 |
|
||||||
FOLLOW US 
|
Resources on Youth Substance Use, and How Educators Can HelpAn extended break is one of the many perks offered in a school environment – for both the staff and the student body. However, lengthy school breaks — such as those during the holidays, spring break, and summer — are oftentimes when students are more likely to experiment with drugs or alcohol. So what can educators do to help? There are many free resources available for educators, parents, and communities to educate and raise awareness around the issue of youth substance use and abuse:
If your district is interested in adding substance abuse prevention or mental health awareness to your annual training catalog, WORKS has the "Student Safety, Wellness .& Social Responsibility" and the "Student Behavior, Intervention & Support" course catalogs. Email us to learn more WY Names PublicSchoolWORKS as an Approved Suicide Prevention ProgramSuicide is the third leading cause of death among U.S. youth ages 10 to 19, making suicide prevention a priority for school districts and states. Wyoming is the most recent state to adopt the Jason Flatt Act, following the lead of Tennessee, Louisiana, California, Mississippi, Illinois, Arkansas, West Virginia, Utah, Alaska, South Carolina, Ohio and North Dakota. As part of its adoption of the act, the WY DOE mandates that all educators receive a minimum of two hours of training each year to maintain their state teaching licenses. To help districts meet this requirement, the Wyoming DOE created a Suicide Prevention Review Team to find training programs that met the Wyoming standard. After the task force’s research was complete, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction recommended select programs that met their requires, including WORKS online staff training for use as suicide prevention training materials for this school year. The PublicSchoolWORKS Student Safety, Wellness and Social Responsibility Catalog has three Jason Flatt Act-specific online training courses addressing suicide in students, suicide warning signs and responses, and suicide intervention. The catalog also includes courses covering self-injury, self-asphyxiation (a.k.a. “The Choking Game”), suicide prevention, and more. If your district is in a state with training mandates as part of the Jason Flatt Act, or your district simply wants to proactively arm educators with more knowledge in the hopes of preventing student suicidal tendencies, we can help. Our easy to implement, and award-winning training program included in the EmployeeSafe Suite, features more than 400 courses, and actually saves staff time through its fully-automated program while equipping district employees with knowledge to drive positive change in your school’s climate. The Newly-Updated Restraint and Seclusion Online Staff Training Course Features Effective Use of Time OutsWhen students refuse to behave or follow instructions, frustrated teachers may isolate or even physically restrain to keep them from lashing out, even though these are considered last-resort tactics. A heated student-staff confrontation may result in actions that inadvertently harm the student, and lead to further escalation of a student’s aggressiveness. Besides the damage to a child’s mental health, it also opens the district to a vulnerability in lawsuits. According to a recent report from ProPublica, students in grades K-12 were physically restrained or secluded at least 267,000 times in 2012. Even worse, 20 students have reportedly died while being restrained or isolated since 1992. These actions clearly leave the districts open for litigation. For example, a California district was ordered to pay families $8 million as settlement for the improper restraint and seclusion of eight special needs children. As part of the EmployeeSafe suite library of more than 400 courses, we have released a newly-updated online Restraint and Seclusion training that includes de-escalation techniques and focuses on the use of “time outs” as a tool in stopping student aggression. It is critical for every educator to be trained on proper use of restraint, seclusion and time-out techniques, as well as when each technique is appropriate to use. This course is available in both Spanish and English. The course addresses:
Restraint and seclusion techniques should be the last resort for an educator in dealing with students, but when forced to do so, the expectation is to do so effectively and to not cause harm. Contact us to learn how you can make sure your educators are properly trained to handle students when they act out. ONC BOCES Chooses EmployeeSafe Suite to Ensure Compliance for Itself and Its Component DistrictsWe are excited to welcome the Otsego Northern Catskill (ONC) BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services) and their component districts to the PublicSchoolWORKS family. ONC BOCES selected our EmployeeSafe Suite to manage safety compliance tasks, staff training, accident management and risk prevention for their multi-site organization. Additionally, of the 19 component districts under ONC BOCES, six already have directly implemented EmployeeSafe in conjunction with the ONC BOCES Safety/Risk Management program. ONC BOCES serves its component districts through multiple locations dotted across a vast five-county region. When the ONC BOCES long-time safety risk officer was set to retire this past spring, and take her extensive experience in managing compliance requirements with her, ONC BOCES needed a comprehensive-but-easy program to ensure a smooth transition that also would maintain compliance with all federal and state mandates. So, after vetting numerous vendors and programs, ONC BOCES partnered with PublicSchoolWORKS to help manage safety and compliance-related requirements. After successful use by ONC BOCES staff located in multiple offices, they decided to extend our EmployeeSafe program to all component districts. Now the ONC BOCES sole safety risk officer can ensure compliance across all BOCES locations and through participating component districts with ease. “The major challenge ONC BOCES faced when implementing and maintaining a safety program was the large territory we cover,” said Dr. Jennifer Bolton-Carls, Deputy Superintendent at ONC BOCES. “It was difficult to follow the compliance task calendar and ensure all employees were on the same schedule with our facilities so far apart. With PublicSchoolWORKS, we now know we are not missing anything, and our administration, educators and custodians are all on the same page,” added Bolton-Carls. PublicSchoolWORKS Wins Readers’ Choice Top 100 Product Award, Again!We are very honored and humbled in learning that our customers again voted us as a District Administration Readers’ Choice Top 100 Product. This is the sixth consecutive year that PublicSchoolWORKS EmployeeSafe Suite has received this honor, making WORKS:
In this season to celebrate, we celebrate you, our customers, who continue to show your loyalty in our programs and customer service. We are thrilled to receive this honor, that wouldn't have been possible without you. Thank you doesn't begin to convey our deep appreciation. Thank you for being part of our extended PublicSchoolWORKS family, and for giving us yet another reason to smile! 
|
|
|