Andrea Foster joins Dr. Sandie Morgan as the two discuss how integrating health services within school systems enhances student well-being and functions as a vital strategy to prevent human trafficking.

Andrea Foster

Andrea Foster is currently the administrator of Integrated Health within Student Services for the Orange County Department of Education. She provides supportive services and resources to promote healthy environments for over 400,000 students and their families across the county. She wants students to be able to access their education and become productive, successful adults. She has 24 years of school nursing experience across multiple settings and was recently a guest speaker at the annual Ensure Justice Conference.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Sandie Morgan: Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. I’m Dr. Sandie Morgan, and this is the show where we equip you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in the fight to end human trafficking here at the Global Center for Women in Justice Vanguard University. This is episode number 343, integrating Health Services in school strategies to keep students safe.

Andrea Foster is currently the administrator of Integrated Health within the student services for the division of the Orange County Department of Education. She provides supportive services and resources to promote healthy environments to over 400,000 students and their families across.

County. She wants students to be able to access their education and become productive, successful adults. She has 24 years of school nursing experience across [00:02:00] multiple settings, and recently she was a guest speaker at our. Annual Ensure Justice Conference, and I think one of the things I loved, Andrea, was how you advocated for where the kids are and what they need.

So welcome to the show.

Thank you Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

so let’s start off first with a little bit of an understanding of where your role in Department of Education fits in this concept of MTSS. What is MTSS and why is it such a big deal here in California?

[00:02:46] Andrea Foster: So MTSS stands for the multi-tiered system of support, and this is a tiered system, that we can utilize or a framework. That we can utilize to support students wherever they’re at, and [00:03:00] whatever their needs are. So, tier one is our supports that we provide to all students. these are things like preventative measures.

Other supports like vision and hearing screenings. on the academic side, it’s gonna be your normal academic, accommodations that are made during the school day. Once you get into tier two, this tier is for a select group of students, so students who need some additional support. Typically for support services personnel, these are kids that have been identified as needing some additional support.

And usually those supports are provided in a group setting. And so again, small number of students, isn’t, isn’t a accommodation that is applied to all students, and typically provided in a group setting. these may include, Small group settings

such as maybe a counseling session, with a group talking specifically [00:04:00] about an issue that’s on campus or on the academic side.

It could be a small group session, small, to provide additional support with reading or additional supports with math. So it MTSS really accommodates kids. In every path that they’re on, in the setting and really covers them as a whole child. When we’re looking at tier three interventions, those interventions are really very specific and individualized to a student.

So, if you’re looking at health in particular, these are gonna be kiddos who have five oh fours or who have IEPs or who have specialized healthcare plans, for chronic medical conditions. On the academic side, you would see again, IEPs with academic accommodations or five oh fours with accommodations, to support these kids so that they can, be successful.

[00:04:51] Sandie Morgan: I love that. And so now I’m looking at your job title and this word that’s in it, [00:05:00] integrated student wellness. What does that mean in your everyday administration?

[00:05:08] Andrea Foster: So I, when I am doing programming or providing professional development, or really working collaboratively across Orange County, I’m looking at how health integrates with the whole child. you know, you can’t just look at the child in, in one, domain. You know, we talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of need, and you have to meet all of those needs before.

Anyone can be successful and actualize, their potential. And so, for integrated health, I’m really looking at where health is a cross section with all of these other components. So whether it be mental health, whether it be housing, whether it be, other things that are going on in their lives, as well as their academic status.

So how do we integrate all of this for the success of the student?

[00:05:58] Sandie Morgan: and when we’re [00:06:00] looking at different school environments and trying to integrate this when they have challenges at home? I think we put a lot of our hope in the ability of our schools to become a safety net, and our Ensure Justice Conference was titled This Year, safety Nets.

We’re thinking about online safety to some extent, but just community safety nets. How can we be more.I guess my question is how can we help in those integrated ’cause I think the community has to know how to be part of that MTSS model.

[00:06:48] Andrea Foster: So I would say, just being aware of that multi-tiered system of support and how school districts utilize that to support their students. So really being able to understand the [00:07:00] language. you wouldn...