HATTIESBURG, Miss.—Mississippi schools are looking ahead to the next academic year with a new statewide education plan focused on attendance, student support and early intervention.
The State Board of Education approved the new Strategic Plan for Pre-K through Grade 12 Education that will take effect July 1.
The updated plan includes six main goals. Five carry over from the current plan, while a new goal puts added focus on reducing chronic absenteeism, strengthening support for students with disabilities and identifying students who may need help earlier.
In Hattiesburg, district leaders said their own updated strategic plan reflects many of those same priorities, offering one local example of how the statewide shift may take shape in schools.
Tonsa Vaughn, assistant superintendent of programming for Hattiesburg Public School District, said the district is also preparing to launch an updated strategic plan with five returning goals and one new one.
“With our strategic plan, even from the state level, many of those things will be the same,” Vaughn said. “The differences become how it looks in the district for our schools.”
One of the clearest examples is attendance, which Vaughn said remains a major priority because students cannot benefit from instruction if they are not in class.
“For us, our attendance strategy centers around making sure that we’re building relationships with students, that students have a safe adult they are comfortable speaking to, that they are excited about the classes they’re coming to, that they want to be at school,” Vaughn said. “Showing up for the job is half the job.”
The statewide plan also calls for stronger IDEA behavioral programs, which are designed to support students with disabilities.
Vaughn said those supports are already part of Hattiesburg Public Schools’ approach and are aimed at helping students meet the same high expectations set for all students.
Another part of the new statewide goal focuses on early intervention for students who need extra support. That includes behavioral threat assessment and management programs, which districts across Mississippi will implement to identify students who may pose a risk of violence and respond before concerns escalate.
“For us, behavior management centers around providing a quality, safe, positive learning environment for all students,” Vaughn said.
This article first appeared on RHCJC and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
