Services at Bel Aire School
- Individual counseling: Counseling services are available to Bel Aire students on check-in or short-term basis. Students at this age are often particularly open to meeting with a counselor, and make good use of the chance to discuss the things on their minds. Some of the younger students have more difficulty verbalizing their feelings, and might work with the psychologists through a combination of talk, drawing, and game play. Because of the limited amount of psychologist time at the school, long-term counseling is more difficult to arrange. The district school psychologist is happy to work with parents to make a referral to an outside provider.
- Support groups: The RUSD school psychologists run a number of support groups for students at Bel Aire School. The most common goal of these groups is to provide extra support for students who are having a difficult time socially, though support for children of divorced families is also a common goal. At this age, groups usually contain three to six participants, and involve a mix of concrete conversation about social skills, emotions, and problem solving, as well as play time with peers with the psychologist present to facilitate. Groups tend to be single-sex, with the exception of the divorce groups, and are held for approximately 40-45 minutes once a week, for about 10 weeks. Efforts are made to schedule group times with classroom teachers in order to avoid interfering with academic work. Most students greatly enjoy the opportunity to participate in groups and ask if they can continue by the end of the 10 weeks.
- Educational assessment: As noted on the educational assessment page of this site, when students continue to struggle academically despite varied interventions in the classroom and despite extra support from school specialists, eligibility for Special Education services may be considered. This process includes an educational assessment by one of the school psychologists and the school’s Resource Specialist.