24 | AUGUST 20 • 2020 

W

ith much uncertainty about how 
schools will look this fall, Kim 
Love, Hillel Day School’
s director 
of student services, is focusing her attention 
on the social and emotional needs of all her 
students, especially those with 
disabilities.
Love has been engaged with 
two groups and their outreach 
surrounding education, especial-
ly related to the COVID-19 pan-
demic and its effect on students’
 
mental health. 
Before assuming her role as the director of 
student services last year, Love served as one 
of Hillel’
s full-time social workers for three 
years. In her new position, Love oversees all 
of Hillel’
s support services, including learn-
ing specialists and social workers. She said 
she makes sure “all students’
 learning needs, 
as well as social, emotional and behavioral 
needs, are met within the school.
” 
Due to the pandemic, Love had to modify 
and expand how Hillel’
s students received 
learning support this spring. 
“
All of our students who needed help got 
the help they needed remotely,
” Love said. 
“We continued servicing the students who 
were receiving services prior to COVID, but 
we also did crisis intervention and offered 
services to students that required extra sup-
port during quarantine that may not have 
been receiving support when we were in 
school.
” 
Love has been selected as a 2020-

2021 Member at Large for the Michigan 
Special Education Advisory Committee 
(SEAC), which advises both the Michigan 
Department of Education (MDE) Office of 
Special Education and the State Board of 
Education (SBE) on how to provide positive 
outcomes for all Michigan students with 
disabilities. Her three-year term will begin in 
September. 
The state committee is composed of 
delegates from across Michigan who rep-
resent different educational organizations. 
According to Love, 51% of the committee is 
also made up of either parents of students 
with disabilities or people with disabilities 
themselves. There are 33 representatives and 
Love is the only member from the Jewish 
community. 
“
As members, we meet monthly and 
our activities or conversations during that 
meeting depend on what the needs are at 
any given time in the year,
” Love said. “For 
example, we sometimes work on proposed 
policies and leave our suggestions before they 
appear in the state legislation. We also iden-
tify unmet needs in the state and help advise 
the MDE and the SBE on best practices of 
how to go about making sure these things 
are put in place so the students of our state 
are getting what they need to be successful in 
school and beyond.
” 
Previously, Love served on the commit-
tee as a delegate representing the Michigan 
Association of Public School Academies, 
which is the organization for all charter 

schools throughout Michigan. That term was 
from 2013-2016. 
“I think what is really unique about being 
a member at large is that I am a voice for 
independent schools because I do work at a 
Jewish day school, but also because I think 
Jewish people are underrepresented in our 
state agencies,
” Love said. “I get to bring that 
diversity to the panel but also advocate for 
the needs of our specific community and 
students with disabilities within our specific 
community. That was something that was 
not there the few years ago when I previously 
served.
” 
Although Love hasn’
t had the opportunity 
to attend a SEAC meeting yet — they’
re on 
summer hiatus and will resume in September 
— she believes that with remote learning 
bringing new challenges for students with 
disabilities, there will be a strong focus in the 
first part of the year to address and develop 
policies on how to deliver special educational 
programs and services for students with dis-
abilities throughout the state. 
In addition to SEAC, Love has also been 
attending meetings for the Oakland Schools’
 
“Unpacking the Governor’
s Back to School 
Plan Mental and Social-Emotional Health 
Sections,
” where she virtually meets with 
Oakland County leaders and other school 
administrators to focus on how mental 
health will play a large role in the upcoming 
school year. 
“
Aside from being a fierce advocate for stu-
dents with disabilities, and especially Jewish 
students with disabilities, mental health is 
another huge passion of mine,
” Love said. 
“One of my other social work colleagues, 
Barb Kenny, was joining this and we decided 
to do it together so we can really help our 
students at Hillel.
” 
She has currently attended two sessions 
and there is one more planned. Love is con-
fident, however, that since they “are only 
scratching the surface,
” Oakland County will 
extend the meetings throughout August. 
“The roadmap is broad. They recommend 
we destigmatize COVID and that we screen 
our students for mental health needs, but 
it doesn’
t say how we should do that,
” Love 
said. “That is what is so wonderful about 
partaking in these meetings because we are 
sharing with other educators ‘
the how’
 so we 
can make the best plan possible for Hillel to 
address the social, emotional needs of our 
students when we return to school.
” 

Meeting Students’ Needs

Hillel Day School director of student services 
emphasizes mental health.

Kim Love

Kim Love with Hillel 
Day School students

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF HILLEL DAY SCHOOL

Jews in the D

back to school

