New Florence 1 school to offer mental health services to elementary students

FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — Florence 1 Schools is launching a new academy to serve students who are living and dealing with mental-health issues.

When Compass Academy opens this fall, it will be the first in the district to add elementary students to the program. For the last two decades, the district has offered mental health services paired with classroom instruction to middle-school and high-school-age students.

Brian Denny, the district’s assistant superintendent for exceptional children, said the academy has been a part of Superintendent Richard O’Malley’s vision from the start.

“I Thank Dr. O’Malley for getting us all together and pushing us and saying we have to do something different,” Denny said.

The district designed Compass Academy to help address students with educational disabilities as well as mental health issues.  It models a traditional academic setting while providing onsite counseling and therapy.

Music, art and equine therapy are just a few ways the program will provide intensive assistance to students. The academy will serve first through fifth grades.

The previous program did not offer services to children in these grade levels. Instead, they received instruction and therapy from home.

Krystle Graham, the district’s coordinator of clinical services, said the creation of Compass Academy will bring those students back into a school setting.

“In a smaller setting, where they will have therapy services all intertwined throughout their day, they will be assigned to school-based therapists as well,” Graham said. “They will have group-based therapy, individual therapy and behavioral modification that is kind of intertwined in an academic setting.”

The halls are empty now, but a new playground, special sensory room, and new classrooms are ready to welcome new students.

Patricia Nunnally, a special education teacher at the academy, is excited to see the program’s impact.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” she said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for them to be back in the classroom, have that peer interaction, and it’s going to give them an opportunity to be successful.”

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Tomika Jackson joined News13 in April 2024 as a multimedia journalist. She started her journalism career in 2000 with previous stops at WALB TV10, CBS47 & WTOC11 in Savannah, Georgia. Tomika is a Georgia native and Valdosta State University graduate. Follow Tomika on X, formerly Twitter , and Instagram . You can read more of her work here .

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