Montgomery High School

STARR - Shifting Through Awareness, Regulation, and Relationships

STARR is an integrated mental health support program that will provide education, assessment, and intervention to MHS students who require a higher level of support and service.  The STARR Program incorporates mental health services into the MHS community and works hand in hand with our students, families, and staff to support our students as they develop the skills they need to fulfill their futures. Services provided through STARR emphasize self-awareness and relationship building as a means to increasing resilience.

The STARR program is staffed by three clinical mental health professionals, a school psychologist and two school social workers, with clinical training and a knowledge base that extends to current trends in mental health, trauma-informed practices, and the ability to work effectively with identified students. Both mental health professionals will develop connections with all of the students receiving services.

The STARR program occupies a private suite that provides a common area that can be used for group counseling, academic support, and meetings with educational stakeholders and offices for each clinician. This suite is located in a discrete area of the building, allowing for greater confidentiality.

The MHS STARR program:

• Creates a tiered program of support that includes individualized treatment plans outlining the frequency of support, goals for counseling, methods of communication, and primary stakeholders for each student.
• Provides regular individual counseling and/or group counseling for students identified as needing a higher level of support during the school day to facilitate accessing an education.
• Includes an opportunity for daily check-ins for students identified as needing that level of support.
• Creates a mental health team for each identified student that is inclusive of family supports, members of the educational community, outside agencies/mental health professionals (when applicable), and building administration.
• Allows for the fluidity necessary to provide a period of intensive support for a student who is re-entering from hospitalization or out-of-district placement.
• Provides relevant professional development, education, and consultation for our school community.
• Enables the clinicians working with identified students to act as liaisons between outside agencies and the school to provide a single and streamlined touchpoint for information to travel.
• Enables clinicians to work towards comprehensive crisis response in the areas of screenings and re-entries, data collection, and comprehensive mental health depression screenings.

Administrative oversight for the STARR program is provided by J.P. McAvaddy, Vice Principal, and Heather Pino-Beattie, Principal.

For more information about the STARR program, please contact your student's school counselor or J.P. McAvaddy at jmcavaddy@mtsd.us