Check & Connect: A Comprehensive Student Engagement Intervention

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Check & Connect is a comprehensive intervention designed to enhance student engagement at school and with learning for marginalized, disengaged students in grades K-12, through relationship building, problem solving and capacity building, and persistence. A goal of Check & Connect is to foster school completion with academic and social competence.

Check & Connect is implemented by a trained mentor whose primary goal is to keep education a salient issue for disengaged students and their teachers and family members. The mentor works with a caseload of students and families over time and follows their caseload from program to program and school to school.

The Check & Connect trained mentor continuously:

• Checks on students, assessing their engagement with school and learning through close monitoring of their attendance, behavior, and grades; and
• Connects with students, offering individualized intervention in partnership with school personnel, families, and community service providers.

Twenty years of ongoing research documents that Check & Connect interventions yield the following outcomes (see Check & Connect Research Findings):

Testimonials

Here are just a few video testimonials from Check & Connect participants. See all interviews and testimonials.

Resources at the Institute

The Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota offers the Check & Connect Manual as well as fee-based Training and Consultation services to help you implement Check & Connect in your school, district, or organization.

More Information

Browse this website to learn more, and contact us with questions or to request training or technical assistance at checkandconnect@umn.edu, 612-624-2097, or 866-434-0010 (toll-free).

The original research on Check & Connect was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

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