Mayor, Superintendent, Community Leaders Celebrate Launch of Alternative to Out-of-School Suspension Centers
JACKSONVILLE - Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, Duval County Public Schools’ Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals and other community leaders today held a news conference to celebrate the official opening of the five Jacksonville Journey-funded Duval County Alternative to Out-of-School Suspension (ATOSS) centers.
Leaders joined Senior Pastor John E. Guns at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Jacksonville, one of the new ATOSS centers, to outline how the program will provide an alternative to the current out of school suspension model and truancy centers, and help to keep truant and suspended juveniles in a structured and supervised environment.
“Prevention and intervention programs for our community’s children are two of the driving forces of The Jacksonville Journey,” said Mayor Peyton. “Unlike traditional suspension programs in which students may be unsupervised and therefore at-risk for criminal behavior during the school day, the centers will provide a supervised environment to ensure that they not only stay on track with their school work but also receive services to help pinpoint underlying causes for their disruptive behavioral problems. In turn, this program will help prevent reoccurring behavioral issues and potentially reduce crime.”
Funded by The Jacksonville Journey with a grant of $1,495,549, the Duval County Public Schools’ ATOSS program is voluntary for middle and high school students who have been suspended from school as a consequence of inappropriate behavior. The program will provide behavioral and academic help for a period of three to 10 days to enable students to continue the learning process (both academic and behavioral) in a safe, structured and supervised environment.
“As a community, it is our collective responsibility to see that school-age children are appropriately supervised and educated,” said Superintendent Pratt-Dannals. “The Alternative to Out-of-School Suspension centers give us the opportunity to keep young people off the streets, while providing them with the counseling and education they need.”
Parents/caregivers may enroll their child in the ATOSS program at one of the following locations of their choice and will be responsible for transportation to and from the center:
- Bridge of Northeast Florida, Inc., 1824 Pearl St., 32206
- Beaches Boys & Girls Club, 820 Seagate Ave., 32250
- Peterson Academies of Technology, 7450 Wilson Blvd., 32210
- Southside Middle School, 2948 Knights Lane E., 32216
- St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church of Jacksonville, 3738 Winton Drive, 32208
The centers, which can each serve 30 students or 150 students in the county total, will be staffed by one certified teacher, one social worker and one school resource officer. In addition, the sites will share the services of one Exceptional Student Education (E.S.E.) teacher and one English speaker of other languages teacher. Students will be closely monitored and required to keep their schoolwork current.
In addition, the centers will house all students picked up throughout the day for truancy. Short-term, this approach will dramatically reduce the numbers of students unsupervised throughout the school day, improve academic outcomes and potentially reduce crime in surrounding neighborhoods. Long-term, it will reduce crime and lower the dropout rate of at-risk students.
Students will be provided an opportunity to continue work assignments through the use of Compass Odyssey, a Web-based curriculum that provides interactive, self-paced and challenging activities to promote individual and cooperative learning, problem solving and real-world connections. Students will also receive services designed to identify their individual strengths or weaknesses and connect the student and/or their family to resources in the school and community.
Students who successfully complete the program will be counted in full attendance for their time in the out-of-school suspension program. Students will only be allowed to enroll twice in the program. After the second enrollment, students will be referred by the principal for consideration of enrollment in an alternative education center.
Keeping youth engaged and off the streets were key recommendations put forth by The Jacksonville Journey committee last year. Specifically, a workgroup comprised of members of the Journey’s Education Subcommittee worked closely with Duval County Public Schools to review the role and efficacy of the existing model, suggest realignment of funding and encourage public/private partnerships and increased parental involvement.
The ATOSS program is only part of the recommendations included in the fiscal year 2008-2009 budget prepared by the Mayor and approved by the Jacksonville City Council.
The most comprehensive public safety program in the city’s history, The Jacksonville Journey focuses on three areas key to improving public safety in Jacksonville: prevention, intervention and enforcement.
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