The school also refers families with mental health needs to the local hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard's psychiatric program. Horace Mann Middle School has a social services coordinator to determine needs and help provide services to students and their families. Hanshaw Middle School in Modesto, California, has perhaps the most extensive array of social services for families. As a participant in Healthy Start, a state-sponsored initiative to bring health, social, and mental health services onto school campuses, Hanshaw offers individual and group counseling, case management for families involved with more than one public agency, and referral to community agencies. A full service health and dental care program is also planned.
Schools are educational resources for parents as well as children.
All of the schools in this study are places for educating parents as well as children. They offer English classes to LEP parents and a variety of other seminars and classes to help them become more effective parents. At Del Norte, the bilingual home liaison teaches ESL classes three mornings a week. She also runs a weekly parent group in which she teaches parenting and essential survival skills. Recently, a behavioral psychologist gave a seminar on communicating with children, open to all parents.