CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice announced Wednesday the state’s Communities in Schools (CIS) initiative is now in all 55 West Virginia counties.
Nicholas and Pleasants were the last two counties to recently be added to the list.
First Lady Justice said the expansion now covers 272 schools with 259 site coordinators impacting more than 100,000 students across the state.
CIS is meant to help children statewide achieve goals in school, in the workforce and in life. The First Lady worked with the state Department of Education to launch the program in Greenbrier County Schools in 2018 with hopes to add more school districts over time.
The First Lady said that goal of helping more West Virginia students has become a reality.
“You just have to know children’s needs, know what they want, what they need and just be their friend,” she said during the governor’s statewide media briefing Wednesday. “They want to have one person in their life that they can count on.”
State Schools Superintendent Michele Blatt also spoke at Wednesday’s briefing and said the program is working.
“The impact that it’s made with our students, the freedom it’s given our teachers to focus on academics because they have someone there focused on the needs of our students and just to echo the importance of our site coordinators and the work they do every day,” Blatt said.
Blatt said the initiative focuses on the state’s most at-risk youth. She said 99 percent of students have stayed in school, 94 percent were promoted or graduated to the next grade and behavior has improved by 76 percent.
The program has generated many success stories. Blatt said teachers and schools cannot support children alone which is why this program is necessary for student achievement.
“We’re fortunate enough now that we have alumni that have graduated from a CIS school and to hear them speak about the fact that they wouldn’t be where they are today, or even alive one of them told us, had it not been for the site coordinator that was there in that school and helped them through a very difficult time,” she said.
Communities selected for the CIS program are asked to identify their needs and then the state works to provide connection to state and federal resources.
CIS has a Friends with Paws program, which provides therapy dogs to CIS schools. Organizers said it has helped students affected by poverty, substance misuse or other at-risk situations.
The West Virginia Department of Education became the first state department of education to receive the national certification for CIS back in Dec. 2023.