Student Growth & Well-Being

Common Ground is a nonprofit, trauma informed, recovery oriented agency dedicated to helping youths, adults and families in crisis. The agency’s 24-hour crisis and resource helpline, youth and family services, assessment and crisis intervention and other programs throughout Oakland and Genesee Counties are a lifeline for runaway and homeless youths, families in crisis, victims of crime, people with mental illness and others in critical situations.

Call

Are you facing a crisis? Call Common Ground for free and confidential counseling, information, and referrals. Call 1.800.231.1127.

Oakland Schools provides valuable resources for kids and families to ensure a strong partnership between home and school.

• Bullying Resources
• Family, Health and Emotional Safety Resources
• Internet Safety and Sexting Resources
• School Safety Resources
• Local and State Resources
• National Resources
• Oakland Schools School Safety Resource Directory

Youth, Family & Community Support

OK2SAY is the student safety program which allows students to confidentially report tips on potential harm or criminal activities directed at school students, school employees, and schools. It uses a comprehensive communication system to facilitate tip sharing among students, parents, school personnel, community mental health service programs, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and law enforcement officials about harmful behaviors that threaten to disrupt the learning environment.

When schools, families and communities work together, young children have the best opportunity of maximizing their full potential. Oakland Schools Early Childhood Department provides information, resources and referrals to help parents succeed in their essential role as children's first teachers. Please click on the links below to find the information you need or call our general parent information line at 844.456.KIDS for additional assistance.

1. Concerned about the development of your child from birth to three years of age?
2. Interested in free family events and information for children from birth to five years of age?
3. Interested in free preschool for your children?
   
   Clarkston Early Childhood Center

Being a parent is one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs in the world, but it can be overwhelming at times.

Most parents want to do a good job of raising their children. But unlike other jobs where you get special training, most parents are left to do the best they can with what they know from their own experience. There’s no need to feel that you are all alone or that no one cares. The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline can help.

The ChildHelp Hotline is staffed by degreed, professional counselors who are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. All calls are anonymous and toll-free.

CALL 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) then push 1 to Talk to a Hotline Counselor OR push 2 to have information mailed to you.

The Hotline receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico. Communication in 170 languages is available through state-of-the-art technology that allows three-way conversations between the Hotline counselor, the caller, and a professional translator.

In 2017, Clarkston Community Schools introduced a unique partnership with Easterseals Michigan to offer quality individualized counseling services to Clarkston Community Schools students. The program is a result of a district-wide investment in the education and support of the whole child to create a foundation for lifelong social-emotional well-being.

Through this partnership, a qualified, licensed Easterseals Michigan therapist is now onsite at North Sashabaw Elementary and Andersonville Elementary one day a week to provide counseling and referral services, working in cooperation with the school social worker, teachers and parents. Easterseals is also able to connect families with private insurance and Medicaid, depending on the level of care needed.

Engaging community members, businesses, and organizations as partners in children’s education can improve the learning community in many ways. For example, community partners may be able to

• Provide expanded learning opportunities.
• Build broad-based support for increased school funding.
• Provide quality after-school programs.

The findings presented by Henderson and Mapp provide a framework for strengthening parent/family involvement programs. PTA, working with leading experts on parent involvement and school-community partnerships, has updated its National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs to reflect recent research and improve parent and community involvement practices. The updated National Standards shift the focus from what schools should do to involve parents to what parents, schools, and communities can do together to support student success. To reflect this change, the standards have been renamed the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships.

Partners for Clarkston's Kids

Child Safety at Home

Constantly watching over your children's every move may not be possible, even at home. With that said, here are some useful rules worth laying down to make sure that they stay out of harm's way even when you are not immediately present.

Child Safety Resources

We partner with families to encourage and support strong connections between home and school. In the 2002 research review A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement, Anne T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp conclude that there is a positive and convincing relationship between family involvement and student success. To put it another way, when families are involved in their children’s learning both at home and at school, their children do better in school. The report also points to specific types of involvement as being especially beneficial to children’s academic success.

From "The Positive Relationship Between Family Involvement and Student Success," www.pta.org.

Family involvement improves student success, regardless of race/ethnicity, class, or parents’ level of education. For involvement to happen, however, principals, teachers, and parents themselves must believe that all parents can contribute to their children’s success in school. Parents can promote their children’s academic success by:

• Teaching their children the importance of education.
• Finding out what their children are expected to know and to be able to do and reinforcing lessons at home.
• Sending their children to school ready to learn every day.
• Talking with their children about what they're doing at school.
• Tracking student progress on the ParentVue portal and asking questions about classroom assignments.
• Attending teacher conferences and parent information nights.

Know the Risks: E-Cigarettes and Young People

NIH: E-Cigarettes - What You Need to Know

NASSP Position Statement Marketing of Tobacco to Children and Youth

Detroit Free Press: Your Kids Think Its Cool to Vape at School

Holland Sentinel: Michigan Bill Would Prohibit Minors From Vaping

WHMI News: Minors Caught Vaping Now Face Charges

If your family lives in any of the following situations you qualify for homeless services.

• In a shelter, (homeless, domestic, emergency, or transitional)
• Motel, hotel, or any other temporary housing
• In a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station
• If you are doubled up with family or sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, or economic hardship
• Evicted or forced to relocate
• Families who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence
• Students under the age of 18 who have run away or otherwise are not accompanied by a parent or guardian

Eligible child/children have the right to:

• Receive transportation to and from the school of origin (this will be decided based on the distance of your living situation, the age of the student, and parents ability to ride to and from school with a young child)
• Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents normally required for enrollment
• Enroll in the local school; or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled)
• School supplies and backpack. Items that pertain to your child’s classroom needs
• References to local agencies to assist with finding housing and help with financial assistance

Family Resource Guide

If you feel you are in any one of these situations, please contact Dee Smith, McKinney-Vento Liaison, 248-620-7828 or ddsmith@clarkston.k12.mi.us. A meeting will be set up for you to come in and discuss your situation and ways we can be of service to your child/children.