Counseling and Student Support: Monitoring Health and Well-Being When We’re Away From Campus

It’s a vital time to be independent. As the COVID-19 pandemic developed, NAIS schools immediately capitalized on their autonomy, flexibility, and creativity to spring into action in service of the students and families in their communities. In addition to launching distance learning programs seemingly overnight and making Zoom and Google Hangouts household names, schools have made crucial decisions about supporting the social-emotional needs of students and families. In many parts of the country, we are roughly two months into quarantine, with no clear end in sight. On the one hand, a much-needed summer break is around the corner; on the other, none of us can predict what summer will look like for our students, nor can we rely on our ability to welcome students back to campus in the fall.

Prior to the pandemic, educators may have taken for granted their role of being the daily “eyes and ears” not only for students’ academic progress but for their health and well-being. Now, educators’ ability to implicitly monitor during daily staples such as advisory and lunch has disappeared. As SATs and revisit days are canceled and other anxieties bubble to the surface, a focus on student health and well-being has never been more important. Schools can’t afford to let this work take a backseat to other disruptions just because our away-from-campus status may make it feel unwieldy and overwhelming.

Read the full article at the National Association of Independent Schools website