By Bishop Nash, The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON — The need for social support in West Virginia’s public schools is well-documented and equally dire.
There are 10,522 homeless students in the Mountain State — which continues to drag at or near the bottom in most poverty metrics — with the opioid epidemic splintering the family unit at every corner.
But schools in a handful of West Virginia counties are preparing for the addition of new state-funded and school-based support staff to connect students with outside resources. That comes with the expansion of the Communities In Schools program from three to 11 counties for the coming 2019-20 school year.
More than 175 educators met in Huntington on Tuesday for the first of the four-day Summer Learning Institute, hosted at the DoubleTree Hilton by the West Virginia Department of Education and first lady Cathy Justice.