Erie County Community Programming
Erie Community Programming


Erie County Alternative Education Program |
 
Bethesda is a Pennsylvania Department of Education approved private provider of Alternative Education For Disruptive Youth (AEDY) services. We contract with local school districts to provide educational services to students in grades 6-12 who have been removed from the regular education setting for certain disciplinary reasons. Students are provided with comprehensive academic instruction along with therapeutic and developmental counseling to assist them in meeting their behavioral goals and returning to the regular school setting.

Truancy Services | 

Bethesda Lutheran Services is committed to improving the attendance of our youth within Erie City and Erie County schools. The Truancy Monitor is responsible for implementing programs, educating, and facilitating groups for parents and students to promote the importance of school attendance. The goal is to make school attendance a school-wide initiative where students take accountability for attendance.

The Truancy Monitor works closely with each school, student, and family while collaborating with the Office of Children & Youth, local Magisterial District Judges (MDJs), and the Student Assistance Program (SAP) to improve school attendance. Eighteen full-time Truancy Monitors cover Erie City and Erie County schools. The monitors interact with students in the schools throughout the day to build rapport.

The Community-Based Attendance Program (CBAP) is the apex of the attendance improvement program to reduce truancy. The CBAP is a parent-focused presentation that runs 2-3 times per month, it is co-facilitated with local MDJs, and it features representatives from area agencies and school administrators. Parents are given pre- and post-tests to assess what they knew before compared to after the CBAP presentation. Class sizes are limited to foster real conversations about the barriers parents are experiencing and so the presenters may provide tailored solutions to those barriers.
The Attend & Achieve Program is a one-hour-per-week, 8-week program for truant middle-high school students and is facilitated by program Truancy Monitors year-round. This program utilizes the evidence-based Real Colors and Crossroads curriculum from NCTI, and Truancy Monitors conducting this program receive training to facilitate the curriculum from NCTI officials. Participants complete pretests and posttests, created by NCTI for their Real Colors/Crossroads curriculum, who attend both the school-year and summer sessions. One important goal is to help students see the value of education by identifying their personal values, attitudes, and behaviors while recognizing how these may not align with students’ goals. Through creating this correlation, the hope is to create an intrinsic motivation that will prove to be more effective than solely providing extrinsic incentives. School administration refers and Truancy Monitors make referrals for the program.

Refocus Rooms | 

The Refocus Program is a support program that offers a proactive approach to dealing with the very diverse individual needs of students. Staff provide the encouragement and academic support that is essential to student success by providing flexibility in a customized approach for each student. It is an atmosphere of caring and learning that supports both academic and emotional health.
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