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School Social Work Now!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership & Applied Research
April 2013 - Vol 3, Issue 27 |
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Come on . . . Follow Us!! | |
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Greetings! | |
Texas 2012 School Social Worker of the Year, Hope Pacheco, LMSW, of YES Public Schools in Houston, TX has granted permission to ACSSW to publish her poem in celebration of School Social Workers. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as we did! Thank you, Hope!
WHO ARE WE TO OUR STUDENTS?
We are the seekers of the truth, when they don't know what to say
We are the holders of what is sacred, in a time of hurt and pain
We are the keepers of their secrets, when no one needs to know
We are the reporters when it is mandated and the bruises start to show
We give them the tools and the space to figure it out
We teach them to see the power they have, without a doubt
We hold the mirror
We shine the light
We give them the courage to fight the good fight
We are the healers of the heart
We are the comforters of the soul
We are the whisperer of the mind
We are present in the moment
We are witness to their journey
We are their guardians
We are their advocates
We are their guides
We are THEIR school social workers!
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Cuts and reductions resulting from the federal Sequestration are beginning to manifest themselves. The National Alliance of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (NASISP; formerly NAPSO), of which ACSSW is a member, is requesting stories of cuts or reductions so that they can be shared with the federal policy and decision makers. If you have a story or if you know of someone or a district with a story, please contact me. If you are uncomfortable with releasing your name or that of your district, we can keep that confidential. Please send them now!
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Every student deserves access to supportive mental health services! Who better to provide them or to help families to secure resources than school social workers? Often, you are the only licensed, trained mental health clinician on the school staff. You can raise awareness about and educate others on school mental health benefits and interventions.
Green ribbon pins and Talking Points sheets are still available so, please contact us NOW if you want pins for May, Mental Health Awareness Month. You may also view a picture and/or download the order form now. Each pin comes with two pages of Mental Health Talking Points that can be discussed or shared with administrators, staff, parents, and so on. Start a campaign in your school and Wear the Green! Good mental health is so essential to positive school and life outcomes. Be a leader in School Mental Health. Please show your support today.
Judith Kullas Shine
President |
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Professional Development | |
*** New listings into Fall 2013 *** |
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Recommended Read for April | |
"This is quite an unusual book. It's not a practical guide to handling day to day issues with Autism, nor is it a dry clinical description of Autism. It's essentially a book promoting a new paradigm, (a whole new outlook) on Autism. It provides you with an understanding of some key positive concepts and then goes on to show how they can be put into practical use on a daily basis. . .
Make no mistake, these aren't ten baby concepts which will only hold true for a small part of your child's life. They're adult ones, mantras for living - and they apply forever. . .
You'll notice that every one of these ten things is open-ended. Each topic contains a lot of important discussion material. I won't say that I agreed 100% with everything but the later chapters put all of my minor niggles to rest.[The author] makes it clear at the beginning of the book that all children are different and that not everything here will apply to every child." -- Gavin Bollard
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Practice Points | 
[Last week] I wrote about the principles of Motivational Interviewing and how they could be used in working with an academically unmotivated student. I discussed how adopting the spirit and principles of MI serves as a framework by which we elicit change talk from our students.
Change Talk is defined as statements made by the student revealing consideration of, motivation for, or commitment to change. Change talk is the pathway by which motivation is increased. Learn more.
Why Are Adolescents Violent? by Dr. James Garbarino
This article discusses how adolescents become violent from the perspective of human development, in which the process of formation of the child and the youth depends on diverse biological, psychological e social variables that constitute the context of life of these individuals. The ecological perspective of human development opposes simple cause-effect relations between antisocial adversities and behaviors and believes that factors such as gender, temperament, cognitive ability, age, family, social environment and culture combine in a complex way influencing the behavior of the child and the adolescent. Some conclusions point to the fact that violence in adolescence usually starts from a combination of early difficulties in relationships associated with a combination of temperamental difficulties. It is concluded that the young seem to be as bad as the social environment surrounding them. Read full article.
Tips on Using Social Media to Enhance Your Social Work Job Search
Read these brief tips from LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook on how to use social media to find that next job! Click here.
Healthy Sex Talk: Teaching Kids Consent, Ages 1-21
"We believe parents can start educating children about consent and empowerment as early as 1 year old and continuing into the college years. It is our sincere hope that this education can help us raise empowered young adults who have empathy for others and a clear understanding of healthy consent.
We hope parents and educators find this list of action items and teaching tools helpful, and that together we can help create a generation of children who have less rape and sexual assault in their lives.There are three sections, based upon children's ages, preschool, grade school, and teens and young adults."
Designed for parents, this list of suggestions may also be useful for school personnel teaching about "good touch - bad touch" in health education programs. More. |
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Leadership News | 
Here's a simple way to potentially save hours of your time each week, by investing a total of about five minutes.
