|
School Social Work NOW
Supporting Innovative Practice, Effective Leadership & Applied Research
July 2011 - Vol 1, Issue 36 |
|
|
|
Professional Development Opportunities | |
This link includes state, national and international professional development opportunities.
Professional Development Opportunities
If you represent an organization with PDOs of interest to school social workers, please contact us with details. We will consider each request in terms of relevancy, timing, and interest level. |
|
|
|
Greetings! | |
Just a few quick bits this week:
As you are aware, there is much talk of raising/not raising the debt ceiling these days. Along with this talk is additional discussion of severe budget cuts which would affect many programs that poor families depend upon. Defaulting on our debt could mean the US credit standing would slip and businesses may have difficulty maintaining or developing job opportunities. Cuts could mean significant changes to Medicaid and Medicaid eligibility, cutting or eliminating Pell grants, and negatively impacting Social Security and/or other programs that some of our families need. Please educate yourself on these issues and share your opinions with your legislators. Tell them you want balanced budgeting that reflects the mutual goals of budget deficit reduction and efforts to protect and invest in children. Please contact legislators now. They depend a great deal on the input received from constituents like YOU!
TeenScreen offers a free online guide to help middle schools, high schools, and youth-centered community centers establish mental health screening programs for adolescents. With TeenScreen materials, local schools and communities have an accessible vehicle for organizing mental health providers, counselors, and others to identify at-risk teens. TeenScreen requires that school administrators and teachers not be involved in the screening process to ensure confidentiality of results.
If you are looking for summer reading that enhances your practice, there are a number of books on school social work available from various publishers. Here are a few to get you started: School Social Work Books.
Planning for the 2012 Summit is already underway. It will again be held at the lovely Hilton Chicago Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, IL, from June 24th-26th. Save those dates for another professional experience that asks you to share your talents and practice wisdom in an active way and one that prepares you for ongoing educational reform efforts !!
NASW is seeking input on its draft of Standards for School Social Work Services. This is an opportunity to weight in on this important issue. See article and link to comments under "Practice", below.
If you have ideas or comments regarding what you'd like to see in next year's e-letter issues, don't hesitate to contact us. Send your thoughts to: Ideas and Comments.
Last but not least, Stay Cool!!
Judith Kullas Shine
President |
|
|
|
|
Practice Points |
 Biomarker for Autism DiscoveredPeople with autism and their siblings without autism show similar brain activity patterns when looking at emotional facial expressions, British researchers say. Study leader Dr. Michael Spencer of the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Center says people with autism often struggle to read people's emotions. The researchers studied 40 families who had a teenager with autism and a sibling without autism. A control group consisted of 40 teenagers with no family history of autism. All were given functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans while viewing a series of photographs of faces which were either neutral or expressing an emotion such as happiness. By comparing the brain's activity when viewing a happy vs. a neutral face, the scientists were able to observe areas within the brain that respond to this emotion. The study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, found despite the fact that the siblings of those with autism did not have a diagnosis of autism, they had decreased activity in various areas of the brain -- including those associated with empathy, understanding others' emotions and processing information from faces -- compared to those with no family history of autism. Read more.
NASW is developing Standards for School Social Work Services and needs your help in ensuring that the revised standards are relevant to current practice. Please review the draft standards and provide feedback using the form found at the link. The public comment period ends at 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 2, 2011. This is your opportunity to contribute to the growth and ethics of school social work. Visit the link now.
Influence of School Level Socioeconomic Status and Racial Diversity on Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Implementation
This evaluation brief examines the capacity of schools of varying levels of socioeconomic and racial diversity to implement Tier I (Universal) of schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) with integrity. The three main evaluation questions addressed are: (a) "What percentage of schools are able to achieve 80%-80% implementation status on the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) within 1 year?" (b) "Is school socioeconomic status associated with implementation effectiveness?" and (c) "Is school racial diversity associated with implementation outcomes?" Evaluation Brief in PDF |
| Leadership News | |
Building Leadership Teams
Inclusive systems and schools unify teachers, staff, students, families, and communities and promote the practice of collaborative and shared leadership.
Informed, competent, and distributed leadership is a critical requirement for successful, inclusive reform efforts and the central role of distributed leadership is to support and sustain implementation of reform that improves teaching and learning for every one in the school.
Leaders at all levels require knowledge of professional development design, the change process, research findings, standards based instruction and assessment, data-supported decision making, and an array of leadership and communication skills and processes. Effective leadership development supports participants in accessing and applying these knowledge bases.
