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School Social Work NOW!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership, and Applied Research
Vol 4, Issue 23
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It is with sadness that we learned of the unexpected passing of ACSSW member, Michelle A. "Mickey" Mitchell (nee Lavin) on Sunday, March 9th, at the age of 40. Mickey shared her talents in the Kenosha (WI) Unified School District. He death is a loss not only to her husband, young daughter, and loved ones but to her colleagues and others who knew her. Rest in peace, dear lady.
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On October 6th, ACSSW will be hosting its 2nd annual Mental Health in Schools Institute in Pewaukee, WI, just west of Milwaukee. This will again be a multi-disciplinary event and will include community mental health providers. Details are still being finalized, but topics will include: anxiety and school refusal, boundaries/ethics and technology, Signs of Suicide Program, Act Now! a bullying prevention program, assisting students in military families, managing conflict in the workplace, and more! Click here to learn more.
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As school mental health providers, school social workers need to be promoting good mental health for our children and youth. Learn more at: National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, May 8th. Plan now to make this a successful district-wide initiative. Check out the
ACSSW Poster and Talking Points
to help you make school personnel aware of how important Children's Mental Health is. Green pins to support Children's Mental Health are available.
Judith Kullas Shine
President
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Recommended Read for March
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Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
 by Dan Kindlon, PhD, & Michael Thompson, PhD
Amazon: Kindlon and Thompson make a compelling case that emotional literacy is the most valuable gift we can offer our sons, urging parents to recognize the price boys pay when we hold them to an impossible standard of manhood. They identify the social and emotional challenges that boys encounter in school and show how parents can help boys cultivate emotional awareness and empathy--giving them the vital connections and support their need to navigate the social pressures of youth.
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National School Social Work Survey
Closing Soon
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Do you have 20 minutes to advance the profession of school social work? ACSSW members and readers have made a sound contribution to this survey, but let's increase the numbers and help the researchers go over 3000! The final reminder has already been sent.
The 2nd National School Social Work Survey has two broad aims:
(1) to collect current data from the largest number of practicing SSWs; and
(2) to use that data to enhance our professional development and training.
This data can inform policy- and decision-makers at all levels, local to federal. Your input is essential. If you can't complete the survey in one sitting, you can return to it. Please participate. We need many, many more responses. Click:
National SSW Survey
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The rapid and pervasive arrival of online networking through blogs, chatrooms and sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn create unique challenges in the application of familiar ethical concepts. Client privacy, professional boundaries, social worker self-disclosure, conflicts of interest, and informed consent all take on new forms and complexities in light of technological advances. This article introduces the prominent features of social networking and the ethical tensions they can create for helping professionals. It concludes with guidance on translating clinical and ethical standards for a changing electronic environment. Continue.
When Luke gets angry, he tries to remember to look at his bracelet. It reminds him of what he can do to calm himself: stop, take a deep breath, count to four, give yourself a hug and, if necessary, ask an adult for help.
Luke is 5 and he has been practicing these steps for half a year at school and at home, thanks to a program called Head Start Trauma Smart that currently serves some 3,300 children annually in 26 counties in Kansas and Missouri. "We used to have to do these steps four or five times a day," said Connie, his grandmother (who requested that I change her grandson's name and omit her surname). "Now we're down to four or five times a week." Full article. Program description & resources.
Motivation is Key to Behavior Management
Successful teaching approaches for students with special needs both in an inclusion and special education setting often require using a wide range of strategies within the same class period. Keeping students motivated to learn is essential to their success, just as experiencing success is essential for each student to learn. Many ideas discussed . . . for students with ADHD are also relevant for other students with special learning needs. Providing these appropriate accommodations and modifications can make a real difference in motivating each student and increasing their learning capacity. Here are some thoughts for motivating students with special learning needs. Access article.
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Free 1.5 CEUs for School Social Workers
ACSSW is very pleased to offer an opportunity for any school social worker to earn 1.5 FREE CEUs due to ACSSW's sponsorship of an excellent program:
Plan, Prepare, Prevent: The SOS Online
Gatekeeper Training Module
The SOS Signs of Suicide® Prevention Program is an award winning, nationally recognized program designed for middle and high school-age students. The program teaches students how to identify the symptoms of depression and suicidality in themselves or their friends, and encourages help-seeking through the use of the ACT® technique (Acknowledge, Care, Tell). This course is available free to school social workers. With sponsorship from ACSSW, all learners will receive 1.5 contact hours upon completion. Click to Learn More. To register call 781-239-0071 or email SOS Registration and mention that you'd like to register.
