From left, Allison Whitman, Maribel Nierenberg, and clinicians Taylor Hom and Maggie Keehn, all from Essential School Solutions – Photo Linda Conner Lambeck
By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT–A program that has helped district students with complex mental health issues regulate their emotions and stay in school since 2021 is being expanded into the elementary school.
Effective School Solutions costs the district $616,000 this fiscal year, with $48,200 coming from a grant and the rest, the general fund. It will cost an additional $215,000 next year when elementary school services are included, according to Assistant Superintendent Michael Rizzo.
Rizzo said that the program cost is offset by a savings of at least $205,000 by keeping the students being served from being placed in costly out-of-district placements.
“That is looking at it conservatively,” said Rizzo of the avoided costs. When transportation and actual tuition costs are factored in, Rizzo told the board at a meeting last week that the savings are probably higher.
Already in place at Staples High School and the middle schools, the hope is that students helped by ESS at younger ages may be able to exit it sooner.
The 2026-27 budget recommended by Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice also includes two in-house Board-Certified Behavioral Analyst positions–at a cost of $176,000.
Rizzo said that while Effective School Solutions (ESS) addresses the social, emotional, and therapeutic needs of students, the BCBA’s focus is on students who have behavioral challenges and help staff ensure a consistent, proactive approach to behavior across classrooms.
The proposed additions, Rizzo told the school board at a meeting last week, will allow other district counselors, social workers and school psychologists to focus on the student body at large.
Before the start of the school year, Scarice warned the board that the district was trying to address a rising number of elementary school students with “dysregulation issues,” kids who have a hard time controlling their emotions and behavior. He didn’t say how many.
It was something Scarice said is not unique to Westport.
The district brought the New Jersey-based Effective School Solutions into Staples in the 2021-22 school year. The middle school was added in 2023-24.
The program is designed this year to support up to 35 middle and high school students, providing intensive therapeutic support, and individual, group and family counseling.
Allison Whitman, a regional director for ESS, told the school board last week that it considers Westport its gold standard of programs and brings other districts considering its services to Westport to see how the program operates.
So far this year, Whitman said ESS has delivered 2,183 therapeutic services, averaging three interactions per student participant each week.
Success is measured in grades, attendance and discipline.
The board was told that at the high school, 90 percent of academically struggling students have better grades, 96 percent of students with chronic absenteeism (meaning they are absent at least 10 percent of the time) show up at school more often, and 100 percent showed improvement in behavior.
The program is also said to have helped prevent or return six students from out of district placements.
This year, the ESS clinicians embedded in the district have also been offering professional development to staff to help students regulate their emotions.
Parents are satisfied, added Maribel Nierenberg, also of ESS. Some 88 percent of those who completed a survey of the program reported improvements in their child’s attendance. In addition, 75 percent of parents reported their child showed relief from mental health conditions and improved self-esteem.
“These are kids who normally are spiraling,” Scarice told the board.
At Bedford and Coleytown Middle Schools, 14 students have been served thus far and similar results are occurring in terms of attendance, grades and discipline.
Board Chair Lee Goldstein asked what the program will look like at the elementary level.
The plan is to house the program in one of the district’s five elementary schools and to have student services relocate to that building.
The ability to provide services in the moment is what helps make a difference, the board was told.
“My gut is when families realize the level of support and value it will outweigh the negative of moving to another school,” Rizzo said, adding, “I don’t foresee a situation where (a child) would be forced to leave their home school.”
It is also anticipated the program will start small with just a handful of students.