Finally, equity is a central concern of leadership. Leadership development initiatives should increase participants' understanding of equity issues and make special efforts to recruit diverse participants.
The academies in this module promote inclusive systems and schools by coaching Building Leadership Team members in both leadership skills and team collaboration. Download the materials in each of the following three academies. All files will open in a new window. Please print the manuals and save the PowerPoints for use with the academy presentations. Tools and more. |
|
|
Research Highlights |
Writing a Research Article
In this article Natasha Bowen, PhD, describes the basic sections of a research article and offers some questions to keep you on track when you're writing for an academic publication. Dr. Bowen's research interests include the role of developmental risk and protective factors in the emergence and treatment of behavior problems and the role of the social environment in child development. She has also overseen the development of the Elementary School Success Profile. Read more.
Teaching Immigrant Preschoolers
While the term "immigrant children" can be interpreted in different ways, experts at the April 29 conference defined it to include any child under age 18 living in the United States with at least one parent born in a foreign country. Currently such children account for a quarter of the nation's 75 million children. By 2050, they are expected to make up a third of more than 100 million children in the United States.
The well-documented academic disparities between many immigrant children and their peers in high school are rooted in early-childhood education, said Robert Crosnoe, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He pointed out that immigrants to the United States are not a monolithic group. Immigrants from Latin American countries tend to be more disadvantaged than those from Asian countries, for example. But, while preschoolers from Latin American immigrant families are more likely to live in poverty, have mothers with low educational attainment, and have health problems, they also have some strengths.
"They are better behaved than other children," Mr. Crosnoe said. He said Latino preschoolers have an edge over their African-American peers in their level of social-emotional development, which is something he believes educators can build on. Continue. |
|
|
In the News | |
Childhood Bipolar Disorder: A Convenient Illusion
Stuart Kaplan, M.D., a child psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine, has written a new book called "Your Child Does Not Have Bipolar Disorder: How Bad Science and Good Public Relations Created the Diagnosis."
Marilyn Wedge: What inspired you to write the book?
Stuart Kaplan: The first articles describing the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children in the mid-1990s were obviously mistaken. The children described in these articles did not have bipolar disorder, and the criteria used to make the diagnosis differed from the DSM-IV criteria for the diagnosis. In a few short years, professional meetings on the subject were filled to capacity, and the diagnosis became rampant. Training programs educated child psychiatrists in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. Finally, it seemed as if child psychiatry would never back away from the diagnosis; I thought a book critical of the diagnosis for parents and professionals might help.
MW: You make the interesting point that the diagnostic category of bipolar disorder (previously called manic depressive illness) is an accurate description of a disorder that exists in adults in the natural world. On the other hand, categorizing children's mood and behavioral problems as bipolar disorder is incorrect, because the diagnosis does not point to an actual biological problem in children.
SK: Categorizing children's mood and behavioral problems as bipolar disorder is incorrect because the disorder does not meet any of the required five Robins-Guze criteria for establishing a psychiatric diagnosis. Pediatric bipolar disorder is a social construction: it is a word made up by people, but it has no counterpart in the real world. It's an American disease that is largely absent in other countries. It is one of many stories we have made up to explain misbehaving children.
... SK: This book will help parents deepen their understanding of how bipolar disorder is (mis) diagnosed in children and adolescents and the science behind the psychiatric treatment of the disorder. For complete article, click here.
Tribal Youth Use Digital Media to Dent "Silent" Epidemic of Suicide
According to government statistics, American Indians are 70 percent more likely to die by suicide than the general population. The high suicide rate has been called a "silent epidemic." But it's silent no more if you cock an ear to the noise coming from a health workshop in Portland. Prevention workers there are hoping teen-generated web videos, music and even a comic book can save lives.
Almost one in four Native American youths has attempted suicide according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 17-year-old Brandon Trejo, who lives on a reservation in eastern Washington, knows a face behind those stats. "One of my friends, he tried overdosing on a bunch of pills. It didn't work," he recalls. "He ended up going to the hospital and getting stomach pumped." Tribal member Sarah Hull has felt the same shock, not just once, but multiple times. The 16-year-old goes to school off-reservation in suburban Gresham, Oregon. "I know from personal experience living in a Native American community and being around people, depression is really common because for a lot of people it's hard to find your way to your culture or find your way to a certain passion when you don't who you are and you're confused," Hull says.
