PAULLINA—South O’Brien Elementary is looking to close the gap on mental health awareness, starting one morning at a time.

The Close Gap program held a soft start at the school in Primghar two and a half years ago covering only several grades. This is the first academic year the Close Gap program will run from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Guidance counselor Renae Negus explained to the South O’Brien School District Board of Education at its monthly meeting Monday in Paullina that it is the small questions that sometimes have the largest impact.

“It’s basically a check-in system that students are able to utilize on their tablets or computers when they come to school each day,” Negus said. “We can see how they are doing. It’s developmentally presented to them.”

Close Gap is set up with an outer space theme. The questions students answer online include pictures of planets to show emotions or refer to a student’s energy that day as the fuel in a student’s rocket ship. Close Gap is developmentally presented to students, meaning younger students answer simply worded questions with cartoon graphics while upper-class elementary students are asked more intricate questions with a “more mature” design, Negus said.

Every South O’Brien Elementary student in kindergarten and above spend a few minutes at the start of every school day answering these questions. At the end of the questions, there is a quick selection of activities students can do which teach them how to calm and regulate emotions throughout the day. Questions include an audible option for younger students who cannot yet read.

“Myself and the classroom teacher will then see where the students are at for the day,” Negus said. “So, if you have a child that maybe has no energy, is feeling really sad, they will show up as a kid that maybe we should just check in with. And a check-in is simply, ‘Hey, how are you doing today? Are you feeling OK? Or is there something going on, or can I help you with anything?’ Just kind of touching base with them.”

While Negus admits she knows some students may not take the morning questions seriously, she said that’s OK. As long as one student has the platform to ask for help, Negus said Close Gap is doing its job.

“There have been a couple of kids where there have been a couple of needs that have popped up,” Negus said. “I know last year before we offered free breakfast, through Close Gap we figured out that some kids were having some food insecurities. And so that was a way that we were able to go, ‘Oh, I had no idea that that was going on, they never said anything about it,’ but through how they were responding we were able to identify that need.”

Every student will fall into either a red, yellow or green category after taking the test, red meaning “urgent,” yellow meaning “could use support” and green meaning “good to go.”

“Sometimes kids don’t sleep well at night. Sometimes they have an argument with a friend on the bus or at recess before school,” Negus said. “Being able to address some of those needs at the beginning of the day can usually prevent sometimes some behaviors or things showing up later on.”