Student Support Services 
Jefferson County Public Schools and Minor Daniels Academy are dedicated to the idea that students need additional supports and services outside the classroom in order to thrive.
Student Response Teams
The School-Based SRT is designed to support teachers who have students with extreme atypical behaviors. It is comprised of administrators, a case manager, counselors, FRC/YSC personnel, security, psychologist, teachers, and other staff the principal identifies as helpful to the team. Members of the School-Based SRT are responsible for the following:
> Implementing the District's Non-Negotiables
> Providing a purposeful response to student misbehaviors when those misbehaviors are extreme
> Increasing instructional time for all students
> Decreasing suspensions
> Teaching students Replacement Behaviors so that students know how to navigate and negotiate inside institutions like schools and with ALL people more successfully.
> Creating an “Achievement and Academic Culture” where learning is the focus.
For more information on SRTs, please visit the district site.
Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports
PBIS is a way to promote positive behavior in the learning environment. In the past, school discipline has often focused on reacting to misbehavior by using such punishments as reprimands, loss of privileges, sending students to the office, suspensions, and expulsions.
Research has shown that these approaches by themselves are not effective in creating a school environment in which appropriate behavior is the norm. PBIS creates this environment through a behavior curriculum that is used by every student and staff member.
What’s the focus of PBIS?
There are four integrated elements: data for decision making, measurable outcomes, practices that outline appropriate behavior and support students who need interventions, and systems that hold staff accountable for implementing the practices. But PBIS is not a program. It’s a framework that helps school leaders identify the best behavior strategies.
Why is PBIS important?
Instead of a reactive and punitive response to behavior, PBIS stresses a proactive and positive one, which can help boost student achievement and play a role in overall school improvement. For more information, visit the JCPS site here.
Restorative Practices
When rules are violated, school and classroom leaders must respond with appropriate interventions. Poor behavior and disruptions can alter the healthy balance of a community, which is why district leaders are pursuing implementation of Restorative Practice at JCPS. Restorative Practice is an innovative model that helps JCPS students learn how their actions affect others.
Restorative Practice is based on the premise that a student’s choices and behaviors affect relationships with others in their school and community. When an issue arises, a mediator brings the parties together. With guidance, students begin a dialogue to understand the harm, to seek mutual solutions, and, ultimately, to heal relationships. The process empowers students with a voice and with the communication and problem-solving skills that will help them pursue appropriate solutions to future problems.
District leaders have studied Restorative Practice efforts underway in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and they have collaborated with community groups to study ongoing Restorative Practice operations in Jefferson County. Principals and teachers are undergoing training to learn how Restorative Practice efforts could be expanded into schools.