Education Support Services: A Comprehensive Overview

Education support services play a crucial role in fostering a conducive learning environment and promoting the overall well-being of students. These services encompass a wide range of interventions and resources designed to address the diverse needs of students, including academic, social-emotional, and physical health challenges. By providing targeted support, education support services aim to remove barriers to learning, enhance student engagement, and ultimately improve academic outcomes.

Defining Education Support Services

Education support services encompass a broad spectrum of resources and interventions designed to address the diverse needs of students. These services aim to create a supportive learning environment that promotes academic success, social-emotional well-being, and physical health. They are often referred to as student, pupil, or instructional support services.

Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP)

A key component of education support services is the involvement of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP). These professionals are affiliated with providing school-based physical, social, emotional, and mental health prevention, intervention, transition, and follow-up services for all students and families. SISP includes:

School counselors
School social workers
School psychologists
School nurses

SISP professionals provide direct services to all school children and youth to help maintain and promote mental and physical health. They also intervene when related challenges create barriers to learning. Direct services are provided through education, counseling, consultation, and individual assessment. In addition, SISP provides in-service training, parent education, community collaboration, and student service program management.

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 defines Specialized Instructional Support Personnel in Title VIII, SEC.

Read also: Nurturing Families in WA

Student Support Services Professionals

Student Support Services Professionals work with classroom teachers, parents, administrators, and ESPs to provide multi-tiered domain interventions such as classroom lessons, small group counseling, individual counseling, and crisis counseling. Quality student support services foster positive relationships among educators and students, and help increase a students’ attachment to school.

CTA believes that students’ social-emotional needs must be addressed before effective teaching and learning can take place and that all school districts should have at least one Pupil Support Service Team composed of a school nurse, a psychologist, a credentialed counselor, a social worker, a speech therapist, a welfare attendance worker, and an audiologist.

The Scope of Education Support Services

Education support services address a wide range of student needs, including:

Academic Support: Tutoring, remedial instruction, and other interventions to help students meet academic standards. SSS projects must provide academic tutoring, which may include instruction in reading, writing, study skills, mathematics, science, and other subjects; advice and assistance in postsecondary course selection, assist student with information on both the full range of student financial aid programs, benefits and resources for locating public and private scholarships; and assistance in completing financial aid applications.
Social-Emotional Support: Counseling, mental health services, and programs to promote positive social skills and emotional well-being. Student Support Services Professionals work with classroom teachers, parents, administrators, and ESPs to provide multi-tiered domain interventions such as classroom lessons, small group counseling, individual counseling and crisis counseling.
Physical Health Support: School nurses, health education programs, and services to address chronic health conditions and promote healthy lifestyles.
Special Education Support: A range of services that can be provided in different ways and in different settings to meet a student’s individual needs. The programs and services will be determined based on the individual needs of the student as described in the PLAAFP statement. Some children with disabilities need related services to help them meet the goals in their Individualized Education Program (IEP). Related services means transportation and other developmental, corrective, or supportive services that a child needs to benefit from special education. Aids and services are developed to enable the student to make progress in the general education curriculum and advance appropriately toward goals.

Education Support for Students with Chronic Health Conditions

Chronic health conditions in children and adolescents can have profound impacts on education, well-being, and health. These conditions are described as non-communicable illnesses that are prolonged in duration, do not resolve spontaneously, and are rarely cured completely. Due to variations in the definition of chronic health conditions and how they are measured, prevalence estimates vary considerably and have been reported to be as high as 44% in children and adolescents. Of young people with a chronic health condition, an estimated 5% are affected by severe conditions characterised by limitations to daily activities impacting their ability to attend school.

School attendance is important for academic and social skill development as well as well-being. When children and adolescents are absent from school due to a chronic health condition, school engagement can be affected. Disengagement from school is associated with poorer academic achievement, social-emotional functioning, and career choices.

Education support services for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions aim to prevent disengagement from school, education, and learning during periods where their illness causes them to miss school.

