As the new school year began in the Cherry Creek School District, the board of education learned what health services the district provides to support its more than 53,000 students across 67 schools.
New developments are coming to the district, including a community clinic and mental health center, said Cherry Creek Schools Chief Health Officer Michelle Weinraub, who presented the student health information to the school board during its August meeting.
The district has also hired more nurses and clinicians, and it plans to expand students’ accessibility to a teletherapy service.
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Increase in school nurses
There has been remarkable growth over the years in the number of nurses and health liaisons serving the school district, Weinraub said. In 2018, there were 72 nurses and 46 health liaisons.
“This year, our team welcomed 85 registered nurses across our district with 67 health liaisons,” she said.
Cherry Creek School District nurses logged more than 180,000 in-school clinic visits during the 2022-23 school year, she said.
“This was a number that was staggering to me,” Weinraub said. “Eighty-five nurses, 180,000 clinic visits — you do the math.”
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New community clinic coming to Smoky Hill
Thousands of people have visited the STRIDE school-based community health centers, Weinraub said.
The Cherry Creek School District had partnered with STRIDE Community Health to establish two standalone, school-based community health centers — one at Horizon Community Middle School and another at the Overland High/Prairie Middle School campus.
The two centers have seen about 4,000 patients since opening in March 2022, and 2,592 of those patients were seen during the 2022-23 school year, she said.
“Many of them were not just our students but their parents, their guardians, their grandparents, their cousins, their neighbors — because it’s a community center open to all,” Weinraub said.
A third STRIDE Community Health Center is planned to open this fall on the Smoky Hill High School campus, she said.
“One of the points of pride for that new clinic is that we asked STRIDE if there was a way for them to increase the ability to have two full-time behavioral health clinicians inside of that clinic for our community. And they said yes, immediately,” she said.
This means that the clinic will have an equal number of appointments for both physical primary care and behavioral health, she said.
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Mental health services include new therapeutic center
Weinraub said her greatest fear and challenge is not knowing when a student is struggling with their mental health.
“Our greatest goal is to know our students so well that we will know when they’re struggling,” she said.
Last school year, students met with mental health leadership and discussed a number of topics including the need for more access to counselors in schools, as well as increasing access to mental health providers of color and therapists who speak other languages.
“It’s been incredibly fortunate for us to get to sit with these high school students,” Weinraub said. “Adults can sit in a room and talk all day long, but we need to hear from the people we’re serving. And the last time I checked, they were students.”
There are 175 school social workers and school psychologists across the school district. Weinraub said the school district welcomed 38 newly hired staff, including clinicians for Traverse Academy.
Traverse Academy, opening this fall, is Cherry Creek Schools’ own therapeutic mental health center that will provide care for up to 60 students.
The academy will expand access to treatment for students struggling with serious mental health challenges such as severe depression or suicidal ideation, according to the district.
The facility will operate much like a regular school, the district said. Each student will have an individualized treatment plan with the ultimate goal of transitioning back into their home school.
The school district is partnering with the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry to provide clinical staff for the facility, according to the district.
“I’m excited for this opportunity for our kids and the partnership with CU Anschutz — the only one of its kind across this country,” Superintendent Christopher Smith said. “Once again, Cherry Creek is leading the way.”
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Expanding social-emotional screener, teletherapy session access
After conducting a pilot of it last year, Cherry Creek Schools plans to implement a social-emotional screener for 32 schools this year, with the goal of expanding it district-wide for the 2024-25 school year, Weinraub said.
“It’s not a mental health screener. It’s important to understand this is a social-emotional screener that asks kids questions about belonging, and relationships, and resilience,” Weinraub said.
Last school year, the screener was conducted as a pilot program in eight schools. It asked students about matters such as how supported they feel, how well they can regulate their emotions and how much they feel a sense of belonging.
“I think this is just gonna guide our work,” she said. “Having the opportunity to offer this screener to kids and really ask them how they’re doing will really help us in the future.”
In December 2022, the school district announced it had launched a new mental health teletherapy service with Hazel Health for students in grades 6-12.
Based on feedback from students and parents/guardians, the school district has decided to expand the service to all students from kindergarten through 12th grade, she said.
From January through May, there were 412 referrals for the service, she said.
“Most of our referrals actually came from parents and guardians, and that was a surprise to Hazel,” she said. “I’m going to be very excited to share with you updated data as we look at this … school year, when it’s open to all students.”
Those interested in learning more about student health services can visit cherrycreekschools.org/health.