A safe and welcoming environment is fundamental to educational success, and we support LEAs and schools in implementing comprehensive programs designed to foster healthy, joyful learning spaces. This commitment is evident in our robust health and wellness initiatives, which include providing nutritious meals, promoting physical activity and ensuring access to mental health resources.
New Summer Nutrition Program - SUN Bucks
We know that healthy bodies are critical for academic success. We also know that learners cannot focus on academics when they are hungry and during summer break, one of their most vital needs, nutritious meals, can more easily go unmet. One solution, summer grocery benefits, reduces child hunger by 33 percent, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
DC was one of the first 10 states approved to operate SUN Bucks, also known as Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), a new program to help families with students buy food. Each eligible student received $120 pre-loaded on a card that could be used to buy food at grocery stores, farmers markets, online retailers, and other places that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) EBT benefits. OSSE partnered with the DC Department of Human Services to administer this program and more than 58,000 students received the SUN Bucks EBT cards. In addition to SUN Bucks, OSSE partnered with more than 100 sites from June through August to serve more than 384,000 free meals to youth ages 18 and younger through the Summer Food Service Program (known locally as the DC Youth Meals Program).
Supporting School Mental Health
Advancing the Recruitment and Retention of Our Workforce (ARROW), an initiative funded by the US Department of Education, is an opportunity for the District of Columbia to launch recruitment and retention activities that build knowledge, skills, professional opportunities and job satisfaction for school-based behavioral health professionals to enter and remain in the workforce through collaboration with LEAs, District colleges and universities and school behavioral health organizations and partners.
More than 600 eligible and credentialed school-based behavioral health providers received a $1,000 stipend for their continued service following the pandemic. The ARROW Learning Community trained 170 providers in evidence-based programs that support the mental and emotional wellbeing of students. The first-year cadre gave 25 school-based behavioral health providers, such as school social workers, school psychologists and counselors, in their first year working in a school-based setting, an opportunity to build foundational skills necessary to be successful in a school environment. Participants who successfully completed the cadre also received a $1,000 stipend.
Survey on School Climate
We partnered with 16 LEAs to run a successful pilot of the first citywide school climate survey. This advisory cohort surveyed students in grades 3-12, school-based staff and caregivers – gathering important feedback from schools. A statewide survey administration is scheduled for FY25.
