Help Is Down the Hall
Today, more than ever, there is enormous pressure on schools and students to meet state and federal learning standards. Despite these efforts to create an environment where students are “ready to learn,” there are students who fail to meet the standards. For many, this failure has nothing to do with a lack of skills, intellectual capacity, teacher competency, or school environment. Rather, emotional turmoil, alcohol or drug use, living with alcohol or drug dependent parents, and other problems interfere with students’ ability to learn, socialize, and interact with others in the classroom and extracurricular activities in healthy and productive ways.
A Student Assistance Program (SAP) is a comprehensive (K-12) school based program that identifies issues which prevent students from learning and being successful in school and provides education, prevention, early identification, intervention, referral and support groups for affected students. Help is Down the Hall: A Handbook on Student Assistance was developed by NACoA for the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The handbook is available via the link below for use by student assistance professionals.