First thing one morning, take a piece of paper and write a column of numbers representing each hour from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. For me, the list would start 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 and go all the way back to 12. (So far, you have invested about fifteen seconds.)
For this single day, at the top of every hour stop for 20 seconds and consider how happy you are with the way you spent your time. Did you invest it wisely? If the answer is yes, don't write anything. But if you wouldn't repeat the way you spent the last hour. .. click here to read next steps!
Learning-focused Leadership and Leadership Support: Meaning and Practice in Urban Systems
This report summarizes what the authors learned from a multi-strand investigation, the Study of Leadership for Learning Improvement, that adds to the understanding of this realm of educational leadership. Together, the three study strands in our research shed light on the questions: What makes the leadership of urban districts and schools most likely to contribute to learning improvement? To what extent, and how, do different leadership activities, structures, and practices focus others on an improvement agenda and mobilize efforts in this pursuit? Who or what supports leaders who are working to improve the quality of teaching and learning? What does that "leadership support" entail?
In approaching these questions, our research was guided by an overarching set of ideas we refer to as "learning-focused leadership," and that others have described as "learning-centered leadership" or "leadership for learning."3 Our particular take on this way of characterizing leadership work focuses attention on powerful, equitable learning among students and professionals and within the system as a
whole. Access complete report.
To better understand the leadership dimensions of crisis situations, the Center for Creative Leadership convened a forum with formal and emergent leaders who played a role in Katrina. Using an array of facilitation techniques, we overlaid this conversation between crisis leaders with the perspectives of discussants with expertise in disaster, terrorism, public health, and leadership.
What we found is that when crises such as Katrina overwhelm the capacity of formal systems and structures, new leadership systems take shape and emergent leaders step into the void, playing critical and improvised roles in rescue and rebuilding efforts. The dialogue at the forum also indicates that leadership in mega-crises requires a systemic response that extends beyond the leadership capabilities
of any individual or single organization.
[While the crisis forming the basis for discussion was Katrina, the lessons learned and leadership principles observed in action can be applicable to crises found in schools.] Learn more. |
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Research Highlights | 
A new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA analyzes data from 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools to estimate over two million secondary school students -- one in nine -- were suspended at least once during 2009-2010. Research indicates suspension even once in the ninth grade doubles likelihood of dropping out. Suspension rates in middle and high schools have increased dramatically since the 1970s, especially for black students, to the extent that about one in four black secondary school children today, and nearly one in three black middle school males, was suspended at least once in 2009-2010. Black female secondary students were suspended at a higher rate (18.3 percent) than male counterparts from all other racial/ethnic groups. One in five secondary school students with disabilities was suspended (19.3 percent), nearly triple the rate of students without disabilities. The highest rates were at the intersection of race, disability, and gender: 36 percent of all black middle school males with disabilities were suspended one or more times. The analysis also found suspension "hotspots": In 323 districts, suspension risk for all secondary students was 25 percent or higher. Nationally, 2,624 secondary schools suspended 25 percent or more students annually; for 519 schools, suspension rates equaled or exceeded 50 percent. Nearly 7,000 secondary schools with at least 50 members of a racial subgroup, English learners, or students with disabilities met or exceeded suspension rates of 25 percent for at least one subgroup. In contrast, 7,710 secondary schools in 3,752 districts did not exceed 10 percent for any subgroup with at least 10 members. Chicago had the highest number (82) of high-suspending hotspot secondary schools in the nation. More. Executive Summary.
Abstract: Although there is literature supporting the effectiveness of tertiary behavioral supports, the majority of the studies have been conducted with single-subject designs. The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model is a standardized model of a school-based tertiary intervention. This study reports initial results from a randomized controlled trial to compare whether the PTR model, as implemented by typical school personnel, is more effective than interventions typically used (i.e., services as usual). To date, 245 students in Grades K-8 have been enrolled in the study, and preliminary results show that students who received the PTR intervention had significantly higher social skills and academic engaged time and significantly lower problem behavior when compared with students who received services as usual. Teachers gave high social validity ratings to the intervention. Implications for widescale school adoption are discussed. Access full study. |
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In the News |
Given a growing body of research that links low self-control in childhood with serious problems later on, schools are exploring ways -- from character-based education to mindfulness meditation to social-emotional learning -- to teach self-restraint, writes Andrew Reiner in The Washington Post Magazine. At the D.C. Prep Middle School, for instance, administrators cultivate persistence and self-restraint through a school day that runs from 8 to 4, teachers who are on-call until 8 p.m., and evening study and college counseling for graduates. Suspended students wear green pinafores and still attend classes, though they may not speak and are placed at the back of the classroom and the end of the hallway line. Alternatively, Mindful Schools and the University of California at Davis taught meditation practice in three Oakland elementary schools, resulting in 84 percent of teachers believing students calmed more easily, and 61 percent of students reporting better focus. The third front -- social emotional learning, or SEL -- centers on the emotional needs of children. SEL curricula teach children self-awareness and empathy, as well as steps for handling conflict constructively and creating positive relationships. A study by the University of Virginia found that children at schools using the Responsive Classroom approach showed increases in reading and math scores; teachers were more effective in discipline and in offering high-quality instruction; and children felt more positively about school. Continue.
