The mission of the Student Support Services Department is to increase the child’s capacity to benefit from education by providing high quality health, counseling, psychological, social work, and prevention services that support student achievement, improve the relationship between teacher and child, promote parent involvement and engage the community with the schools. 

Student Support Services are available to all district students including regular and special education students, LEP and early childhood students from the departments as outlined below:

COUNSELING AND GUIDANCE

• Elementary and Secondary Counseling
  • Plan, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive counseling and guidance program based on defined needs, priorities and objectives.
• • Apply appropriate theories and techniques to develop and maintain effective individual and group relationships.
  • Counsels individual students with presenting needs or concerns
  • Counsels small groups of students with presenting needs or concerns
  • Provide a proactive, developmental guidance program for all students, from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
  • Provide professional expertise to assist faculty, staff, administrators, parents, and other community members to understand individual behavior and human relationships.
  • Bring together people and resources in the school, community, and district for the optimum academic, career, personal, and social development of students.
  • Collaborate with other school and district staff to interpret test results and evaluation programs that help students identify their abilities, aptitudes, achievements, and interests.
    
    
• Social Work Services
  • Maintains case load of families, and coordinate community social services and educational services.
  • Identifies and assesses needs of students for placement in appropriate educational settings.
  • Assists families with identification, referral and follow-up, and acquisition of needed resources to support the educational program.
  • Makes regular home visits to homes as applicable.
  • Develops and coordinates mental health support services, such as individual and group counseling for students.
  • Provides training to school staff, parents, and appropriate community groups.
  • Provides case management for students and families requiring multiple services and/or resources such as referral for mental health, health services, and basic needs with private and governmental agencies.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES: Psychological Services Staff work to remove emotional/behavioral barriers that impede learning and student engagement by providing:

• Crisis intervention, including threat assessment and crisis prevention
• Consultation to school staff, administrators, and parents regarding emotional or behavioral difficulties that interfere with learning and school success
• Short-term counseling and interventions
• Coordination and training of HISD’s All-District Crisis Team for school-wide crisis intervention support
• Training and supervision for effective psychological service delivery in schools

HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES: Nurse Consultants serve as medical liaison between the school, family, primary health care provider and agencies to:

• Obtain and exchange health information
• Coordinate and obtain the required medical evaluation services that determine appropriate educational programming
• Provide transportation of children for necessary medical evaluations when parents are unable
• Interpret health information for the educational planning of students with disabilities; participate in and interpret medical data for the Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) Committee meetings for the medically involved students

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

• Dropout Prevention Specialists
  • Assist schools with prevention and intervention services for potential dropouts, and recovery services for students that have already dropped out of school
  • Conduct home visits to persuade students to return to school, and monitor students that return for 60 days
  • Assist students with obtaining social services such as daycare, jobs, and family counseling
• Attendance Specialists
  • Assist schools with truant students by responding to referrals
  • Conduct home visits to inform parents and students of the compulsory attendance law and enforcement of that law
  • File court cases and represent schools in court hearings