Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education "Formation of Specialized Support Team for High-Risk Students"

Announcement of Support Measures for Students in Emotional and Behavioral Crisis
Establishing a 'Prevention-Professional-Intensive' Support System
Training of Behavior Intervention Specialist Teachers Starting in April

To support students at emotional and behavioral risk who use profanity and verbal abuse in the classroom, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will establish a collaborative system ranging from preventive support to intensive support. In particular, for high-risk students, experts will visit schools directly to provide counseling and continuously monitor them for integrated management.

On the morning of the 14th, Seoul Metropolitan Superintendent of Education Cho Hee-yeon held a press conference at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and announced the 'Support Plan for Students at Emotional and Behavioral Risk in the Classroom.' Superintendent Cho stated, "Taking care of students' behavior and mental health is an urgent and crucial task for school education," adding, "If problematic behaviors persist despite teachers' guidance and expert intervention, we will form a specialized team to provide intensive and individualized support."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education pointed out that psychological difficulties among students, participation in classroom learning, and academic achievement have worsened following the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, there has been an increasing demand for support for teachers experiencing difficulties in managing students due to problematic behaviors such as physical conflicts, profanity and verbal abuse, and classroom withdrawal. Emotional and behavioral risk students are limited to those requiring psychological and emotional support.

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education [Photo by Yonhap News]

In the preventive support phase, students will be educated in three stages?universal intervention, targeted group intervention, and individual intervention?based on behavioral characteristics through 'Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS).' Positive Behavior Support is a disciplinary model that increases desirable behaviors to change behavior. To this end, online counseling and a problem behavior guidance handbook will be provided, and teacher professional development training will be conducted.

In the professional support phase for responding after problem detection, individual and group counseling will be supported through the 'Student Mental Health One-Stop Support Center.' Support will be provided by experts and teachers jointly assessing situations according to the level of risk, forming teacher groups to share cases, or experts providing guidance. The 'Behavior Intervention Specialist Teacher,' a pilot project starting this year, will be selected in February, and a training course will be operated from April to August.

The management policy for high-risk students has also been specified. Mental health experts will visit schools to provide counseling for students identified as a concern group through the emotional and behavioral characteristics assessment. If necessary, treatment costs of up to 1 million KRW per person will be supported by linking with specialized institutions. Additionally, a 'Four-Leaf Clover Crisis Support Team' composed of professional committee members will be established to assist integrated support through mid- to long-term counseling and monitoring. Furthermore, to encourage parental cooperation, parent training sessions will be held each semester, and educational programs providing consulting on response methods such as handling school violence cases will also be offered.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.