Parenting Future-Focused Kids

Supporting Social & Emotional Growth During a Pandemic

September 01, 2021 Madison School District Season 1 Episode 3
Parenting Future-Focused Kids
Supporting Social & Emotional Growth During a Pandemic
Show Notes Transcript

This episode of Parenting Future Focused Kids  discusses how families can support kids' social and emotional needs as well as ways to build resiliency.  Guest Jaustina Santos, school counselor at Madison Park Middle School, holds a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is a licensed counselor through the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health.  



0:08  
Welcome to parenting future focus kids. Today we are going to talk about how families can support kids social emotional needs and ways to build resiliency. We would like to welcome Christina Santos who is calling into our podcast today. Miss Santos is the Madison Park Middle School Counselor and holds a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling and is a licensed counselor through the Arizona Board of behavioral health. Welcome, Miss Santos.

0:32  
Hi, Nicole. Thank you. Thank you, guys, for having me.

0:36  
Thank you so much for being here today. We're so excited to have you on our podcast. I'd like to start by digging into how you became passionate about supporting students social and emotional needs as a school counselor.

0:48  
Yeah, of course. So this is definitely you know, a loaded question, but I'm excited to answer it and kind of dive into you know a little bit about myself, and you know, where my passion stemmed from. So, to all of our listeners, Hi, my name is Justine Santos. And I am the school counselor at Madison Park Middle School. In addition to working at Madison as a school counselor, I'm also an adjunct professor within the Maricopa Community Colleges here in the valley. I teach in the behavioral health department, as well as I have many hats that I wear. I'm also a volleyball coach, for our club, high level club. And so I work with 1415 year olds as well, and coaching volleyball. And that's just, you know, so fun for me. So my time here at Madison, I'm actually going on my second year here at Madison. And it's kind of crazy, just because my first full year was the pandemic year. And you know, it was just a little wild. So it's, I'm really excited to start this year, just being able to see the kids faces interact more with our community and the families. I am a California native, I'm from Southern California, I have my bachelor's degree in psychology, I played volleyball, in Montana University a great falls from there, I kind of just allowed my education to move me into the into the direction that I thought I wanted to go into and that I needed to go to so I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where I attended u and Lv and I, that's where I received my master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. And from there, I've really worked with all sorts of different populations. So I've worked with substance abuse, homelessness, adolescents, from five years old to 18 years old, I've worked with adults and every type of mental health, struggle or diagnosis you can probably think of, but it kind of want to come back to your question. So what how did this become my passion? And, you know, this is such a fun question to me, because it really helps me just reflect on how did I get my niche into working with kids? And where did I started all this. And so for me, I just kind of allowed mental health to push me out of my comfort zone, because, you know, it's sometimes it could just be really uncomfortable. And so working with a variety of populations ultimately led me to connecting with adolescents and children more. So I did find my niche and I with children, and I saw that I just was able to make a big impact on families and their children. So I'm just so passionate about it and passionate about mental health and social, social emotional well being and in so funny, including, like, are talking about, like passion. Recently, I was asked the question, you know, what is my Why? Meaning like, what's my why for my career? Like, why am I here with Madison, Madison school district? And so I really, like reflected on that question as well. And I two words came to my head. And so one of them being advocate, I have a strong passion to advocate for those voices who aren't as loud who aren't heard enough or may not have the strength yet to speak up for themselves. So I personally want to represent those who are underrepresented, underrepresented. And so along with advocate, I also thought of the word educate, which is, you know, kind of goes along with our with everything, but pretty much just plain and simple knowledge is power. And although you know, I'm not a teacher in the traditional sense that I have a classroom and I provide lesson plans. I really do believe knowledge is power. And that goes for everyone. So for my staff here at Madison Park Middle School for my colleagues, my students and the families in the park community, I really truly do believe the more we know, the better. Absolutely. That's now a little bit about myself.

4:47  
Thank you. We're so excited to have you here today. And I think you've kind of you know, touched on it earlier and that this year has been challenging to say the least. But before we kind of dive deep into Those those challenges of, you know, schooling and education during a pandemic. Let's start by talking about what what does it mean to support a student's social and emotional needs, especially at a school level.

