SOUTH DEERFIELD — As schools continue to help students work through emotional and behavioral challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, a new grant is set to bolster the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts’ efforts.

The schools received $132,000 — $32,000 to be used this year and the rest to be used next year — from the state Department of Public Health to further expand the districts’ capacity to respond to students’ mental health needs, which will add onto the work funded by a Comprehensive School Health Services grant the districts received last year.

“We’re still feeling the effects of the pandemic,” said District Nurse Cara Chandler. “This funding is going to help us close the gap.”

The grant is expected to fund additional trainings for staff members that address student health, focus on restorative practices in classrooms at the high school and promote different mental health initiatives at each of the four elementary schools to address their unique needs in what Elementary Curriculum Director Lara Ramsey called a “full-court press.”

Superintendent Darius Modestow said the district is seeing some lingering issues from the pandemic that manifest in different forms and the schools can help address those by reestablishing “community” in the classroom.

“When you recognize you’re part of the community, you have greater success,” Modestow said. He added schools have the flexibility to “reestablish the baseline of what we want students to see and do in our school,” which can help kids manage these feelings or behaviors.

Part of that involves educating teachers about trauma-informed practices through additional training, which will help teachers identify the struggles kids are going through and the proper routes to address those challenges.

“It’s how to recognize trauma and what we’re seeing that we might not understand,” Ramsey said, noting that something like a “disregulated family” can put a strain on a student’s education. “It helps us figure out how to recognize and respond in a therapeutic way to students that are not available for learning.”

Director of Secondary Education Sarah Mitchell said this $132,000 grant is one part of a multi-pronged approach to addressing needs and “taking a little more time to reset and get students grounded” after several years of having their lives disrupted.

Other prongs include working with the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health’s Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT) program, which provides support for students reentering school after a mental health or medical absence; and bringing on more counselors and expanding the health curriculum, which will be reinforced by this new grant.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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