Columbia University Teachers College Press published 4 guides geared to support teachers, administrators, student personnel staff, and parents. For a limited period, and as supplies last, TCP has agreed to provide FREE copies of the guides to social workers and educators working with military kids in schools including: teachers, school administrators, PPS workers, and military parents. School social workers should be aware of this wonderful, time-limited, FREE offer from TCP. Many school social workers will benefit from these guides.
The process is simple. Each individual desiring a free book would need to click on the link, select the type of book s/he desires, and fill out name, mailing address, etc. on the Qualtrix form after selecting the book desired. The book will be mailed in a few weeks.
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The recent news that the Salvation Army was the victim of an alleged $2M toy theft, was shocking and probably has a lot of non-profits thinking about how they can prevent something like this from happening in their organization. According to Edward Nagel, forensic accountant and principal of Nagel & Associates, there are a few simple things non-profits can do to increase their ability to prevent and detect fraud. He shared these ideas on CBC's Morning Show with Matt Galloway. Read these 3 tips.
Getting to Yes, Negotiating Conflict: An Interview with William Ury
William L. Ury co-founded Harvard's Program on Negotiation and is currently a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Negotiation Project. He is the author of The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No & Still Get to Yes (2007) and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, an eight-million-copy bestseller translated into over thirty languages. Read this article to see why this topic applies to your organization/district.
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Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country's 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor. Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students - and Latino students are twice as likely - to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements. Read more.
Self-harm Research and Key Findings
In 2004, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence published the first treatment guideline on self-harm, revealing 170,000 people a year attended A&E departments with many being sent away with no proper help. In response to this report SANE undertook a major self-harm research study. [Another study was published in 2011].
Nearly a thousand people, 827 of whom had first hand experience of self-harm, took part in the study. Over five hundred participants were still harming at the time of filling in the survey. The most commonly reported method was cutting/scratching (93%) or burning (28%) the skin and the most frequently targeted body parts were arms (83%) and thighs/legs (50%). A fifth had overdosed on medicines. It seemed to us that majority of participants, when answering further questions about self-harm, were thinking mainly of cutting/scratching or burning. The functions and motives of overdosing seemed to differ slightly from those associated with cutting and burning.
Despite being thought of as something that teenagers and young adults do, the results from our survey showed that self-harm affects people of all ages. The age range of those who were still harming at the time they took part was 12-59 years of age, and while some people were reporting that they had first started self-harming as young as four, others had not harmed until they were in their late fifties. Although the majority were female, just over a hundred men who had at some time harmed themselves took part in the survey (this made up 12% of all participants who had harmed). It is still unclear whether self-harm really is that much more in common in girls/women than in boys/men, or whether the former are just more willing to talk about it and seek help. Continue. Key findings.
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ELL Survey Request for Help
A request from school social work researcher, Professor Kerry Vandergrift, came to us. This represents an opportunity to assist in an area of research that is often overlooked--and in which we are not often included. If you work with ELL students or have an interest in them, please respond to this survey.
from Dr. Vandergrift:
You are invited to participate in a research study about school social worker perspectives on English language learners, administered by Dr. Kerry Fay Vandergrift at the Radford University School of Social Work. This online survey will take about 20 minutes and at the end of the survey you may choose to be entered into a drawing to win one of two $25 or one $50 Amazon gift cards. The survey has questions about your experiences with and knowledge of working with ELLs, resources, and your school. You do need to have a BSW or an MSW to participate, and over 18, but do not need to have any ELLs enrolled in your school. Feel free to share the link with other school social workers! Please click here (or copy and paste the following link into your browser:
http://radford.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_eR0WYOemVTTB79P ) to begin the survey.
The survey will close April 18.
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Autism May Originate in Pregnancy
Children with autism show key "patches of disorganization" in the outer layers of the brain, according to a new study said to offer more evidence that the developmental disorder begins in the womb. Experts have long believed autism involves disruptions in typical brain development, going back to pregnancy. The new study, reported online March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers more direct evidence of such early origins. For the study, researchers examined samples of brain tissue from 22 children after death -- 11 with autism and 11 without. They were able to spot tiny patches of disrupted development dotting the outer layers of the brain in the children with autism. Differences like that would take shape during prenatal development, said Ed Lein, a researcher at Seattle's Allen Institute for Brain Science, who worked on the study. Learn more.
