skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Boise Community Schools Model Supports Families Outside Classroom

play audio
Play

Thursday, September 12, 2019   

BOISE, Idaho – Children are back in the classroom, but the students who are worried about food, clothing or housing have an extra test to learning.

That's where Boise's Community Schools Program is stepping in, going beyond the bounds of the classroom to provide health and social services to families.

All schools involved in the program are Title I, with large populations of low-income students.

The Boise School District's Whitney Elementary is one of six schools in the district involved in the program.

Principal Amy Pinkerman says Whitney has a dental clinic, food pantry, clothing closet and mental health services.

"Having all of those resources provided at the school empowers families to be able to be the best parents they can be, and in return students are able to do their very best," she states.

Pinkerman says staff members have trauma-informed training, which helps them better care for students and also identify why a student may not have the stamina for a whole academic day.

The program began in 2016 and is generating interest outside Boise, including in Caldwell, Kuna, Lake Pend Oreille and Marsing.

With a large student refugee population, many languages spoken and a varying degree of access to technology, Pinkerman says communication with families sometimes is a hurdle.

But Whitney has services for parents too. It partners with the College of Western Idaho to provide English language classes and has parenting classes to help with at home teaching skills.

Pinkerman says the goal is to engage parents.

"We identify and value that parent involvement as more than just attending the PTO meeting or coming to a parent-teacher conference,” she states. “Parents come and ask for help on parenting.”

Pinkerman says partnerships are key to holding up community schools and notes that Whitney relies on local counseling agencies and even dollar stores to provide this model.

She says the hope is that teachers are able to focus on teaching, students on learning and parents on meeting the basic needs of their children.

"From those perspectives, you have all of these partnerships that are providing the resources in order for those three entities to be able to do what they need to do," she explains.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Higher education advocates are calling for the creation of new federal-state partnerships to create a path to debt-free college. (Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock)

play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …


Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…


Data show Oak Ridge residents pay $2.67 million in taxes toward nuclear weapons programs. (fizkes/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Most candidate elections in Arizona are determined in the primary, where only 23% of registered adults voted in August 2022, according to Make Elections Fair AZ. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

Environment

play sound

Traffic deaths are trending higher in Minnesota this year after a decline the previous year. Groups pushing for safer roads are convinced a small …

Social Issues

play sound

A man from Dothan, Alabama, serving a life sentence for selling drugs received a presidential pardon, which sparked discussions about long sentences …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021