The On-Campus Intervention Program (OCIP^®) is a collaboration between Family Resources, Inc. and the Pinellas County School Board. Since the inception of OCIP^® in 1995, out-of-school suspension rates at participating Pinellas County schools have dropped an average of 50 percent. An evaluation of the program was completed and subsequently published in 2002 by The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, as part of a Federal Safe Schools/ Healthy Students grant*. The following contains excerpts from the evaluation:

Michael Boroughs, M.A., Oliver T. Massey, Ph.D., Kathleen Armstrong, Ph.D., University of South Florida, Pinellas County School District, Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative

Prepared by the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida

"OCIP is an alternative to suspension, which essentially couples counseling with academic help for students with issues of defiance or other non-violent issues ... (The program was) evaluated using a methodology that compared the program participants with a comparison group that was created using behavioral characteristics as well as demographic information. Disciplinary referrals were used as the outcome variable to measure change over time." (Executive Summary)

"The On-Campus Intervention Program (OCIP^®) is an alternative to the typical in-school suspension program because it has three outstanding features: 1) students admitted to the program are separated in the school from the rest of the student body for the duration of the period of a suspension (usually three days), 2) a teacher is present who works with students to complete academic work and stay current with their studies, and 3) a counselor is present to provide individual intervention for behavioral and emotional problems that students may be experiencing.... The program's rationale suggests that while students are not relieved from the consequences of disruptive or rule-breaking behavior, they remain on the school grounds where they are supervised, have the opportunity to stay current with academic responsibilities, and may obtain needed counseling to correct the behavioral problem that led to the suspension." (Executive Summary, p. 2)

Results

• "...OCIP participants showed a decrease in disciplinary referrals over time, but at a lesser rate than did members of a matched comparison group. However, a surge in referrals during the semester of treatment, suggests that OCIP participants may represent an at-risk group with even greater needs than the sample available for comparison." (p. 9)
• OCIP^® may succeed in helping to prevent students from dropping out of the school system. (p. 9) "...OCIP might prove to be a protective factor with regard to dropping out of school."(p. 9)
• "...students participating in the OCIP program dropped out of the school system at roughly half the rate of matched comparisons who did not participate in OCIP^® ...These increases in the percentage of OCIP participants in the overall group demonstrate that students in OCIP have a greater likelihood of remaining in school than their non-participating student matches." (p. 7)

*The full report can be found at the website for the Florida Mental Health Institute.