Everett Public Schools Family Resource Center

Many students and their families in Everett Public Schools are living in eligible situations that meet the McKinney-Vento Act or what we refer to as Kids in Transition (KIT). Even more may be close to becoming KIT-eligible at any moment. KIT support is intended to help eligible students enroll and succeed in school. Most school-related support can be addressed directly at the student’s school, but sometimes there is a greater level of coordination needed. It can be challenging to navigate complicated systems when you have multiple children at different schools, or when there are many different people, agencies, and community support may be involved.

Everett Public Schools has a wealth of internal support and community partners, but there has been a need for a streamlined process to connect family and student needs to available resources. Complicated systems and application processes can be daunting in the most ideal circumstances and are even more difficult when dealing with something like a housing crisis; this is when a referral to a Family Resource Center might be in order.

Through a staff referral at the student’s school, FRC staff will serve as systems navigators connecting with partnering agencies, school district departments, students and families as needed to ensure students have the best possible chance at academic success and social and emotional well-being.

After a referral is made, trained and experienced support staff help assess family strengths and challenges with a team-based approach, using trauma-informed best practices, to offer individualized plans for achieving success. Parents, caregivers and unaccompanied youth are guided to remove barriers to access internal school support systems and processes. Wrap-around services are then efficiently streamlined and may include access to basic needs like food, hygiene, transportation, and referrals to housing and shelter options, as well as other services like healthcare, mental health, employment, education, or legal services.

The Family Resource Center (FRC) will serve as a hub for a limited supply of donated basic needs items and will also provide a welcoming space for our students and families to receive support, have some basic needs met and connect to school and community resources. The first center is located in the north end of Everett, serving students and families district-wide, and we have hopes to open a second center in the south end of the district in the fall.

The FRC would like to thank the following organizations that have generously supported the work we are doing: Everett Rotary, Mill Creek Kiwanis, Mill Creek Chamber of Commerce and EPS Foundation.

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