M-DCPS & Rachel's Challenge unite to STOP School Violence.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is requesting BJA STOP Category 2 funding to improve school climate and expand mental health support interventions for students at 30 middle schools. Serving more than 337,000 children and their families annually, M-DCPS is the largest and most diverse public school district in Florida and the third largest nationwide. Just over 94% of our students identify as a racial or ethnic minority and nearly one-quarter are English language learners, including children representing more than 160 different nationalities. Meeting the needs of such a richly diverse student body is a challenging task that has become even more difficult post-pandemic. M-DCPS and Rachel’s Challenge developed this project to bring a multi-tiered school climate and youth mental health support and intervention model to our most at-risk middle schools. During this three-year project, M-DCPS and Rachel’s Challenge will accomplish the following high-impact deliverables that align with STOP Focus Areas.

Through this project, we will bring the nationally recognized, evidence-based practice Rachel’s Challenge curriculum to 23,914 middle school students. Rachel’s Challenge is a whole-school intervention model developed in memory of Rachel Scott who lost her life in the Columbine School Shooting. Based upon Rachel’s legacy of kindness and compassion, Rachel’s Challenge is a transformational curriculum that improve interpersonal communication and peer connections to break through divisions that lead to harassment, isolation, teen mental health problems, and school violence. The additional Mental Health Coordinator positions will help implement Rachel’s Challenge and improve the district’s capacity to identify and intervene with students presenting signs of mental health crisis. We are requesting $1,000,000 to successfully launch this three-year initiative. These funds will be used to contract with the Rachel’s Challenge team, hire additional Mental Health Coordinators, and data collection to evaluate the project and make sustainable changes to maintain the project’s impact far beyond conclusion of grant funding. Project leadership will be provided in-kind to maximize funding that will directly impact the most at-risk students attending M-DCPS.