Hull says she lay awake at night trying to find the right words for a song on the unusual theme of suicide prevention. Hull's music is part of an anti-suicide/healthy living workshop put on by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. The regional agency invited 60 students from different tribes throughout the Northwest to come to Portland for a week... supported by a federal grant. More.
Report Questions How Schools Mete Out Discipline
The 121-page report details how punishment at [Texas] public schools might lead to later brushes with the law by linking the disciplinary history of each student who also had a juvenile record.
Among the findings: Minorities and special education students who caused "emotional disturbances" were more likely than white students to be disciplined. In fact, nearly three-fourths of students in special education classes were suspended or expelled at least one time; 83 percent of African-American male students ended up in trouble, in comparison to 74 percent for Hispanic male students and 59 percent for white male students. Among all students, suspensions averaged about two days per offense. Overview and Full Report. |
|
Webinars | |
Cyberbullying
The U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is sponsoring a Cyber-Bullying webinar on Friday, July 29, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 p.m., EDT. Andrew Yeager, a New Jersey state certified School Psychologist and Student Assistance Coordinator, and Lieutenant Joseph Rampolla a law enforcement officer, will be the presenters. The COPS has identified three learning objectives: 1) Detail the current trends in cyber-bullying, harassment and victimization, particularly as they relate to adolescent development, 2) Explore how the blending of technology and adolescent development creates a potent and dangerous combination, leading to excessive risk-taking and the inability to control impulses and foresee consequences, and 3) Discuss intervention strategies for law enforcement, school officials, parents, and students. For more information and to register please click here.
Functional Behavioral Analysis and Wraparound
The National Wraparound Initiative is partnering with the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (which is a collaboration between the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health and the American Institutes for Research) to sponsor a series of webinars on implementing high quality wraparound. Webinars include a one hour presentation by a National Wraparound Inititiave expert, followed by 30 minutes of discuss. The next webinar on "Functional Behavioral Analysis and Wraparound" will be on August 23rd from 2:00PM - 3:30PM Eastern Time. This webinar will teach families functional assessments to manage their own crises as part of the wraparound process. To register for this webinar please click here. |
|
Call for Poster Sessions and Media Presentations | |
OJJDP Seeks Presenters for National Conference Poster Sessions and Media Presentations
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) calls for poster and media presentations for its upcoming national conference, "Children's Justice and Safety: Unite, Build, Lead." The conference will be held on October 12-14, 2011, at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.
The poster session will feature visual presentations of recent program initiatives, research findings, and other information of interest and importance to the juvenile justice, delinquency prevention, and victimization communities. The media room will feature audiovisual materials (including TV and/or Internet-based PSAs, news segments, and training videos) from OJJDP-funded initiatives and programs. Submissions must be postmarked on or before Friday, August 5, 2011.
OJJDP Conference Information. |
|
Grants & Funding | |
National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) Research & Development Competition
The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) FY 2012 Research and Development Center Competition announces a research and development competition.
Topics include:
1. Interventions for Families of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders;
2. Interventions for Families of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders;
3. School-Based Interventions for Secondary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders; and
4. Reading Instruction for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students;
For more information about these funding opportunities, please see the Request for Applications (RFA) and contact the appropriate program officer listed.
CVS: Caremark Community Grants
The CVS Caremark Community Grants Program is currently accepting proposals for programs targeting children with disabilities that address: health and rehabilitation services; a greater level of inclusion in student activities and extracurricular programs; opportunities or facilities that give greater access to physical movement and play; provision to uninsured individuals with needed care, in particular programs where the care received is of higher quality and delivered by providers who participate in accountable community health care programs. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: nonprofit organizations. Deadline: October 31, 2011. Learn more.
Sodexo Foundation and Youth Service America Invite Applications for Youth-Led Children's Hunger Volunteer Projects
Twenty-five $500 grants will be awarded to volunteer projects that address the issue of childhood hunger at the community level and are conducted by young people between the ages of 5 and 25 who live in the United States. Deadline: September 16, 2011. Link to Complete RFP. |
|
ACSSW Activities | |
ACSSW's present major activities include:
- increasing research projects and their application within the school environment,
- developing a national school social work role paper,
- a more long-term goal, establishing a National Center for School Social Work Research, and,
- developing the 3rd National School Social Work Research Summit to be held in late June 2012 in Bloomingdale, IL, at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort.
If you have interest in assisting with one or more of these projects, don't hesitate to contact Judie Shine. ACSSW strives to be inclusive and transparent in all of its activities and welcomes the participation, whether short or lengthy, of its members. |
|
|
