HAMLET — Earlier this month, Angela Gallagher, director of Student Services, outlined new and continuing mental health training and support initiatives for Richmond County Schools staff. The goal, she said, is to ensure students receive consistent care and resources throughout the school year.
The mental health training plan includes six sessions for new staff, covering youth mental health, suicide prevention, substance abuse, teenage dating violence, child sexual abuse prevention and sex trafficking prevention.
“The rest of the staff that are returning will do the youth mental health and suicide prevention. So that is law. That is something we do every year. We have a new platform this year — principals and student services have been trained on that, so we are ready to roll,” said Gallagher.
This year also brings the introduction of the Healthy Active Children policy, which now applies to high schools.
“So what that looks like at the high school is our four blocks will take four minutes each to do some energizers and active healthy things, so that we can continue to increase that activity. Our K-8 schools already meet all of those requirements through their encores, recess, and PE,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher said Student Services is also managing four grants, including one from a community foundation that helps with hearing screenings through OAE.
The Confidence Project, which began at Cordova Middle School last year, will expand to Hamlet Middle, Ashley Chapel and Ellerbe Middle.
“Last year it was just with Cordova — very successful, so we will continue that and add three schools,” said Gallagher.
Partnerships are a vital resource of this year’s initiatives. Richmond County Schools is working with the Richmond County Partnership for Children on Nourishing Minds, which provides healthy snacks and educational resources for students and families.
“That will run a lot with our nurses, counselors — Kim Childers is helping to hit that up, so she will be a part of that,” said Gallagher.
The district also received the EpiPens for Schools grant, supplying 27 doses for the 2025-26 year to replace expired medication.
In response to principal feedback, Student Services contracted with Let’s Go Learn Again to build a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) behavior framework. The framework is designed to provide tiered levels of intervention, giving schools a structured way to address student behavior with both preventive and responsive strategies.
“We’ve done a lot of work at our leadership retreat and this past Monday with our pre-k through first grade teachers and teacher assistants and our EC staff. So, we will continue that this year and we are really excited and so far the principal feedback has been great,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher noted Vector Solutions, a provider of online safety and wellness training, continues to support students in grades 6-12 with videos and lesson plans on key topics.
“One thing that our counselors and our uh support staff often ask for are education materials for 6-12. What that looks like with Vector is we have some videos with and some courses that are on student safety and wellness and they go through different topics from a peer perspective. So, there’s lesson plans that our counselors can use with our teachers, with our students, and have conversations, but it’s more — it’s just a resource for them to be able to use for some of the harder conversations that our counselors deal with our students,” said Gallagher.
Dropout prevention also remains a priority. The Mentor Me Program, led by Dropout Prevention Coordinator Arthur Gilliam, will continue with expanded involvement across all grade levels.
“He’s also going to work with Dr. Smith and myself on our K-12 movement for understanding that everybody in K12 has a role in our dropout prevention and our graduation rate. And so he’s going to have some time in middle schools as well as at the high school … so he’s going to spend some time with them as well as even down to our elementary school levels going through some things to make sure everybody understands their role in our dropout prevention and our graduation rate,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher said graduation rates are improving, with about a 5 percent increase. The official figure will be released in September by Jennifer Taylor, director of Testing and Accountability.