State legislatures across the country are grappling with how to provide quality education in a physically and emotionally safe environment. All while recognizing that challenges to learning often stem from students’ experiences outside the classroom. Particularly, in Texas Senate Bill 9 (SB9) which was passed in 2021, requires schools to introduce curriculum covering the difficult topics of dating violence, child abuse, family violence, and sex trafficking in an effort to bring awareness on these issues. These subjects can be challenging–and in some cases triggering–for both teachers and students, which is why BASE Education already includes learning modules on these topics for elementary, middle and high school students.

SB9 RELATED MODULES:

Middle School / High School

  • Avoiding Exploitation (co-written – iEmpathize)
  • Restorative Practices
  • Learning How to Say “No Thanks”
  • Life Changes and Adjustments
  • Healthy Relationships
  • Communication
  • Coping Strategies

Elementary School

  • Boundaries
  • Healthy Relationships
  • Worries
  • Bullying

In addition to offering SB9-related curriculum, BASE Education makes it easy for teachers to incorporate new curriculum by offering:

  • Educator Guides
  • Parent/Guardian Modules
  • Exceptional Service
  • Turn-Key Implementation

 

Why Administrators Choose BASE for Texas Bill 9

Administrators are faced with many challenges this school year, and one of the biggest concerns is students’ mental health. Here is the good news!

When it comes to Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning, BASE Education is designed to provide administrators with the best resource for their students and their staff.

  1. The onboarding process is direct and easy to undertake so that users can get back to what’s important. The students!
  2. Many modules can be completed in as little as three minutes, making it easy to incorporate into limited time blocks. Other modules can take up to two hours depending on the topic and grade level. As a result, this variety provides flexibility to meet your district’s needs. 
  3. The BASEline Assessment tool provides administrators insight into their student body’s mental health while personalizing the experience for students by prescribing the modules needed. Consequently, this approach limits the time needed from teachers. BASEline also uses CASEL’s five main competency areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.  

 

Lending A Hand To Counselors

BASE Education’s mission is to bring mental health into the classroom and aid mental health care teams at schools. Founder, Robin Glenn, was inspired to create BASE Education when serving as a School-Based Therapy Specialist and seeing the unmet mental health needs of schools. Built on proven mental health practices, including journalistic introspection and personal assessments, students share how they are feeling and work through different mental health topics. 

 

School mental health care workers by the numbers

Recommended Ratios

Psychologists to students – 1:500

School Social workers to students – 1:250

Counselors to students – 1:250

 

Harsh Reality for Schools in Texas 

Psychologists to students – 1:4,962

School Social workers to students – 1:13,604

Counselors to students – 1:423

 

Counselors and mental health care teams can count on BASE to help them in the following ways:

  1. Support students and help them build coping skills through the “Learn, Connect, Respond” methodology. 
  2. Reach students in tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3 in MTSS or PBIS settings.
  3. Improve teacher-to-student relationships by receiving real-time alerts when evidence of harm to self and/or to others have been detected.

 

A Solution SHAC Members can Trust

As research has shown, healthy students do better inside and outside of school, and an integral part of being healthy is mental health. Designed to involve counselors, teachers, and parents in the students’ learning process, BASE’s platform provides a space for kids to explore difficult mental health topics and build skills to communicate their feelings to their teachers and family members. In addition, parent and guardian participation is highly encouraged with parallel online modules to promote family conversations about the mental health topics students are learning in school.

Most importantly, BASE Education can help teachers, counselors, and administrators identify students in distress to intervene. Before students begin using BASE, they are educated on features in the program that will alert the supervising adult to threats of harm, using “Firewords”. 

Always with safety in mind, BASE aims at assisting students individually to have healthier schools and ultimately healthier communities. 

 

 

Watch our interview with Mike Freeman of Shasta County Office of Education, to share details of the SEL journey in Shasta County and how they’ve implemented BASE.

Contact us to learn more about BASE Education and how it can help your district meet Texas Senate Bill 9.