5:12  
So what it means to me, and you know, there's just so many different layers to providing support. So it just means, so I like to teach my students and my staff is being a go to adult, if students have a go to adult, a person that they can trust, whether it's a teacher, a social worker, a counselor, somebody in the front office, you know, they're more likely to succeed, they're more likely to disclose certain things that they might be afraid to tell their parents. So supporting our students, their social, emotional needs, it's, you know, just this big umbrella of connecting with the student at their level, providing them with that comfort blanket over them. So they know that they feel supported, they are protected, they feel safe. And honestly, that could, like I mentioned, that could be anyone that could be somebody in our front office that could be a teacher during the day. So providing support for students social emotionally, it's, you know, it just spreads throughout the whole campus. And, you know, truly throughout our whole district.

6:17  
I love that idea of a comfort blanket. I think that's something we all need right now. Yes. And I know that students and staff too, are experiencing a lot of anxiety and to have someone to go to during the day to help support and give comfort is extremely important, not only just for the mental well being but for I mean, I feel like if you don't have that aspect, you can't excel in your academics either. So if students are experiencing anxiety at school, and they have that go to adult that you talked about, you know, what, what are the signs, or when should students seek help, or when should an adult if they're that go to adult kind of work with a student, if they're showing signs of anxiety,

7:01  
anxiety is just like such a big thing. It's such a hot topic right now due to the pandemic. And you know, last year working through it, and honestly, just all of us being in survival mode, we experienced this already a lot last year. So we had a lot of students and families and staff that had heightened level of anxiety, and just like anxiousness. And just the struggle of the unknown, you know, I think we can all relate over this past year and a half the unknown is just what was really, really scary and, you know, created some of those fear factors in our body that strengths that sent off to our brain, oh, wait, these are some stressors, these are some things that, you know, we're bringing up red flags, so it kind of just want to touch on so the Sims that you asked about the symptoms of anxiety, and I'm going to give just kind of a brief overview of it, because symptoms of anxiety and adults and children can look different for each individual, individual person, and they are different for each individual person. So just a few symptoms of anxiety can include things like avoiding, avoidance, so that could be avoiding things we really, really like. So maybe I really want to go to math class, because I enjoy math, but due to having that sense of anxiety or that anxious feeling, maybe I don't want I'm gonna avoid that class. Maybe I'm gonna not go to class that day, because I'm not feeling too hot about it. So it could be avoiding things we like and avoiding things we don't like, along with that could be excessive worry. So just, you know, those irrational thoughts that pop into our brain, well, what if this happens, or the what if that happens, so excessive worrying over something and other things such as like physical symptoms, so our bodies so how our bodies react to anxiety and what our bodies can look like, if we're experiencing anxiety could be things such as like a faster heart rate. When you notice your heart beating, faster, feeling, you know, feeling sweaty, so like hotter than usual, maybe your palms, your hands get sweaty, and like I mentioned, maybe feeling hot or warm. So those those are just some physical symptoms of anxiety that you know, anyone, and everyone probably has experienced a time or two in their life because we all struggle with a certain level of anxiety. And then when it comes to anxiety, it's how we cope with it and how we're able to manage it, which I think was a part of your second part of your question. Yeah.

9:21  
I was just thinking about that. Like we all experience anxiety in a different way. But I think every one of our listeners can probably say that they've experienced anxiety at some point in your life, and especially this year. So how can we work through these emotions especially, you know, students who are returning back to school, maybe they've been online all year, maybe it's the first time they're back in person or maybe they're feeling isolated at home? How can they work through those emotions?

