Sherburne County Health and Human Services (HHS) has been recognized for outstanding work preventing educational neglect.

 

Earlier this month, the county received a Local Government Innovation (LGI) award from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs for the county  Talahi Educational Neglect Support (TENS) Program.

 

“These awards are meant to recognize creative ways cities, counties, schools and townships are using innovation to make Minnesota better,” Amanda Larson, planner with HHS told the county board.

 

Sherburne County HHS started the program two and a half years ago at Talahi Elementary School in St. Cloud.

 

“We were to trying to reduce the amount of educational neglect cases we were seeing out of that school,” said Mitch Fennell, child protection assessment investigator with the county. 

 

Fennel said he gets referrals from a school where children may be getting close to the seven days of unexcused absences for the school year.

 

“We invite the parents as well as the child to the meeting so we can explain to the family what our concerns are, but also connect them with community resources as preventative action,” he said.

 

In 2013, the program spread to Zimmerman Elementary Schools and it is continuing in other school districts.

 

“This year we’ve also expanded into Big Lake,” said Fennell. “Big Lake Elementary School accounted for about a third of educational neglect numbers last year. Last year we had 11 cases, so we had to re-allocate some of our resources into the Big Lake schools.”

 

Fennel said there have been two educational neglect cases this year, but none in any of the three schools covered by the program.

 

“I think you guys deserve a very good pat on the back for the job you guys do, compared with what goes on in the rest of the state and the rest of the nation,” said Commissioner Ewald Petersen. 

 

There were 100 nominations for the LGI award, with five winners chosen in each of four categories: counties, cities, schools and townships.

 

The other county projects chosen along with Sherburne County in 2014 were Cook County: Septic Regulation Implementation (overall category winner); Hennepin County: Stable Families Initiative; Ramsey County: Automated Recidivism Tracking System; Saint Louis County: Community Sanctions Program.