The 119K Commission met for the first time Tuesday. The group is tasked with finding ways to help students at risk of not graduating.
“We all have such different realities…”
Realities that Rania Das sees among her peers. A sophomore at Hopkins School in New Haven, she said all students have different lived experiences.
“I’m living one way. There’re so many kids who are around my age who are living in such a different way that at my age I cannot even imagine,” she said.
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That conversation was part of the first meeting of the 119K Commission. The 119K number comes from a commissioned study last fall, showing the number of students across the state either disconnected from school or at risk of not graduating.
“There are issues of trauma. There are issues of food insecurity. There are issues of homelessness. There are issues of crime and abuse,” Joe Delong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said.
The commission is working on helping those vulnerable students and is listening to stakeholders, especially youth voices like Das.
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“Tonight essentially kind of weaves the fabric for all of our work to come over these next several months,” Delong said.
Das said she recommends peer mentorship to build connections between students.
“I’m more likely to listen to someone who’s around my age than an adult who’s like ‘You should do this. It’s less condescending that way,’” she said.
Commission members say it’s ideas like that they want to hear to get that 119K number down.
“Our goal is to take half of this population within five or six years and put them back into a meaningful path forward,” Delong said.
The next 119K Commission meeting will be in Colchester on April 30.
