As our students and teachers are welcomed back to start the new school year, Acknowledge Alliance recognizes that along with all the excitement and hopes for the upcoming year, there are still many lingering challenges that remain from the pandemic. Most of the teachers we work with are happy to be teaching in the classroom again, with the challenges of facilitating virtual learning behind them. However, our teachers now find themselves dealing with the unfortunate consequences of a year of virtual learning. Many students struggled with the online learning format and as a result, there are now more students than usual that are struggling to perform at grade level. As educators who are passionate about achieving the best learning outcomes for all their students, many teachers are placing additional pressure on themselves to help these students catch up. With new covid-19 variants arising seemingly every few weeks and case rates constantly ebbing and flowing, our educators are faced with the additional challenge of creating dual lesson plans. Dual lesson plans allow students to complete independent study work while quarantining at home due to illness or exposure, which is critical to their ability to keep up with their peers during prolonged absences. Of course, students are not the only ones susceptible to illness or exposure- our educators must also prepare contingency lesson plans for substitute teachers in case they themselves are forced to quarantine at home.

With the many obstacles our students and teachers are facing, Acknowledge Alliance is ready to provide the support needed to have a successful and fulfilling school year. Our Collaborative Counseling Program therapists are providing on-site counseling to the most at-risk students, healing through the power of judgment-free, long term therapeutic relationships. Our therapists working with the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula’s College Success program are providing telehealth counseling to college students returning to campus. Educators continue to get social emotional wellness support from our Resilience Consultation Program’s on-site services and resilience groups for teachers. When our resilience groups were forced to go virtual during the early days of the pandemic, we were pleasantly surprised to see attendance actually increase with virtual sessions. We learned that teachers prefer the flexibility of being able to attend these support group meetings at home or in their classrooms as it suits their schedules.

The pandemic has brought an increase in demand for counseling and support services across the board, and our team is doing all it can to meet the growing need. Acknowledge Alliance and our community of supporters is here with you - let’s make this school year the best one yet!