Check it out below

This Fall, Coordinated School Health assisted our school nurses with health screenings. This is a free service for families. Hearing and vision immediately impact a student's learning. Should a family need arise, we work with our Family Resource Center and other community partners to remove that barrier.

We have yet to get this school year's numbers totaled, but take a look at the past two years.

• Total Screenings: 50,000+ screenings
• 600+ students referred for vision and hearing assistance
• This service is free to our students and schools. The estimated donation value is over $800,000.

Loudon County Schools staff had the opportunity to apply for small grants through Coordinated School Health to increase physical activity and improve mental health. This opportunity has served 132 staff and 3,768 students for the 23-24 school year!

Coordinated School Health will have a limited number of kites, books about kites, and activities for families to sign up for. Our goal is to provide materials so families can enjoy healthy activities together (and send us your pictures, please)! We are still working out details but you can sign up below to pre-register. We want to bring the event to you and celebrate all month long!

Law Enforcement and School Leaders Launch ‘Handle with Care’ Program to Help Kids Who Experience Trauma

Loudon County Schools, Lenoir City Schools, Loudon County Sheriff’s Office, Loudon City Police Department, and Lenoir City Police Department launched “Handle With Care” program to support children facing trauma.

“Handle With Care” enables first responders whether that is law enforcement, fire, or EMS to notify schools if they encounter a child at a traumatic scene, so schools and mental healthcare leaders can provide trauma-sensitive support right away.

The statewide Handle with Care program is being coordinated through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Dangerous Drugs Taskforce through a state grant. Technical assistance, training, and program support is provided at no cost to the county.

Everyone is excited to work with such great community partners on a program that will help our student in Loudon County.

Handle with Care has three components:

• Law Enforcement will send a notification to either school district when they encounter a child at a traumatic scene. They will not share incident details to schools, just three words: “Handle With Care.”
• The school district will then distribute the notification to the appropriate teacher and/or counselor so they can monitor the student’s behavior and determine what trauma-sensitive support the child may need at school, such as reteaching lessons, giving more time on tests, sending the student to the nurses, or sending the student to the counselor.
• If needed, the counselor will make a referral to a mental health provider.

About Handle With Care

In 2011, the West Virginia Children’s Justice Task Force, in collaboration with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the South District of West Virginia, formed a subcommittee to explore the problem of children’s exposure to trauma and violence and programing to mitigate the negative effects of trauma. They developed Handle With Care, and in 2013, piloted the program in one elementary school. Since then, over 65 cities across the country have implemented the program.

All 9 of our LAUNCH sites have gone through the actions needed to take the TN Healthy After School Pledge. We are proud to say all 9 site are now TN Healthy After School Sites!

Loudon County School Extended Learning Program presented at the 21st CCLC Multi-State Conference held in Louisville, KY. Audience members were from four different states. This was such an honor to be able to share about all the great things occurring in our programs!

Early Childhood & Family Reading Program

The Family Resource Center (FRC) team is happy to provide Read with Me for families of Loudon County. The goals of the Read with Me Program are to introduce infants and early aged children to the greatness of books, to assist with reading readiness for starting school, and the fun in reading by giving them free books to explore every three months until they start first grade. To provide parents and guardians the opportunity to share quality family time through the enjoyment of reading these books together. Read with Me also builds positive relationship between and the FRC, Loudon County Schools and parents or guardians before their child begins school. And lastly, to provide parents and guardians with community resource info each quarter, so they may learn about our FRC, Loudon County Schools and our community.

Research indicates that children who can read well by the end of second grade are more likely to succeed in school and are less likely to drop out. Reading to children at an early age is a terrific way for families to experience exciting adventures together, and to open doors for important discussions.

Please scan this QR code with your cell phone camera

to access the Read with Me sign-up form. Complete the form

by typing in the requested information and click submit. A Family

Resource Center staff member will contact you regarding the

Arrangements to start of Read with Me.

Proudly sponsored by the Good Neighbor Shoppe and the Fort Loudon Children Fund

This year, our Loudon County Schools Christmas for Angels Project served 416 children from 174 families. There were more than 350 community partners who sponsored angels and over 100 volunteers who contributed their time and efforts in wrapping, labeling, and sorting all the angel gifts, and delivering the angel gifts to our schools in the Christmas caravan.

For larger print, click the file below.

February is Nation Heart Health Month

Are you ready to PLAY 60? The NFL PLAY 60 app, brought to you by the American Heart Association and the National Football League, encourages youth to get active 60 minutes each day. The free app allows users to choose their favorite NFL team and create their own personalized avatar. Users can create custom workouts and play games by controlling their avatars onscreen with their own physical movement. Get moving to earn special PLAY points and unlock cool NFL gear for your PLAY 60 avatar!

The app also has ALL-NEW ways for parents and teachers to get involved! Parents can create activity plans and track fitness development while kids get active to earn PLAY points and mystery boxes. The “Group Play” feature allows parents and teachers to create customized timed workouts for their child or students – featuring exercises like jumping jacks, squats, running in place, and balancing on one leg. Workouts can be 5, 10, 15, 30, or all the way up to 60 minutes!