MOLINE, Ill. — 100 Iowa paraeducators have been selected for a new fellowship from the University of Iowa that highlights mental health training, including over a dozen from the greater Quad Cities area.
The fellowship is a first-of-its-kind in Iowa and is offered through the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health.
Paraeducators will learn skills in relationship-building, mental health literacy, immediate crisis response, suicide screening and restorative practices. The goal is to help "cultivate an environment of inclusion and wellness within classrooms and schools," according to a press release about the program.
The fellowship includes three in-person trainings during the fall of this year, with two of them having already taken place, and then a series of online courses to fulfill licensure requirements.
More than $1 million will be given to Iowa school districts through the program. $15,000 will be given to districts for each paraeducator participating in the program to cover travel, lodging and substitute costs. The districts can also use the money to expand their paraeducator programs.
"The ultimate goal is to increase the mental health literacy and also the well-being of our education specialists," Kari Vogelgesang, who co-authored the program's curriculum, said during an interview on The Current. "Our education specialists are oftentimes working with some of our students with the highest needs who are typically carrying some of the heaviest burdens and managing some high-level challenges...we're really hoping that we're getting the paraeducators the tools and the skills they need to work closely and in a healthy way with the students that they're serving."
News 8 sits down with one of the curriculum's authors
The following paraeducators from the greater Quad Cities area were selected for the fellowship:
Bettendorf Community School District
- Samantha Farra from Bettendorf Middle School
- Deborah Oliveira from Neil Armstrong Elementary
- Melissa Hart from Bettendorf Middle School
- Kathleen Van Horn from Bettendorf Middle School
Clinton Community School District
- Monica Nielsen from Bluff Elementary
- Angie Richardson from Jefferson Elementary
- Kellie Moore from Clinton Middle School
- Danielle Lathrop
Muscatine Community School District
- Lori Shield from McKinley Elementary
- Jasmine Mills from Franklin Elementary
- Susan Melton from McKinley Elementary
- Bre Harrington from Grant Elementary
North Scott Community School District
- Luci Maxwell from North Scott High School
- Denise Frauen from North Scott High School
- Karen Cartsen from Edward White Elementary School
- Amanda Ohsann, Edward White Elementary School
Meet some of the local paraeducators chosen for the program
District administrators submitted nominations for the fellowship last summer and applications were open to all of Iowa's public school districts. A full of all 100 paraeducators participating can be found here. The University of Iowa's College of Education and the Iowa Department of Education helped fund the fellowship.
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