Transition Program

Over the summer of 2009, our Collaborative Counseling Program and the San Mateo County Office of Education partnered to start is a Transition Program that piloted at Sequoia High School.  The goal of this new program is to help Court and Community School students successfully transition back to their public school.

There are a number of elements that contribute to their re-entry failure which we hope to address and ameliorate with a transition program. These include: 1) lack of parental empowerment and advocacy and 2) going from a small highly structured and individualized educational setting to anonymity in a large high school where negative peer influences abound.

One of our clinical supervisors is working closely with Sequoia High School staff to provide support for returning students. The new program has placed two clinical psychology interns at Sequoia to provide individual and group counseling to students. These meetings will give critical one-on-one support and teach students effective coping skills to deal with negative peer pressures. We also incorporated a parent support component at Community School Central to educate and empower parents to be advocates for their kids. Additionally, students will gain independence and anonymity by being back in a traditional high school environment. The goal is to boost the success rate of students returning to public school and reduce recidivism rates.