Effective counseling strategies for supporting long-term suspended students

Professional School Counseling, Feb, 2006 by Janet L. Johnson, Eric Sparks, Rita G. Lewis, Kris Niedrich, Mary Hall, Julie Johnson

Long-term suspended (LTS) students are barred from the school system for lengthy periods, leaving them at risk of academic failure and vulnerable from lack of services. A program in a North Carolina public school system provided counselors to work with each LTS student. Outcome data were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of counseling services offered during student suspensions and after students reentered school. Strategies facilitating student reenrollment in school are identified.

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Long-term suspended (LTS) students are barred from the school system for lengthy periods--up to 1 year--leaving them at risk of lagging academically, as well as vulnerable from lack of services (Civil Rights Project at Harvard University & the Advancement Project, 2000). Researchers have found that long-term suspensions often precede downward spirals that lead students to drop out of school (Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, & Rock, 1986; Jordan, Lara, & McPartland, 1994; Skiba & Peterson, 1999; Wheelock & Dorman, 1998). Additional research has suggested that assigning counselors to assist LTS students during their suspensions might increase reenrollment and reduce recidivism (Smith, 1995). Based on this research, Effective Alternative Strategies (EAS), a pilot program of a large school district in North Carolina, was funded with a 3-year federal grant to attempt to reduce recidivism and dropout rates of LTS students by providing additional counseling services specifically for this population.

In 2000, school system administrators developed and implemented the EAS program to support LTS students during their suspensions, help them understand their rights and alternatives, and facilitate their return to school. Although the program also supported alternative schools and programs for at-risk students, its main thrust was case-managing LTS students.

Six counselors, funded by the grant, acted as case managers for LTS students while they were suspended. The program took place in school years 2000-01 (Year 1), 2001-02 (Year 2), and 2002-03 (Year 3). Data from the program's evaluation provided valuable insight on what these counselors learned while providing services to students, namely, what strategies led to the best outcomes. Evaluators and counselors also discovered what did not work, which helped counselors adjust strategies to improve outcomes during the 3 years of the program. Evaluators used quantitative and qualitative data to identify best practices as well as obstacles that deterred students from receiving counseling services.

Next, we examine the case managers' counseling methods and lessons learned in their attempts to help LTS students return to school and succeed academically. The data used in this evaluation were drawn from public school records and information gathered on four cohorts of LTS students in a large school district in North Carolina. The four cohorts were students long-term suspended and case-managed during the 3 years of the grant and those long-term suspended in school year 1999-2000 (baseline cohort from the year before the EAS program began).

PARTICIPANTS

There were 502 students in the Year 1 cohort. Of these students, approximately one third were ninth graders and about three fourths were male. About half (295) were African American, a third (172) were Caucasian, and about 5% (23) were Hispanic. About a fourth were in special education programs (including 4% who were gifted), and about half lived with single parents. The greatest percentages of primary violations that led to LTS were for fighting (26%) and for using drugs and alcohol (25%).

Of the 502 students who were case-managed in Year 1, data for the 415 students who had either reenrolled or dropped out of school on September 20, 2001 (the beginning of Year 2), were analyzed to determine whether certain counseling services were more likely to result in students reenrolling, and whether any group benefited more from the services. (The remaining 87 students from the Year 1 cohort were not included in these analyses because they had either transferred to another school system or educational program, earned a GED, completed the grade in which they were enrolled, or planned to return but had not yet done so, for such reasons as receiving a 365-day suspension that had not ended or being incarcerated or hospitalized.)

INTERVENTION

The six counselors performed a myriad of tasks, including escorting students to court hearings, working with probation officers, helping with paperwork required for enrolling in alternative educational programs, providing information about services for siblings (via United Way literature), holding training seminars for parents and families, and putting families in touch with community resources. When students were able to reenroll in the school system, the counselors informed families about the reenrollment process, helped students obtain grade transcripts and other documentation, supported families as they reenrolled their children in school, and worked with appropriate school counselors to ensure the students received continued support after they returned to school. The counselors also provided individual counseling to nearly half the students.