Dads at the Door welcome North East Elementary School students with smiles and encouragement

NORTH EAST — North East Elementary School implemented Dads at the Door Wednesday morning, a new initiative where police officers, fathers, uncles, and brothers welcomed students out of their cars and buses with high fives and encouraging smiles.

“We’re at an elementary school level, we’re kind of limited on the males that we have. We are lucky to have a few males here on our staff, but it’s majorly women,” said NEES Community School Advisor Meghan Handy.

Having a male role model present can have a positive effect on academic performance, emotional wellness, and peer relationships, according to Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium’s brief on engaging fathers and other male role models in education.

“We just want to be able to support all of our students,” said Handy. “One of our jobs is educating them, but we want to look out for their overall well being…We wanted to be able to reach all of our students, whether they have a father that’s maybe just not involved, or can’t be involved, or passed away, or even if they already do have those positive role models that this is just an extra bonus to start off the day with a positive message.”

When Handy saw a post from a school in Minnesota who had started Dads at the Door, she thought the program would be a great opportunity to bring more male role models into her student’s lives to improve their academic and social experiences.

“I just thought it would be really beneficial for our community to have something like that,” said Handy.

Over 18 male role models showed up for students for the first round of Dads at the Door and it was a huge hit, according to school officials. Students entered the door grinning ear to ear after receiving high fives, and even sharing some dance moves to get a groovy start to their school day. Dads at the Door events will be held on the first Wednesday of each month.

To join in the next event, email mahandy@ccps.org