 Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) are a school-based approach to providing focused services to students seeking support or needing interventions for academics, behavior, and attendance often due to deeper concerns relating to substance abuse, mental health, or social issues. They are a process - not a curriculum or treatment center - that connects programs and services within and across school and community systems to create a network of supports to help students. As a process, SAPs identify students in need of intervention, assess these students' specific needs, and provide them with support and referral to appropriate resources. The overarching goal of SAPs is to remove barriers to education so that a student may achieve academically.
What do SAPs look like?
SAPs provide an umbrella of prevention, identification, screening, intervention, and support strategies within a school, and in concert with a collaborative network of community supports. School-based models of SAP services typically take on one of three different forms: the Counselor Model, the Core Team Model, or the Community Agency Model.
- The Counselor Model utilizes a community-based contracted body or in-house school personnel as the source for SAP services. A certified, experienced counselor acts as program coordinator.
- The Community Agency Model is headed by a contracted external agency provider that brings skilled clinicians into schools to work with students and parents in the delivery of services.
- The Core Team Model is run by a central group of 6-8 multidisciplinary on-campus personnel who have been trained by experienced consultants. Ideally, the team would include a campus administrator, school counselor, SAP counselor or specialist, social worker, classroom teacher, school nurse, and other student services staff. This Core Team collaborates to identify and assist referred students.
How are students referred to and screened by SAPs?
 Across all three program models, students are referred to the SAP in a similar way: by the completion of a checklist identifying a student’s observable behaviors of concern. School teachers or other school staff (e.g., school counselors, non-certificated staff) are usually the main source of student referrals. Parents or students themselves also provide referrals, on occasion. Other student referrals to the SAP can be automatic, originating through law enforcement channels, from substance abuse centers, or resulting from a disciplinary incident (e.g., behavioral violation). Referral to the SAP may also be part of a student’s overall reintegration plan into a school following suspension, time spent at a juvenile facility, or time spent at an alcohol or drug rehabilitation center.
Once students are referred to the SAP, they normally meet with a SAP counselor who helps assess the student’s problems and needs, and then refers the student to appropriate services. Devising an action plan for a student can occur over several sessions with the SAP counselor, or a student can begin receiving services immediately and have follow-up meetings with the counselor for additional needs assessment and service provision over time.
What are the types of services offered by SAPs?
 SAPs offer multiple services managed in a way that allows them to be bundled to meet the specific needs of individual student participants. The range of services typically includes group instruction or facilitation (e.g., classroom prevention education), small support groups, individual counseling, and referrals to both school-based services (e.g., tutoring, after-school activities, career services) and community-based services (e.g., health care, law enforcement, social service organizations, substance abuse recovery centers). SAPs are a vehicle for bridging the delivery of services by external providers and/or community groups to the school, and for linking students to external services, activities, or support. SAPs are also a hub of resources for adults to help youth and their families, offering training workshops, teacher support, and various forms of assistance to parents.
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