Maine lawmakers reacted warmly Tuesday to a concept presented by Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen that would drastically change how charter schools in Maine are funded, spreading the financial responsibility to every school district in the state.
In response to requests from lawmakers to explore new funding models, Bowen said he has developed the frame of a program that would treat charter schools the same as any other school district within the state's funding formula.
Currently, charter schools receive public tax dollars from their students' sending districts, which are required to contribute a per-student amount to the charter school based on the state's Essential Programs and Services program. That means that traditional public school districts that lose students to charter schools end up losing more funding than other districts that do not. Learn more.
Fresno Schools Turning Away from Zero Tolerance with Restorative Justice
Data shows that one in 9 students are suspended nationally, with racial disparities widening. The Central Valley city of Fresno, CA. is among districts seeking to reverse this trend. Under a zero-tolerance school discipline policy, the district has long seen high numbers of both suspensions and expulsions. But in a major reversal last week, Superintendent Michael Hanson announced that he would begin funding district-wide restorative justice programs. Read interview.
Japan: Overwhelming Public Support for Teacher Who Slapped Rude Students
Taunts of "baldy" and other snide remarks finally got to a teacher at a junior high school outside Tokyo.
He retaliated by slapping 16 students he had made to kneel on the floor, telling them they had to take responsibility for their behavior. The teacher, who was suspended from his duties after the incident in February, has received overwhelming public support for his actions.
The issue of corporal punishment, especially when it is meted out during sports training at schools, is in the public eye right now in lage part because of recent headlines about violence directed against female judoka. The incident occurred during a second-year students' math class on the afternoon of Feb. 1 in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The 50-something teacher prodded boys who were late returning to their classroom from gymnastics to "hurry up." Some of the students mouthed "shut up," "idiot," "baldy" and "just die," and caused the classroom to erupt in laughter. Continue. |
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Survey Completion Requests |
Interconnected Systems Framework Survey
The intersection of education and MH in school based MH programs is being explored, to be developed into a monograph. This framework is called the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) and is led by Lucille Eber and Susan Barrett of the Center for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and
Mark Weist of the University of SC and former director of the Center for School Mental Health. It will be a guiding document for school, community, and federal decision makers at all levels.
One chapter will be devoted to building policy support. Joanne Cashman, Director of the IDEA Partnership with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, has sent out a request to gain the perspectives of professionals in the field so that all voices are included in this visionary document. We, school social workers, are being "asked to the table"! Your responses are essential to a fully informed document that may influence the delivery of services in schools.
Please take the time to complete the survey. It looks long but, having completed it, I can assure you it doesn't take long to finish. But more than that, it is another way of contributing to the profession of school social work in a way that doesn't cost more than 10-15 minutes of your valuable time. Link to survey here.
Smith College Study on SSW Practice
Sarah Wettenstein, a student at Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, MA, is conducting a research study about how school social workers practice and the different types of interventions they use. In particular, she is interested in looking at the barriers to participation in different kinds of school social work practice.
This is yet another opportunity to inform the school social work and related educational communities about the profession! It costs nothing but your time--which often is in short supply. But original research about what we do and how we do it is so very important. Please assist in this research by learning about the project or, for more information, email Sarah or call 860-604-1204.
You are invited to participate in a brief 20 minute anonymous survey. The Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is conducting this survey (a) to understand the barriers to engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment, and (b) to develop best practices for engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment. Mental health professionals who provide school-based mental health services are invited to complete this survey. Participation involves completing a 20 minute online survey of mental health professionals' experiences with engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment. Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. In addition, your responses are completely anonymous and confidential. If you decide to participate, you may discontinue participation at any time, or if you feel uncomfortable answering any questions, you may choose "skip" as the answer or you may leave the text box blank. By completing the survey, you are providing consent to participate in this evaluation. Please contact Dr. Nicole Evangelista Brandt or 410-706-0980 with questions. Thank you in advance! Go to School-Based Mental Health Survey. |
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Webinars | |
Unlocking the Development of Children Exposed to Violence
On April 18, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. ET, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-funded Safe Start Center will present the 1-hour Webinar Unlocking the Development of Children Exposed to Violence." Panelists will discuss the impact of exposure to violence on child development and offer ways schools and the child welfare system can better respond to trauma. Click here to register.
