Society for Social Work and Research

Military students face challenges due to transitions and deployments. Recent studies have shown that supportive schools shield students from the many effects of depression, despair, alienation, and school failure. Civilian school personnel need training to address school climate issues that would ease these challenges. Building Capacity to Create Highly Supportive Military-Connected School Districts: The Integration of Local School Data, Community Supports, Evidence-based Programs, and Empowerment Strategies to Promote Positive Social and Academic Climates is based on a model implemented successfully throughout Israel. The initiative is a partnership between eight military-connected districts (approximately 117,000 students, 10.1% of whom are military) and the University of Southern California (USC). This is a four-year project with over 80 researchers and practioners. It is one of the largest translational social work led research projects ever done and currently the largest in scope in the nation. The project identifies and provides appropriate supports for military students by (1) creating a scientific literature review—the first of its kind on military-connected schools and a clearinghouse of evidence-based best practices (EBP), (2) helping stakeholders and policymakers select the most appropriate EBPs, and (3) assisting the districts and principals in their implementation. Supports for the schools include over 72,000 contact hours from a cadre of Master of Social Work interns and their mentors from three universities. The project has augmented the California Department of Education's (CDE) California Healthy Kids Survey with a Military Module that was piloted with 32,000 students, 1,000 principals, and thousands of parents. It has been adopted by the CDE and is available now for all 10,000 schools in California. The symposium will present initial results from the first year of research and describe the locally data driven school-by-school implementation of social work interventions that directly support military-connected schools and communities. These “ramping up to scale” strategies and interventions will be relevant to the other states wanting to replicate interventions for military-connected schools. There are implications for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as well. All presentations will address the policy factors in addition to the science, scope, and methods issues.