9:48  
Yeah, and you know, there's just such an abundant amount of information on anxiety and so I especially for the listeners, and for people who are really trying to get some anything something out of this I want to really narrow in on two coping skills. And so this can work for kids, this can work for adults, just two coping skills that if you're listening to this podcast and you're struggling with anxiety yourself, you can really utilize these two things after you're done listening to this, because, you know, there's, there's so many things I can I can just belt out right now and a list of items that, you know, we can use, but really focusing on these two I think will help can help in anybody's day to day life. And so specifically for our students, so the first one being deep breathing, and it just sounds so simple, right? Oh, I just need to breathe. And you know, I know, there's actually such a big science behind it. Deep breathing is just, you know, a simple technique that's excellent for managing emotions, and you touch on, you know, how do we manage all these emotions, not only is deep breathing effective, it's also discreet and easy to use at any time in place. So you know, sometimes when our students are, you know, we, we know, someone struggling with anxiety, they're worrying about it all in their head, and they're not able to express it or release it. So deep breathing is a big one. And I'll kind of I'll go through a little practice round right now, because there's, it's not just normal breathing, right? So, so Nicole, if you'd like to demonstrate or, you know, I can walk you through what it was kind of look like. So what I'm going to ask you to do is just sit comfortably, okay. So get comfortable, however you are in your chair, or standing. And just place one hand on your abdomen, so one of your stomach, and what you're going to do is you're going to breathe in through your nose. So deep enough that the hand on your ad and your abdomen on your stomach raises. And so what you're going to do after that is you're going to hold the air in your lungs, and then exhale slowly through your mouth with your lips kind of puckered as if you're blowing through a straw. And so what we're gonna do with the secret is to go slow, as well. So during this time, so we'll Breathe in through our nose for four seconds, we'll hold and we'll notice our chest got bigger or stomach on maybe a little tighter. And then afterwards, we're going to blow out as if we're blowing out through a straw. Okay, so we'll go ahead and practice that for a second. So breathe in through your nose 1234. And we're hold for about a second. And you'll go ahead and release that breath through your mouth. There we go, good. And so deep breathing such as that. And other people might know it as you know, belly breathing, where we're just really focusing our mind on how we're breathing. And that's then going to help our body release different hormones to calm down, to be able to cope with this feeling of anxiousness or anxiety that we're having. So I would recommend, you know, the deep breathing. Like I said, it's discreet, you could do it anytime, anyplace. Three to four to five times is what I would recommend. And so that's my first coping skill I'd really like for students and parents to maybe work on together with your families at home, deep breathing. And so the second one is imagery. So our thoughts have power, or just have the power to change how we feel. So how we think has the power to change how we feel. So if we think of something sad, it's likely you're going to start to feel sad. And then also the opposite is also true. So when we you think of something positive and calming, you feel relaxed. So imagery techniques, harness the power to reduce anxiety. And so when I say imagery, it's kind of, you know, a big, fluffy word. And so what I want to focus on is our five senses. And, Nicole, I'm going to put you on the spot here. Do you want to name out our five senses? I can let me see. We have sight, taste, smell? We have? Yes. Hearing.

13:49  
Yes. And touch. Very good. Yes. So sight, hearing taste, sense of touch and scent. So like I mentioned about the deep breathing imagery is a good one too. We could do all on your own. So what we can do with sight is even when you're feeling anxious, you could start to use your sight sense. So what do you see in this is just all in your head? What the or you could write it down? What do you see around you? What do you notice in the distance look all around you and in your surroundings and look for small, small details in your brain or writing it down. You can list those things. Oh, I'm in my office, I see blue chair. There's a pink construction paper across from me. And then you could do all those things with your senses. So I just gave that example for sight. So for hearing what do you hear? Is it soft? Is it loud? What can you expect to hear? Maybe you are like I could see the time and then a minute the bell is gonna ring and then feel what can you feel? What is the temperature like how does the air feel on your skin? How do the clothes feel on your body and so you really just soak in all these sensations and so like I mentioned, so imagining these things, the imagery of these things, and the sensations of it all like through our senses are is gonna help, you know, reduce anxiety, it's gonna take your mind off of maybe what you're worrying about and bring you present to the here. And now,

15:14  
I love both of those ideas and those examples, because like you said, it's something that you can do any place anytime it doesn't cost anything. I know, just deep breathing right now I feel more relaxed. So I'm very grateful for that. And, and I mean, just focusing on your environment and kind of grounding yourself, I think is important as well, if you're experiencing waves of anxiety, so I love Love, love those ideas. And and students can practice those in the classroom, or maybe when they're at school or at home, kind of switching gears a bit. What advice would you give the same advice to parents who also may be feeling depressed, anxious or stressed after this difficult year? I mean, we look at the family as a whole, right? So if maybe if their child stress, they're also stressed, and I think that they, I know, I need support in that area as well.

