Student Services

Counseling Services

Our program promotes student success through focus on academic achievement, prevention and intervention activities, advocacy, and social/personal/emotional and career development.

​Our counselor serve  students, parents, staff and community in numerous ways.  They spend 80 percent of their time performing direct services, such as individual and group counseling interventions, collaborating and consulting with parents/teachers/administrators regarding strategies to help our students.

Mrs. Jeannette Alfaro

Counselor

Fun fact: loves to ZUMBA every weekend!

Email her!

Ms. Olga Lopez-Nanney

Counselor

Fun fact: loves to do photography.

Email her!

Project UP-START Information for Parents and Families

Project UP-START is the Education Program for Children and Youth Living in Transition in Miami-Dade. The program assists schools with the identification, enrollment, and attendance of students in transition to help ensure their successful academic achievement.
Project UP-START services are available to students enrolled in Miami-Dade County Public Schools from Head Start through 12th grade who are experiencing unstable housing. Any student who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, as defined by the Stewart B. McKinney-Bruce Vento Homeless Assistance Act, qualifies for Project UP-START.

A student who is residing in the following circumstances qualifies for Project UP-START:
• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason, also known as “doubled-up;”
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters; or
• Living in a car, park, public space, abandoned building, substandard housing, train station, or other public or private place that is not designed for ordinary use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

If your family is experiencing unstable housing conditions based on any of the categories above, please complete the Project UP-START Student Eligibility Questionnaire (FM-7378) below and electronically submit it to the Project UP-START Program or provide the completed form to your child’s school:
                                         Project UP-START Student Eligibility Questionnaire (FM-7378)
                                            English                                            Spanish                                     Creole
Upon enrollment into the Project UP-START Program, students will automatically receive free lunch. Students can apply for transportation through Project UP-START if they live over two (2) miles from their School of Origin, the school the student was attending when he/she had stable housing. Efforts are made to expedite psycho-educational evaluations for children who may be gifted or who are experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties. Project UP-START also works to increase advocacy on behalf of students through the distribution of information to school-based personnel on issues related to unstable housing and available community resources.