Montrose County School District directed RISE funds toward strengthening their Student Wellness and Engagement (SWE) program, building a tiered system of support to ensure students have their social-emotional needs met.

The RISE funding supported the district in its work to develop a referral process and support systems to increase access to mental health resources in six elementary schools. As the school year wrapped up, Colorado Lab staff met with the team in Montrose to synthesize work into a SWE Program Guide. The guide provides a central place to describe SWE’s approach and major activities and is geared toward three primary audiences:

• SWE staff and members of the SWE implementation team: to provide a central place to describe the work and support them in onboarding new staff/members
• Elementary school leadership: to orient them to what is available through SWE and how they can access SWE supports
• School district leadership: to support them in understanding the goals and scope of SWE

The guide is organized into five sections: a program overview, descriptions of the three tiers of SWE support available to elementary schools, a description of how elementary schools can access SWE services, the roles and responsibilities of SWE staff and partners, and how the program engages in ongoing learning and improvement. Each section is designed to stand alone so that it can be shared with different stakeholders.