Every student, known by name, known by story.
Every Student Known helps schools map the relationships that already exist in their buildings — and close the gaps for the students who've slipped through. Grounded in Danielle Paoni's work on relational connection and psychological safety, built for the realities of rural schools.
Every Student Known didn't start as a school-culture initiative. It started with a mental health counselor sitting across from students carrying real trauma, in a rural community with almost nowhere close by to send them for care.
When the nearest support is an hour's drive away, the adults already in the building become the safety net — whether the school planned for that or not. ESK is how we made that safety net intentional instead of accidental: broadening the circle of trusted adults, tracking who's actually known and who isn't, and treating that connection as protective. Schools using it have seen real movement in the indicators that matter most — attendance, disclosed risk, and students staying enrolled long enough to earn their diploma and change their own trajectory.
Read the full story →Dots of Connection
Every student in the building gets a row. Every adult marks what they actually know, across four categories — not a feeling, a fact. No lines, no claimed relationships. Just a clear, honest record of where every student already has a dot, and where they don't yet.
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Belonging
Every student can name at least one adult in the building who would notice if they were gone.
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Visibility
Staff can see the whole sheet — not just their own caseload — so gaps don't stay hidden in one person's memory.
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Consistency
Connection is a practice built into the school week, not left to chance or a single advisor's memory.
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Trust
Psychological safety for students starts with psychological safety for staff — so both get tracked, not just assumed.
Consulting built for the school you actually run
Every engagement starts with your building's real map — not a generic rollout. From a one-day audit to a multi-year partnership, the work scales to your staff, your calendar, and your community.
Relationship Mapping Audit
A full tracking sheet of every student across all four known-ness categories, cross-checked with the companion student survey — built from real staff and student input, not a form no one reads.
Staff Training & Coaching
Practical, low-lift routines that help every adult in the building — not just counselors — build and sustain student relationships.
Belonging Framework Implementation
A structured rollout of Every Student Known across advisory, MTSS, and daily routines — with a plan your team can actually keep running.
Rural School Partnerships
Ongoing support built around small staffs, tight budgets, and the specific realities of belonging work outside the district resources of a big city.
Field notes
Short writeups on relationship mapping, Early Warning Indicators, and what belonging work actually looks like in a rural building. Posted as I have something worth sharing — not on a fixed schedule while I finish my doctoral program.
Why Every Student Known Exists
The story behind the framework — a rural community, a mental health counselor's caseload, and why connection became the intervention.
More resources as the dissertation wraps up
Facilitator guides, EWI templates, and implementation notes will land here as they're ready to share.
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I'm finishing my doctoral program right now, so I'm not able to take on new school partnerships just yet — and I'd rather tell you that up front than leave you waiting on a reply. Join the list and I'll let you know the moment that changes, plus you'll hear about new field notes as they go up.