Due to the rising student concern in students’ health wellbeing and academic performance, schools in Georgetown and Lexington in Kentucky have initiated programs in an effort to provide student psychological needs and to try and improve the quality of education that students receive.

The initiatives are to be implemented as educators and parents have raised more concerns to the social and academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to students. Such concerns have been addressed by school districts in both cities with elaborate contingency measures that combine conventional academic interventions with innovative strategies in mental health.

Georgetown in Scott County Schools has recently implemented a multimedia called “Mindful Moment” which includes formal meditation and mindfulness activities for all the learners in the school starting from the kindergarten level up to high school. The programme was therefore designed in consultation with mental health experts within the Barracks and its core goals include reducing stress and enhancing concentration amongst students.

Since adoption of the program, Western Elementary’s fifth-grade teacher, Sarah Thompson, says she has recorded improvements. There has been a change in order; eradicating Behavioral issues and switched correctness, which has improved the mean jr. high classroom atmosphere Thompson opined. Some of the statements received include: “Students look more focused and ready for class after these few minutes’ mindfulness sessions.”

Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington looks at another aspect by offering an increase in access to mental health care services in school year. The district has employed more counselors and social workers in the current academic year thus getting the first ever professionally recommended mental health workers to students ratio in the district.

According to Dr. James Wilson, Superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools, this was an investment worth making. We fully understand that students cannot learn in case they are experiencing anxiety, depression, or any other mental health disorders.” Said Wilson. “Replacing these resources by the cheap or freely available ones ensures that all the schools can provide the opportunities for the students’ development which they did not have before.”

Both districts have also launched new instruction termed as tutorial services, which aims at aiding learners who may have been affected by learning gaps brought about by the pandemic. Georgetown’s Scott County Schools have since implemented an after school tutoring system that enlists lower performing students with high achievers and tutors who are ex teachers. It is important to note it is fully funded for all the participants of the program and has received a lot of entrants and initial efficacy.

In the Lexington schools, technology enhancements have been applied to the concept of additional tutoring, with the cooperation of local software companies developing an application for individual learning. This is an intelligent application known as Cedars’ LexLearn and it is an application that has been designed to help student learn but it does that with the use of artificial intelligence in such a way that the apparatus is known to learn the capabilities of a particular student and then provide lessons that best fit the student as well as practice questions that best suit the student.

The app has been most useful for Emily Chen, a student at the Henry Clay High School, Lexington, and in her junior year. This is like having a personal tutor with whose help you can clear your doubts 365 days a year,” said Chen. I know students who have even reported an improved performance in mathematics since getting an app like this.

Basically, the implications of the scramble for student well-being are not limited to the classrooms in both cities. Georgetown has embarked on student and family health promotion drive dubbed Healthy Kids, Healthy Future that promotes exercise and dietary requirements among the learners and their families. The campaign entails buying from local farms to supply healthy foods in school canteens and organizing events such as hiking, biking and so on.

In Lexington for example, the school district has rallied some businesses to enable offering internships to students during summer holidays. The initiative began this year and is aimed at offering learning more practical insights regarding working environments and possible future occupation.

Some issues are still ahead as observed where the government has launched and many parents, educators and students received these initiatives positively. Both communities have discussed funding for these programs as school boards strive to fund new endeavors with additional monies while having to address existing facilities.

Further, some parents are concerned with the new broader view of mental health in schools, where they claimed that it may encroach on academic curriculum. Education stakeholders in Georgetown as well as Lexington have however come out strong to dismiss this by stating that, both social emotional and academic learning are critical for students and therefore the school supports the two.

For all these challenges, there is an early indication that the new programs are having a positive impact. The two districts have claimed that the performance in attendance rates as well as in standardized test has risen after the introduction of these measures.

As with any ongoing programs, educators in Georgetown and Lexington will want to share the experiences of the respective districts to other schools in Kentucky and probably other parts of the United States of America. It is hoped that a conference will be held later this year on a state level whereby all educators from both cities will share their results along with highlighted practices.

The strategies adopted in Georgetown and Lexington schools are acknowledgements of the fact that today’s learners are diverse in their needs. These districts are thus contending that to support the mental and social well-being of students and improve their academic performance, schools should concrete a new benchmark in student support that other districts in the country must emulate.

Throughout one year, educators observers, parents and students of both cities are waiting to find out how those programs remain progressing and in what way they begin to alter educational systems. Smooth collaboration between Georgetown and Lexington schools is preparing a new generation of learners for success by targeting their academic achievement as well as their spiritual and personal growth.