Christenson, S.L., et al. Reaching Today’s Youth: The Community Circle of Caring Journal, 2, 18–21. 1997. During seven years of experience with federally funded intervention projects for high-risk youth, Check and Connect has developed a system of support that helps even the most challenging young people meet school standards. In work with secondary level students with emotional and learning disabilities, the aim was to increase school engagement and graduation rates for students at highest risk for school dropout. The system of support developed to meet these goals is a monitoring procedure referred to as “Check and Connect” facilitated by a category of professionals we call “monitors.”