Research on the Effectiveness of Education Support

A review of existing research on the effectiveness of education support interventions for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions revealed a limited number of high-quality studies. The database searches identified 14,202 titles and abstracts. Grey literature and reference list searches did not identify any additional studies that met the inclusion criteria. One hundred and twelve full-text studies were assessed for eligibility, of which four studies met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the review. All studies were randomised controlled studies with a combined total of 359 participants. All included studies were disease-specific; three studies focused on children with cancer, and one study focused on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The review found:

Evidence that education support improved school engagement, with three of four studies favouring the intervention.
Contradictory results regarding academic achievement, with one study showing a positive effect and the other showing a negative effect.
A positive impact of education support on transition back to school in a single study with a small sample size.
A positive impact of education support interventions on mental health (measured as self-esteem) in two of four studies.

The overall certainty of evidence for school engagement and transition back to school was judged to be 'very low'. The certainty of evidence for mental health was judged to be 'low'.

This review has demonstrated the infancy of quality research on the effectiveness of education support interventions for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions. At best, we can say that we are uncertain whether education support interventions improve either academic achievement or school engagement. Of the secondary outcomes, we are also uncertain whether education support interventions improve transition back to school, or school re-entry. However, we suggest there is some evidence that education support may slightly improve mental health, measured as self-esteem.

Examples of Education Support Programs and Interventions

Several programs and interventions are designed to provide education support to students with chronic health conditions. These may include:

School Re-entry Programs: Programs to help students transition back to school after a prolonged absence due to illness.
Individualized Education Programs (IEPs): Plans developed for students with disabilities that outline specific educational goals and support services.
Medical Home Concept: A model of care that provides comprehensive and coordinated health services for children with special health care needs.
Video-Mediated Communication Systems: Systems that allow hospitalized children to participate in classroom activities remotely.

Student Support Services (SSS) Program

The Student Support Services (SSS) Program is a federally funded initiative designed to increase the number of disadvantaged low-income college students, first-generation college students, and college students with disabilities in the United States who successfully complete a program of study at the postsecondary level.

Eligibility and Funding

Institutions of higher education or a combination of institutions of higher education are the only entities eligible to compete for funds under the Student Support Services program. Low-income students who are first-generation college students and students with disabilities evidencing academic need are eligible to participate in SSS projects. Two-thirds of the participants in any SSS project must be either disabled or potential first-generation college students from low-income families. One-third of the disabled participants must also be low-income students.

To receive SSS program grant aid, students must be current participants in the SSS project who are in their first two years of postsecondary education and receiving Federal Pell Grants. Grant aid may be offered to students who have completed their first two years of postsecondary education and are receiving Federal Pell Grants if the institution demonstrates that these students are at high risk of dropping out and it has first met the needs of all its eligible first and second-year students.

All SSS grants are funded for 60 months. The estimated average grant amount is $324,456.

Required and Permissible Services

A Student Support Services project must provide the following services:

Academic tutoring, directly or through other services provided by the institution, to enable students to complete postsecondary courses, which may include instruction in reading, writing, study skills, mathematics, science, and other subjects.
Advice and assistance in postsecondary course selection.
Information on both the full range of Federal student financial aid programs and benefits (including Federal Pell Grant awards and loan forgiveness) and resources for locating public and private scholarships.
Assistance in completing financial aid applications, including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Education or counseling services designed to improve the financial and economic literacy of students, including financial planning for postsecondary education.
Activities designed to assist participants enrolled in four-year institutions of higher education in applying for admission to, and obtaining financial assistance for enrollment in, graduate and professional programs.
Activities designed to assist students enrolled in two-year institutions of higher education in applying for admission to, and obtaining financial assistance for enrollment in, a four-year program of postsecondary education.

A Student Support Services project may provide the following services:

Individualized counseling for personal, career, and academic matters provided by assigned counselors.
Information, activities, and instruction designed to acquaint students participating in the project with the range of career options available to the students.
Exposure to cultural events and academic programs not usually available to disadvantaged students.
Mentoring programs involving faculty or upper-class students, or a combination thereof.
Securing temporary housing during breaks in the academic year for-Students who are homeless children and youths or were formerly homeless children and youths; and foster care youths.
Programs and activities specially designed for students who are limited English proficient, students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in postsecondary education, students who are individuals with disabilities, students who are homeless children and youths, students who are foster care youth, or other disconnected students.

The Importance of Collaboration and Coordination

Effective education support services require collaboration and coordination among various stakeholders, including:

Teachers
School administrators
SISP professionals
Parents
Community organizations
Healthcare providers

By working together, these stakeholders can create a comprehensive support system that addresses the diverse needs of students and promotes their overall well-being.

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