Pearland ISD Partners with UTHealth and UHCL to Support Students

Pearland ISD Partners with UTHealth and UHCL to Support Students and Future TeachersPearland ISD's board of trustees approved two new partnerships at its September 8 meeting, one focused on student mental health and the other on teacher and student training. The first agreement is with UTHealth Houston's Department of Psychiatry. Through this partnership, Pearland ISD students will take part in five sessions, each lasting 45 to 60 minutes, as part of a program called Youth Aware of Mental Health, or YAM. The program uses discussions and activities to help students build skills like problem-solving, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, empathy, and listening. UTHealth Houston will supply the materials along with a trained facilitator and assistant to run the sessions. The agreement costs the district nothing and will remain in place through June 2028.The board also approved a separate agreement with the University of Houston-Clear Lake, or UHCL. This partnership will let UHCL students complete internships and hands-on fieldwork inside Pearland ISD schools, giving them real classroom experience while they train to become teachers. UHCL will choose which students apply for these placements, but the district still has to approve each one before it happens. A faculty member from UHCL will also oversee the students during their internships to make sure they are learning and performing well. This agreement will last through July 2030.Together, the two agreements show Pearland ISD investing in both its current students and future teachers. The UTHealth partnership gives students tools to understand and talk about mental health at no cost to the district, while the UHCL partnership helps build a pipeline of trained educators who get real experience in Pearland classrooms before starting their careers. Both deals were part of a broader set of items the board approved during its September 8 meeting.