compassionate and well-planned response to the girl isn’t common enough across the spectrum of schools. Teachers, principals, social workers, guidance counselors and other staff members are finding it hard, if not impossible, to provide anywhere close to the amount of help that kids need. Yet schools are the places where so many of the problems show up.

More attention is being given to the social and emotional needs of children, ranging from the smaller number who have really serious issues to the large number who need boosts of various kinds to help them do better in school in both academics and general engagement.

The Brown Deer district deserves praise for its commitment, going back years, on these fronts. The two schools in the district, the middle/high and the elementary, each with about 800 students, have long been involved in character education programs, which led to making a campaign around “The Brown Deer Way” of treating others and conducting yourself in school a core part of the schools’ identities.

And the schools have gone to lengths to train staff, to allow staff to focus on these concerns and to bring in partners from nonprofit organizations, including mental health providers. Yet school leaders will be the first to say they don’t have enough of the tools they really should have.

Brown Deer itself has changed a lot in recent decades. It is a highly diverse community. Just over a quarter of the students in the two schools are white and more than 40% are considered “economically disadvantaged.”  

The schools have responded to the community’s realities by making equity, acceptance of diversity and closing achievement gaps key parts of defining success. The schools also have increased work with families, both on an individual basis and in program initiatives.

Brown Deer has made progress, although everyone agrees there is a lot more needed. In the most recent state “report cards,” the district was rated as “meeting expectations” and it did better than the state average in the category of “closing gaps,” especially in graduation rates.     

Deb Kerr, in her 11th year as superintendent, said, “The schools have become the centerpiece of the community to serve kids and families in any way now. . . . We are called on to be like a therapeutic hospital in some ways.”

Kerr has been an advocate among school leaders in the Milwaukee area on the need to focus on gaps in achievement and on students’ non-academic needs. And her influence has gone national: In March, she was elected president-elect of the American Association of School Administrators for the coming year, which means she will be president the following year.

I spent an hour recently talking with seven high school staff members who work on the needs of students. There were clear themes in what they said:  

The importance of relationships between students and adults. The increasing impact of mental health needs. The need to offer students support and help in dealing with problems and not punishment. The need to give students voices in what goes on in school.  

At the nearby Brown Deer Elementary, Principal Kortney Smith and members of the staff said they are seeing more mental and emotional needs in students and they are doing what they can to respond constructively. Smith said the school has a lot of tools for dealing with students’ academic needs; she would like more tools for dealing with mental needs.

Smith said, “Our role has transformed from educator of academics to educator of the whole child. ... We are changing what we do by the needs of our students.”

Perfect places? The Brown Deer schools are not. There are still serious distances to go on all fronts. But when meeting the needs of kids is being given so much importance as a way to improve academic outcomes, Brown Deer offers demonstrable examples of what well-shaped teamwork looks like and what an emphasis on healthy relationships can accomplish.

“The sky’s the limit on achievement” if we can overcome some of the barriers in kids’ lives, Kerr said.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.