South Euclid-Lyndhurst City Schools have created Safe Spaces in their kindergarten through third grade classrooms as part of their Conscious Discipline program. 

It is becoming widely understood that it is best practice for school districts to establish one system of social/emotional and behavior supports. This framework is called the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) and it blends Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) with mental health supports. One core feature of an ISF is the expansion of PBIS leadership teams to include school and community mental health clinicians. This ensures that the interventions provided to students and families can be managed and monitored for effectiveness and it avoids staff burn-out caused by an overload of meetings and overlapping efforts.

It is a common misconception that supporting student mental health is undertaken exclusively in Tiers II and III of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), where students receive individualized or intensive interventions. However, there are many practices at the universal level (Tier I) that support student mental health and well-being, thus preventing behavioral and emotional problems from occurring in the first place. 

The health and safety of students and staff at Parma City Schools will always be one of the top priorities in the district, and this past fall, the district held a Mental Health Summit for student leaders representing all three high schools.  The approximately 75 students who participated in this special event had been selected by their peers to become mental health ambassadors through the Hope Squad program.