The At-Risk Student Committee of the South Carolina Education and Economic Development Act (ARSC) recently approved FSP for inclusion in the 2008-2009 South Carolina At-Risk Student Program Implementation Manual (this link isn’t on the internet yet). The Family Solutions Program will be listed as a Promising Program. All programs listed in this section have a strong research base.

All SC schools may select programs listed in the Manual, as part of their EEDA dropout prevention efforts, funded through the South Carolina Department of Education. 


 

The Richland School District 2 in Columbia, SC utilized the EEDA grant funds in the 2009-2010 academic year to continue and supplement its services to families and students identified as "at-risk" due to behavior that resulted in disciplinary action. What we have learned over the past five years is that when we use this criterion to identify at risk students, they possess many of the other identifiers cited in the literature such as academic deficits, poor attendance, dislike for school, and family problems. We addressed problems of the identified population by continuing to provide the Family Solutions Program. The total number of students who attended an expulsion hearing during the 2009-2010 school year and were placed at one of the two district alternative schools was 553.

Of the total number of families referred from a hearing, 207 families (37.4%) participated in FSP during the 2009-2010 academic year:

 

·        90% of the students in the program remained in school in our district through the end of the year

·        81% were promoted to the next grade level

·        Only 14% received a subsequent recommendation of expulsion but only 4% students were actually expelled 

·        Within our target population, 9 of the 11 seniors graduated in May 2010

·        Only 2 (0.97%) of the target population were sent to family court for truancy