Adrian Rodriguez TX School Social Worker of the Year
Adrian Rodriguez, a 26-year veteran of Plano ISD, was awarded Texas School Social Worker of the Year at the state-wide Texas School Social Workers Conference on Feb. 27 in Austin. He was nominated by his colleagues and selected from a large pool of nominees. Rodriguez received a master's degree in social work from the University of Texas in Arlington in 1990 and is a licensed master social worker. During his tenure in Plano ISD, Rodriguez initiated the first Peer Assistance Leadership and Peer Mediation Programs in Plano schools. He also originated the intramural indoor soccer league at Bowman Middle School. In addition, he has chaired several health fairs in Plano ISD. Read more.
USC Offers Summer Program Opportunity to Military-Connected Students
April 1 Deadline
The USC Provost is offering eight four-week scholarships to its on-campus Summer Program for high school students who have a parent that is an active or veteran U.S. service member.
To qualify for the 2014 Provost's Pre-College Summer Scholarship for Military High School Students, students must currently be in 10th, 11th or 12th grade and must demonstrate academic ability, maturity and a commitment to education and developing community.
The USC Office of Continuing Education and Summer Programs, which is part of the Provost's office, will cover all expenses, including tuition, fees, airfare, room and board and course materials.
USC's Summer Program offers a wide range of subject areas and offers students a chance to preview freshman year at one of the the world's leading private research universities.
Completed applications, which are available here, as well as supplemental materials, must be postmarked by Tuesday, April 1. For additional information, email Sonny Hayes or call between 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time at (213) 740-5679.
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SAMHSA launched the Girls Matter! webinar series to discuss challenges, opportunities, and strategies for supporting adolescent girls. Professionals working with adolescents will have a chance to learn more about the unique needs of girls ages 12-18, and how those needs impact their behavioral health and development. Each month, Girls Matter! features a free 90-minute webinar, which covers a related behavioral health topic. Review archived webinars and register for the next 4. Next webinar is April 22nd.
Archived
The CSMH and the IDEA Partnership presented a webinar, School Mental Health: A Federal Perspective, on January 30, 2014. Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, the President put forward a number of initiatives aimed at making schools and communities safer and to increase access to mental health services in his plan, Now is the Time. As he said, "We won't be able to stop every violent act, but if there is even one thing we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try." This webinar provided an overview of federal efforts that have already been put in place, as well as those that have been proposed for the upcoming years. Presenters David Esquith, Director for the Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS) Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), U.S. Department of Education, and Ingrid Donato, Branch Chief, Mental Health Promotion, Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provided participants with information about other existing federal initiatives to prevent youth violence and promote positive student outcomes. Strategies that support students, schools, and communities as well as the importance of cross-system partnerships were highlighted. The webinar recording is available as well as the PowerPoint. Access here.
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U.S. Department of Education Grants Feature Social and Emotional Learning
The U.S. Department of Education has issued a request for applications for new grants under the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Programs.The grant competition will provide funds to develop promising and innovative approaches for initiating or expanding counseling programs in elementary and secondary schools. Each grant project will contribute to the personal growth, educational development, and social-emotional well-being of students served at this critical time in their liv es. A total of nearly $15 million is available for grant awards that will average $350,000 per year for three years. If you have any questions about the program after reviewing the application package, please email either Lisa Harrison or call (202) 453-6730, or email Loretta McDaniel or call (202) 453-6720. More information. The application deadline is April 28, 2014.
Libri Foundation Books for Children Grants
The Libri Foundation Books for Children Grants donate new, quality, hardcover children's books for small, rural, public libraries across the country. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and an active children's department. The average total operating budget of a Books for Children grant recipient must be less than $40,000. Deadline: May 15, 2014. Details.
Children's Foundation Medical Grants for Children in Need
These grants are designed to cover financial expenses for a child's medical needs beyond a family's health benefit plan. Families can directly apply online for these grants of up to $5,000. Details.
Do Something Seed Grants
Do Something Seed Grants for youth can be used towards project ideas and programs that are just getting started, or to jump-start a program and realize ideas for the first time. These grants can also be used towards projects that are already developed and sustainable, towards the next steps of a project and organization as it looks to expand and grow impact. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: community projects that are youth-led and driven. Deadline: rolling. Application.
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