nothin HANH, Schools Team Up To Track Students | New Haven Independent

HANH, Schools Team Up To Track Students

Markeshia Ricks Photo

The city’s largest group of public school students will have two sets of eyes watching out for signs they might slip into trouble.

The Housing Authority of New Haven’s (HANH) Board of Commissioners Tuesday approved a memorandum of understanding with the New Haven Public Schools to make that happen by sharing data about students in local schools who also live in public housing.

The authority already has partnerships with specific schools through its Elm City Believes initiative, and data-sharing through the city’s Youth Stat initiative. This new direct data-sharing agreement would allow the authority and the school system to track more closely where housing authority students go to school, their attendance records, how well they’re doing academically, and whether they are having any disciplinary problems. Among the information to be tracked is in-school and out-of-school suspensions, according to housing authority Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton.

Emily Byrne (at left in photo), who serves as the liaison between the housing authority and the city’s school district, said that children living in public housing make up 30 percent of the district’s students. But it is unclear which schools these children attend, and unknown whether they might be experiencing academic or disciplinary problems that could be addressed early by connecting them to services long before they might ever end up the subject of a Youth Stat meeting.

Information is shared through Youth Stat, Byrne said, but not until a student is already in trouble. She said with this new agreement, we can look at the data holistically so that we can put in place the right kinds of supports.” Those supports can look like connecting an elementary student struggling in math and reading with a tutor, connecting a high school student with post-secondary opportunities, or working with the family of a child who might be missing a lot of school.

Adriana Arreola Joseph (at right in photo), chief of wraparound services for city schools, called the data-sharing agreement a great opportunity for schools to work with the housing authority on a proactive approach to intervention. She said it would allow both entities and opportunity to better adapt their strategies to the needs of this specific population of students.

This will go a long way in telling us what’s happening in school and out of school,” she said. Byrne said data will be gleaned from individual student records only for those students whose parents have provided prior written consent.

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