16:03  
Absolutely. And you know, this is I think you kind of touched on it, you know, this is a big one, it's what's important for families, for parents and families to know, when it comes to, you know, these various feelings of depression or anxiety or feeling a lot of stress due to this year is you're not alone. You know, you're definitely not alone, feeling anxious about, you know, starting a new school year, or the changing CDC guidelines, and the changing of school policies, and just the thought of, you know, the safety of your child and your family is a really big deal. And Nicole, you Yeah, it's really having Nicole, you touched on it, it's just, you know, it's on, it's on the forefront of our all of our family's minds. And so I can say a few ways, or I have, you know, just a few recommendations for families as well, parents, guardians, caretakers, just a few ways to ensure positive steps to well being as a parent as a guardian. And, you know, just like I mentioned, I gave two coping skills for anxiety, it can look simple, the things you do at home can look simple, and you might not feel the biggest impact of it if you only do it once or twice. But if you kind of come becomes a routine and you become mindful of these things, you know, you could definitely see a change. So I'll give, let's say, I'll give about three or four, three or four tips for our awesome families and parents and guardians out there. So the first one is, and this is going to be hard for all of our parents, and even for ourselves, to be kind to yourself. Yeah, allow yourself to learn during these times. It's, it's hard, it sounds that this is a really hard thing for adults, as adults to do is to be kind, encourage, rather than, than criticize yourself. So that's one big thing I would tell our families and our parents who are listening who, you know, are, we're all struggling with this difficult year, just just be kind to yourself. And second is to connect with others. So stay in touch with your family, with your friends. As humans, it's in our DNA for the need to have connection. And Nicole, you know, due to you know, quarantining and isolation, you know, that's, that's a big one we missed, we missed a lot over the last year. Yeah, and number three, that I have is exercise and eat healthy regularly. So our well being in our mental state are directly correlated, are directly correlated to how we treat our bodies. So making sure we're getting outside and doing some sort of exercise, whether it's walking or playing a sport with one of your kids, and then eating healthy and drinking enough water, which I'm sure we hear a lot, but you know, our bodies needed and for us to be in a healthy state of mind, and well have a good sense of well being those things are really important. And lastly, I guess, is accepting it is as it is, and I kind of want to emphasize that so accepting it is as it is not it is what it is, it is as it is, we tend to fight against distressing thoughts and feelings. But what's important is that we can learn to just notice them to just recognize them. And once we allow ourselves to notice them and recognize them, we could give up that struggle for the fearing and the unknown and everything. So it's just important that to know like some situations we just can't change. And we can learn how to surf those waves rather than try to stop those waves. So those are just you know, four things that I four tips and recommendations that I would give to our parents that are struggling with, you know, feeling anxious and stressed out after a difficult year and going into a new school year. Those those four simple things if we inquire if you're able to incorporate one to two of those a day, with your student and with your family, you know, you'll notice you'll notice a difference.

19:43  
I think those are fantastic ideas. It is as it is will probably be going up in my office somewhere. I really like that. And I just think you touched on a key point for me anyway. And that's consistency. I think what I mean I'm speaking from person personal experience. I think when I do things for my mental health more consistently, I see those, you know, the decrease in anxiety. And I see, it just seems to for me help get me over the hump that or whatever I'm experiencing, it helps get me through that. So I think that those are, again, really simple things that you can try to consistently implement in each day to to get through some of those anxious feelings that we're all you know, dealing with right now.

20:28  
Absolutely. We're all we're all dealing with it. You're not alone. We're not alone. Families, you're not alone.

20:35  
Exactly. That's, I can't stress that enough. We're not alone. So yeah. How can families support their child's social emotional health at home? What would it be kind of practicing those those things together? If maybe, as a family, you know, we're not experiencing anxiety to the extent as the student is experiencing anxiety. So how would that look?

20:58  
Yeah, and I think you mentioned, you know, our vision statement, I think a little earlier on, I think it's important component to Madison Madison school district's vision statement is focusing on the whole child. And so how our families can benefit at home from what we are doing here at Madison, what social emotional growth is simply, you know, all those things I had just touched on and recommended and, you know, gave some examples on but the main thing I would personally recommend for our families, is to simply connect, connect with one another at home, connect with your student, connect with your your kiddo, by having conversations, ask about school, ask about how their day was, talk about who they're hanging out with their friend, maybe ask what those questions like, why are you hanging out with those kinds of kids, or what made you drawn to those kinds of kids, and that as a parent, you know, or guardian caretaker that will help you understand and get inside their brain a little bit more as to how they're thinking and how their brains are formulating connections, ask them what they like to do or don't like, and just hear what they have to say, hear what your kid your student has to say. And this has to go, I would say this across all age levels, because I know here at Madison, we have preschool all the way to eighth grade. And simply connecting with our students connecting with your child at home, is going to show an improvement with how they manage things like stress, because talking about stress or various stressors is you know, proven to help reduce that stress. So yeah, I just recommend to connect with your kids, put the technology away, spend time outside, eat meals together and just be involved in your students life as much as possible.

