School-Linked Services (SLS) is a county-wide program that connects students and families to services outside of school to foster academic, social, and emotional well-being within school, SLS coordinator Nicole Steward said at the MUSD board meeting on Jan. 23. Steward and SLS supervisor Norma Morales, the sole SLS employees, mainly work by either referring families to helpful resources or engaging families with informative events, she added.
The Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services instituted SLS in the 2018-19 school year through a grant facilitated by former Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said.
“Santa Clara County has a ton of support,” Steward said. “(SLS) is really just making sure our families know what those supports are.”
SLS links students with services at the school, city, county, state, and federal level. Steward, who is also the McKinney-Vento and Foster Youth Liaison, provides support for students growing up in the foster system, experiencing homelessness, or recovering from trauma, while SLS supervisor Norma Morales, who is also the Latino Liaison, provides support for immigrant and refugee families, Jordan said.
“The role of teachers and educators on campus is to educate you and make sure that you graduate as wonderful citizens of the world,” Steward said. “My job is to see if there’s any barriers to your education.”
Steward and Morales connect families to services through referrals. From August to December 2023, Steward and Morales issued 527 referrals for 274 students across the 19 MUSD school sites, according to the Jan. 23 board meeting presentation. The need is highest at the high-school level due to the size of MHS and the students’ louder requests for help, Steward said.
“Each agency does referrals differently,” Steward said. “Sometimes it’s just giving the family the resource.”
Students and families are referred to SLS through Student Success Teams (SSTs) made of teachers and staff, through referrals by judges and the district attorney, through probation and teacher inquiry, and largely through the enrollment process, Steward said. Enrollment secretaries and registrars are trained to flag students who can’t provide the necessary documents for registration, who subsequently meet with Steward or Morales to receive the support they need, she added.
“Because of (the decreasing) budget, as always, and the ton of work that it is, I had to figure out many different ways to support our various kids,” Morales said.
McKinney-Vento families, who are typically introduced to SLS at enrollment, include all types of families experiencing homelessness, Steward said. This includes families living in doubled-up homes, hotels, motels, and transitional housing, she added.
“Last school year we had about 640 students (in the district) who qualified under the homeless program,” Steward said. “It’s quite a bit of doubled up (housing) mostly, but we also have quite a few families that are moving in hotels and sometimes in vehicles as well.”
In a standard referral sheet for homeless families in the McKinney-Vento program, families can check off a number of services to help fulfill their needs, Steward said. This includes referrals for transportation through Valley Transportation Association (VTA) passes, Kango Rides, and Milpitas SMART rides; referrals for free breakfast and lunch at school and groceries through CalFresh; referrals for healthcare services through MediCal Insurance services; and referrals for counseling and school supplies, she added.
“Sometimes, the family might need help finding a birth certificate or an immunization document, and that’s also something we can refer to,” Steward said. “A lot of the work I do is referrals.”
The workload for Steward and Morales is enormous in a district of 10,000 students, considering the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) recommendation of one social worker per school site or per 300 students, Steward said.
“That’s the challenge,” Steward said. “I do often feel like I’m failing because I know I’m not meeting the needs of all the families in this district.”
Morales provides support for immigrants and refugees through various family engagement programs, she said. Noche Latino at Rancho Milpitas middle school and Cafe & Learning at MHS are geared towards familiarizing parents with the American school system, and the Newcomer academy and Horizontes afterschool program is geared towards helping students feel at home and succeed in school, she added.
“There’s a lot of kids that don’t have anybody at home that can help them with the language,” Morales said. “Most of them are just a single mom or even a single dad. Most of them have to work two or three jobs.”
Ultimately, Steward and Morales are motivated to take on the enormous workload out of their love for helping people, Morales said.
“I personally invite them,” Morales said. “I personally meet with them. I personally get to know their story and talk to them. And we get to build that trust between each other.”
School-Linked Services enables students to overcome barriers, facilitates success