Autism Webinars
Join the IDEA Partnership staff and organization leaders in learning about Using the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Collection. A webinar on Using the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Collection will be offered every Thursday during the month of April. All are welcome. Go to the IDEA webinar page to register. All sessions will be on Thursdays at 1:00 P.M. ET. The webinar will be limited to 50 participants. When you get to the registration page just click on the date you will attend: April 18 or April 25, 2013.
At the Intersection of School Safety and Supportive Discipline Navigating the Roles and Responsibilities of School Resource Officers
On April 24, 2013, at 4 p.m. ET, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services will present At the Intersection of School Safety and Supportive Discipline: Navigating the Roles and Responsibilities of School Resource Officers. During this 90-minute Webinar, presenters will describe the current roles, responsibilities, and training requirements of school resource officers (SROs) to ensure an effective partnership that maintains a safe school environment and promotes positive youth outcomes. Representatives from several communities will discuss their experiences and practical strategies they developed regarding SROs in their schools. Register for the free webinar.
Interconnected Systems Framework: Integration of District and Community Leadership
The Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) is a structure and process for blending education and mental health systems through a multi-tiered structure in schools. The ISF promotes a prevention-based continuum of mental health promotion and supports embedded in all 3 tiers of multi-tiered systems of behavioral support in schools. This webinar will be held Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 1 P.M. ET. For more information & access codes click here.
ARCHIVED & AVAILABLE
Keeping Common School Areas Safe presented 3/20/2012 and
Teasing, Taunting, Bullying, Harassment, Hazing, and Physical Aggression: Prevention, Strategic Intervention, and Crisis Management presented 5/11/2012
Teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, and physical aggression are persistent problems with children and adolescents in schools across the country. These events typically occur in common areas of the school (i.e. hallways, bathrooms, buses, cafeteria). To help address these problems and provide schools with comprehensive, evidence-based approaches to school-wide discipline, behavior management and student self-management, Project Achieve is providing two online presentations at no cost to view at your own convenience. Each presentation, about 60 minutes long, discusses ways to implement social skills training, peer mediated approaches, a school wide accountability system, school and common school area safety system, and home-school collaboration approaches. Click the links above to access.
Understanding the Developmental Needs of Young Families Experiencing Homelessness
Young families who are homeless often have unique needs based on both the challenges of trauma and homelessness and their developmental stage. A developmental perspective is essential to tailoring services to meet the needs of this population. During the first session of this course, we will provide an overview of development from birth through young adulthood; child and adult brain development; expected behaviors and responses at each stage; and the impact of trauma on development. Register to access.
Understanding the Impact of Trauma in the Lives of Displaced Children and Families
The prevalence of traumatic stress in the lives of displaced children and families is extraordinarily high. Experiences of trauma can have a significant impact on how families interact with each other and with service providers. In this webinar, participants will learn about the connection between traumatic stress, displacement, and homelessness; the mind-body response to stress and trauma; factors that influence our responses to trauma, particularly cultural factors; and the impact of chronic trauma on all areas of functioning. Register here to access. |
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Grants & Funding | |
Champion Creatively Alive Children
Crayola Creative Leadership Grants 2013
Crayola, in collaboration with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, is accepting applications for the 2013 Creative Leadership Grant program. The program will award up to twenty grants of $2,500 to elementary schools working to develop a team of leaders who can help increase arts-infused education within school and beyond. In addition, each program will receive an in-kind grant of Crayola products valued at $1,000.
Applications will only be accepted from principals who are members of NAESP. Every school that submits an application by June 10 will receive a Crayola product Classpack. Click to access application. Deadline: June 21, 2013.
NEA Foundation-Nickelodean Big Help Grant
Sponsored by Nickelodeon and the NEA Foundation, NEA Foundation-Nickelodeon Big Help Grants provide up to $5,000 to K-8 public school educators in the United States. The Big Help Grants program is dedicated to the development and implementation of ideas, techniques, and approaches to addressing four key concerns - environmental awareness, health and wellness, students' right to a quality public education, and active community involvement. The grants target these four concerns as areas of great promise in helping students in the twenty-first century develop a global awareness that encourages and enables them to make a difference in their world. Applicants must be practicing U.S public school teachers or public school education support professional. The application process is the same as for the NEA Foundation's Student Achievement grants. Applicants should specify that their request is for the Big Help Grants program in their application. Application deadline is June 1, 2013. Link to RFP. |
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ACSSW Activities | |
ACSSW's present activities include:
- supporting research projects and their application within the school environment;
- developing a national school social work role framework paper;
- establishing a National Center for School Social Work Practice, Leadership and Research, a long-term goal,
- designing professional development opportunities that address current issues and real job challenges. Watch for details to come.
- staying on top of national educational reforms and trends.
If you have interest in participating in any of these activities, contact Judie Shine. ACSSW strives to be inclusive and transparent in all of its activities and welcomes, whether lengthy or short, the participation of its members. |
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