Additional Resources on Youth Health for Schools
Almost all of the information on the Resources for Parents and Families section of our website is also relevant to schools! Below, you will find additional posts with data, info, and reports that is particularly of interest to school staff and administrators.
Pioneer Valley Regional School Shares Cell Phone Policy
We are grateful that Pioneer Valley Regional School District has shared their cell phone policy resources freely for other schools to reference, adopt, or adapt. Their policy has been widely seen as successful. One 9th grade student shared, “I’ve been going to this school since 8th grade, so I was here before and after the…
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Massachusetts Attorney General Releases Toolkit of Cell Phones and Social Media in Schools
The Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, with support from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, recently released: Cell Phones and Social Media in Schools: A Toolkit for School Leaders and Communities. The toolkit discusses three types of policies that restrict cell phone use, offers guidance for developing community norms on cell phone…
Phone Free Schools Legislation for MA
Legislation has just been filed in the Massachusetts Senate and House requiring all schools in Massachusetts (K-12) to implement bell-to-bell (all day) phone and social media free policies. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, Education Secretary, and Attorney General have all come out in support. For more information about this legislation, see this Briefing Doc with FAQs, for relevant…
Away for the Day
“Away For The Day” is a movement giving parents, teachers, community leaders, and concerned individuals tools so that they can go to your school and help institute policies where devices are put away all day at school in lockers, backpacks, or turned in.
School-Based Peer Support for Mental Health
This issue brief on School-Based Peer Support Programs to Enhance Student Well-Being is a great resource from the Child Health and Development Institute.
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Coalition Releases 2024 Community Action Plan
We released our newly updated Community Action Plan on October 27, 2023, at the Fall Full Coalition Meeting. The plan will guide our work until we formally update it again in 2026. The new plan strengthens the Coalition’s vision, mission, values, and strategies to reflect our commitment to social justice for all. Each of our…
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Summer 2023: Camps and Activities for Children and Youth
Our partners at the Greenfield Safe Schools Safe Streets Coalition have put together this great list of Camps and Activities for Children and Youth for Summer 2023. Take a look and share where you see fit!
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Marijuana and the Developing Brain: A Presentation from the Communities That Care Coalition
The Communities That Care Coalition developed this presentation for parents, families, youth, and people who work with youth. Please contact kallen@frcog.org if you would like us to come give this presentation to families at your school or in a group you are a part of!
Regional Snapshot of How Franklin County and North Quabbin Schools are Advancing Racial Justice
On June 9, 2022, the Communities That Care Coalition released a report, How Franklin County and North Quabbin Schools are Advancing Racial Justice. Leigh-Ellen Figueroa presented a slideshow summary at the Coalition’s Biannual Meeting at Greenfield High School. The report is based on interviews with 41 key school personnel from all nine local public school…
Inclusiveness Checklist
We wanted to share this nice resource from the JSS School Council. This was designed to help make sure that anyone planning an event had some guidance in thinking about all the different ways to make school community events more inclusive. Please feel free to take and adapt this form for your own purposes! JSS-Inclusivity-ChecklistGo…
What Schools Can Do: a report on local school policies and practices related to substance use
What Schools Can Do: Creative Ways Franklin County and North Quabbin Schools are Implementing DESE Guidance on Substance Use Prevention. This report shares findings from meetings at all of the area districts, including information on local trends in school policies and practices, program highlights, current challenges, and ideas for next steps to enhance existing practices.…
Coalition Produces Local Video on School Dropout
The Partnership for Youth’s Mass Grad Coalition commissioned a report to better understand why local young people drop out of school, and worked with local filmmaker Ali Pinschmidt to create a video-mediated dialogue between youth who had dropped out of school and school teachers, counselors and administrators. Ali produced a 35 minute film with excerpts from the dialogue as a tool to…
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The Educator Newsletter from The Center for Parent & Teen Communication