22:42  
I think that's super important. I was just sitting here thinking as you were saying that how we sometimes we're around each other, but we're not really connecting, we're not present with each other. And I think especially when we're in anxiety kind of fight or flight mode, we're we're there with each other, but we're not really connecting. So I think that as you mentioned before, we as humans, we crave that connection. And I think that setting aside time to talk about the day or simply do an activity or task together is so important, and just rebuilding that connection that you might think is there. But when you really examine it, it's it's, it might be lacking a little bit.

23:22  
Yeah, I agree. And you know, we're all guilty of it. I'm personally just guilty of like being on my phone too much. Or, you know, I tried to really emphasize if I'm having a meal with friends or family, okay, phones down phones away, let's you know, let's talk, let's really get to know like how your day was or what you're struggling with today. And if you also like what's important about this, and for families to support their child is allow allow them to say, Oh, I don't really want to talk about that right now. Allow them that room to express themselves as much or as little as they want.

23:56  
Yeah, I think that's important in something we might not talk about. As enough as as enough as we should. I'm just allowing kind of a quiet space and not maybe forcing Converse difficult conversations. If we're not in the right headspace. I think that that's important to be, you know, open to that conversation or that connection that's happening, right, definitely guilty of like, going back to what you said about being on the phone or thinking about the 27 other tasks that I have to do. Yeah, it's nice even for, you know, parents, families to set aside that time to just be present. And I don't think I have enough of that in today's kind of world where we're constantly on the go, which just kind of heightens anxiety even more so. Right. I think it's kind of bringing it back. I know where by the time our listeners are hearing this. We're going to be back in school. And so tell us about how Madison will be supporting our students this year, whether they're learning in person or virtually, if they're, if they need that additional support or that go to adult to talk to

24:57  
Yeah, so this I'm really excited. About I, like I mentioned, I've only been with Madison going on two years now. And just everything that Madison stands for is directly correlates to my own personal values and beliefs. And so I'm really excited about this question. Because Matt is here, because you're a Madison, we're doing so much, and we're implementing new things, or learning new things. And we're trying to roll this out to, you know, all of our campuses. So, you know, first of all, kind of want to start off talking about, you know, our staff here at Madison are coming off of really well needed summer of rest and recovery. All of our teachers and staff, they really needed this this past year for them was just was traumatic, traumatic for all of us. And so it's really important for our teachers and staff to take care of themselves first, before we head into our classrooms and our lunch rooms, and, you know, the school hallways. Nicole, I'm gonna ask you a quick question. Have you ever have you and I kind of like to describe it this way. And when it comes to talking about how important our own well being is, have you ever been on a plane? Yes, you have awesome. So, you know, when you're on a plane, you know, you're getting buckled up, you sit down, you put your luggage away, and then it's time for the safety, the safety talk, right. And so you'll hear the the flight attendant, say, you know, if you know, in case of an emergency, your oxygen mask will fall down. And make sure you put your mask on first before putting your mask on the child or the person next to you in need. And so I really, I really, really love that analogy for you know, just everyday life, you know, we have to be able to put our own mask on before we could put on somebody else's. And meaning you know, here in our teachers need to be able to help themselves and feel feel good about themselves and rested before we're able to step into that classroom to help our students. So yeah, so kind of went off course there a little bit. But so what Madison is doing for students moving forward is one Our teachers are well rested, our teachers are ready to go for this school year prepared more than ever, into Madison School District has done this amazing thing where they we are hiring a counselor and a social worker for every campus. So our district has prioritized the need for social emotional support, then, so they've been hiring and and are in the process of hiring reinforcement in this area, just reinforcement for our social emotional support. And so that's super awesome is that each campus at some point or time will have a social worker and or counselor, if not both on their campus. So that's just double the support for teachers administration, and our families at home. And another thing I want to talk about what, which is super awesome. So the summer of 2020, the social workers and counselors got together and we created our own social emotional learning curriculum. Oh, wow. called I'm it and I'm It stands for in Madison, it's taught. And that kind of just goes back to talking about the whole child and how Madison School District is views the whole child and not just one portion of them. And so I met is being taught on district wide. So it's being taught across every campus all nine of our eight of our campuses nine including Madison Virtual Academy. And so with I'm it, it's just our social emotional learning. And it's about five to 10 minute lesson in the classroom, and it's taught and facilitated by the teacher. And it just zeroes in on how students can better their minds, their bodies, and overall well being. So, you know, this year, Madison's doing a lot when it comes to social emotional health and our well being and I'm just super excited to be behind the scenes helping out with it. And you know, watching it all unfold.

