No panic; Star School rises up to keep education going for court-involved teens

The pandemic may delay a graduation ceremony like the one in 2018 for students in Missouri’s Division of Youth Services, but DYS and LINC’s Star School program has stepped up to help more youths keep pursuing their graduation dreams online.

The spirit of these inspirational words, posted at a previous graduation ceremony, carries on.

The feeling of panic didn’t need to last long.

The coronavirus pandemic was shutting down Missouri’s state-run schools in day treatment programs for troubled youth. Teachers worried for their students whose tenuous grasp on education means so much to their chances to rise.

Then, assuredly, an answer came to them, said Linda Davidson: “Oh, right. Star School.”

Of course. Star School has specialized in remote learning since 2012 when LINC teamed with the Missouri Division of Youth Services to create an online school for youth who for various reasons can’t attend their public school.

They know the challenge of making distant learning close and personal — a task that is weighing over schools of all kinds now worldwide.

Davidson, a former teacher, education coordinator and now the director of Star School, has talked with several special educators over the phone who said they’d gone from “panic mode” to “giving thank-yous” after classroom education had to shut down in mid-March, she said.

Star School had an enrollment between 27 and 32 students who are referred by juvenile officers and state service coordinators with DYS who look to Star School to help the youth revive their education at home online.

Now the enrollment is 50 students and growing.

But it’s not that simple, expanding the online program. The students in Star School warrant special care, as they have been involved in the juvenile court system, or have come through difficult experiences of neglect and were served in foster care.

The newly arriving students mostly were referred from the statewide network of DYS-run schools for students who are no longer in custody, but were in transitional daytime programs.

The 18 certified teachers that work with Star School had to be willing to take on more students.

The school needed to be able to provide the influx of students with laptop computers and tech support — and LINC secured 30 additional laptops for the program that had to be distributed to homes throughout the state.

The Star School staff had to pour through its curriculum offerings, making matches to the curriculum students had been using when classes were interrupted so that the work they’d already done would lead to graduation credits.

“It ended up being a great collaboration,” Davidson said. “It’s all of us together working to help see that kids are successful.”

The teachers use multiple ways to be a steady resource for their students. They start with Google Hangouts, using whatever means students enjoy most, whether it be video calls, group chats or audio calls.

To help make sure contact is kept, students also have their teacher’s cell phone number. And students also have the cell phone numbers — and know they can call on — Davidson and Star School’s assistant director, Deb Still.

When a student gets frustrated, has a problem with a lesson, or trouble with their computer, the student needs to be able to reach someone, Davidson said.

A key comfort to the program “is having them be aware we’re all accessible to the kids,” she said.

Throughout the state, annually, DYS holds regional graduation ceremonies for the students who earn their diplomas or equivalency degrees. It’s a special occasion that has led to the “wall of fame” photos that line the walls and doors in Star School’s offices.

With the ongoing pandemic, just what kind of ceremony that will be, and when, is as uncertain as most everything else right now, Davidson said.

But Star School keeps on rolling, eager to get them there.

By Joe Robertson, LINC writer