28:50  
Yeah, thank you so much for bringing up how we are not only integrating it into our curriculum, but that there will be additional support on campus this year. Whether a social worker, Counselor, I think that's really reassuring to hear for families so that they know that their student or child has a go to adult that can assist them with, you know, the social, emotional aspect of going back to school, in a pandemic, and everything that goes along with that. And I do want to go back to what you said about the example of, you know, putting on your own oxygen mask first. I think just speaking to our families right now, the adults who are listening to this, I think we often neglect that, or at least I do sometimes. Yeah. And because, you know, we we put our children first or, you know, that's our focus, but it's so so so important to focus on our own mental health so that we can be that support system for students who were going through a challenging time right now. So I thank you for bringing that up.

29:48  
Yeah, of course, it's, you know, it's my favorite thing to talk about. It's like my favorite little thing to say just because I think everyone no matter where you're at can relate to it at some point in time. Yeah, we don't put our selves first enough.

30:01  
So I'm just wrapping things up here outside of school, if families feel that their child needs additional support, you know, if they're speaking to a counselor maybe at school or a social worker at school, but they need that additional support on the weekends and the evenings, where can families go to access additional resources? Or when should they access additional resources? Yeah, so

30:26  
what's awesome about counselors and social workers is that we are full of resources, we have an overwhelming amount. And so with Madison, in each school there, like I mentioned before, there's a counselor and or a social worker, or both. So what families what you guys can do to get connected to the counselor social worker on your campus is you can of course, go to our district website, and there you'll be able to find their contact information for who you're looking for. So if you go to Madison, if you go to our district website, and then click on Madison Park, and then you'll be able to look for the social worker counselor on Madison Park, and then within that directory of our contact, we'll have our website. So the counselors and social workers have linked websites in our directory, and from there that will take you to our specific website that. So for example, my campus has my social worker and myself share our website, and it just has resources, on food, on clothing, on housing, assistance, assistance, and pretty much anything else you can think of. So what I would recommend to our families is check out whatever your school is go to the school, the district website, find your school, find your social worker, Counselor, and you could click from there. Another way you could get in contact with us would just be calling the front office of whichever you are trying to get in contact with and just asking, our front office staff are amazing. And they know how how needed we are and the needs of our community, and how they reach out to us. So they they'll our front office will connect you with the counselor or social worker. So yeah, I guess those are, you know, two of the main ways to get in contact with us. And call us another part of this question, but I'm blanking on what it is.

32:17  
So how would a family identify if their child needs additional resources? Maybe they, their child isn't talking to the counselor or social worker on campus, they're just kind of noticing those signs of anxiety or depression, they're concerned? Where could they go to seek out that support? If not at school, outside of school? Where can they get those resources?

32:39  
A lot of the times, and we get this a lot where parents notice that shift a change in their child, and you know, I work with middle school, so fifth through eighth grade. So within that whole timeframe, you know, there's a big thing coming up called puberty. And so I like to make sure that parents are aware, you know, are these new signs and symptoms? Are these signs and symptoms? Do you think due to puberty? Or do you think that have they been maybe showing these signs or symptoms for an extended period of time, you know, in the family will give me a lot of that background. And from there, I will be able to help get these family get that family to a resort and outside resource if needed. So for example, if if a family is wanting maybe family therapy, I would be able to provide them with that resource, whether that's the number, an insurance provider that accepts their insurance that they'll be able to go to directly, I'd be able to connect them to that specific need. And again, it kind of just all stems from the family or the student reaching out to somebody here at school, whether it's the front office, whether it's through our website, and connecting with either a counselor or social worker. And like I said, we're just so full of resources that whatever the need is, whether it's additional food, housing assistance, a different kind of need, we will have a resource for that. And that would be outside of the Madison School District would be within the community that

34:04  
they're in. Thank you so much for sharing how to access those resources. I know a lot of our families who may not be a part of Madison or may need those additional resources will hopefully really be helped by that. And I just, I just want to thank you so much for calling in today. I think this topic is so so so important right now. And we really appreciate your time and sharing your expertise. And we look forward to talking with you again soon.

34:29  
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Nicole, it definitely was my was a pleasure to be on here and to really connect. I'm excited to connect with our families and just you know, a different way. And so this podcast is awesome that you know, it's just another resources, another tool for them to know that they're not alone. And you know, here at Madison, we care. We care about you. Yes, thank you so much. Thanks, Nicole.

34:55  
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