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School Social Work NOW!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership, and Applied Research
Vol 6, Issue 22
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HAPPY SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK WEEK!!
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Next week, March 6-12, is National School Social Work Week!! What are you doing to celebrate? To let people know you are there for them? To let them know that your contributions to the students and school community matter?
As school social workers, we tend to advocate for our students, their families, the teachers and even, at times, for the administrators. Isn't it time we advocate for ourselves and celebrate our work? Let's get going!
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Send a note to your school board and the superintendent thanking them for having the wisdom to employ your services on behalf of students and families
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Request administration to proclaim "School Social Work Week" throughout the district
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Become the Chocolate Fairy committing random acts of chocolate (all week!!) for the staff.
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Write a letter to the editor on an educational issue and identify yourself as a school social worker.
Let your school board, building administrators, teachers, other staff--and the community--know about the great work you do. School social workers are leaders in the school and should promote--and educate others about--school social work. Enjoy!
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... existing social work education programs address problems of poverty and social exclusion in an extraordinarily superficial manner. A recent examination of the curriculum of the graduate programs at the top 50 schools of social work in the United States found that a mere 12 schools offered one or more courses in the field of poverty, and overall 15 courses existed on the topic...Davis and Wainwright (2005), address[ed] the training for Diploma in Social Work in Britain, criticized the tendency to avoid tackling the issue of poverty in the curriculum and claimed that, in essence, such evasion indicates estrangement from the inherent values of the profession.
...The article is divided into five sections. The first section presents the ways by which poverty is converted into a rather vague, almost marginal, factor in social work practice...The second section briefly reviews current trends in social work literature regarding poverty...The third section delineates the desired end and intermediate results of training. The fourth section specifically focuses on the main contents and themes of the program, and the fifth section outlines the means by which the proposed contents may be integrated into the course of study. Full article.
Dealing with a child's traumatic experience is confusing and stressful for parents as well as for the child. They wisely seek help, but the search for help can itself be confusing. How do parents know whether a proposed treatment has a good chance of working? Does their child really need to talk about the traumatic experience as much as some experts say?
For several years, clinicians have been helping children with treatments that have been practiced widely and accepted among mental health professionals, but only recently have some of these been tested scientifically to document how and well they work. We now know that there are clinically sound treatments for trauma that are indeed helpful for children and adolescents. Learn more.
Resources from the Coalition to Support Grieving Students (CSGS) #5
The CSGS continues to share mini-papers on the concepts of death and grieving in children. This week's mini-paper is on Death and Cultural Sensitivity. Use and share these papers as you wish. They are designed to be used by practitioners, for in-service training, as reference, as guidance for parents, and many other avenues.
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Click it!! You know you want to!
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...With research showing that not even half of all strategic plans successfully reach their goals, and a world changing at a higher speed than ever before, it may actually seem futile and naïve to invest time into strategy development.
Meantime, there are counter-detractors who insist strategy is still essential, but companies are doing it wrong-either by overlooking execution or using outmoded planning methods, or both.
But this debate often neglects what is, in my opinion, the best argument for strategy's continued relevance: Strategic approaches to business-and life-just make deep-down sense to human beings. Continue.
It's important for managers to be a resource to those they lead. But it's easy for teams to take advantage of this. Over time, they can develop "manager dependency."
So how can you train team members to take more responsibility for their own tasks, instead of running to you for "hand-holding" through every step? In this article, we'll examine how to decrease manager dependency, and how to get the members of your team to "stand on their own two feet." Learn how.
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An exclusive analysis uncovers that students of color in the largest 100 cities in the United States are much more likely to attend schools where most of their peers are poor or low-income.
In almost all major American cities, most African American and Hispanic students attend public schools where a majority of their classmates qualify as poor or low-income, a new analysis of federal data shows.
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The Community-Partnered School Behavioral Health Modules
~ Free Training Series and CEUs Offered ~
www.mdbehavioralhealth.com
Signs of Suicide Program & Gatekeeper Training Module 1.5 CEUs. Free.
from Teachers College Press. A hard copy will be mailed to you. Free.
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Recommended Read for March
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Current models do not address the complexity of achievement gaps among racial and socioeconomic groups. As the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement and current assessment data show, children of color, even those who are not poor, often score lower on achievement tests than whites who are poor. Culture trumps poverty in its impact on achievement. Culture defines what children will focus their attention on, how they interpret the world to give it meaning, what background knowledge they bring to learning, and how they will value that learning. The focus of our interventions to close the achievement gap must therefore be to attend to the culture of the learner. This book shows how to build the necessary supports to move classrooms from the traditional, Eurocentric model to one that respects and incorporates the cultures of the learners. Review.
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| Professional Development Opportunities |
Districts in more than 30 states could stand to lose a small portion of their Title I funding if Congress adopts the president's fiscal year 2017 proposal for the program without any changes, according to an unpublished analysis by the Congressional Research Service obtained by Politics K-12.
Districts in Michigan could stand to lose the most, according to the report-more than $10 million out of $495 million in Title I funding overall currently. Other states facing losses include Mississippi, which could lose nearly $5 million out of $186 million in Title I funding overall, according to the analysis. Other potential cuts are smaller, relatively speaking. Alaska districts could lose about $40,000.
The report could provide fuel for advocates for districts that have expressed dismay that the FY 2017, which would go into effect largely during the 2017-18 school year (the first year that the new Every Student Succeeds Act will be in place), would essentially level-fund the main federal K-12 program for disadvantaged students, Title I. Learn more.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers today introduced legislation to ban the use of restraint and seclusion of students in Michigan schools - practices they called ineffective and outdated ways to address serious behavior problems. Educators would be able to use the practices only in emergency situations.
"I'm very excited for what this could mean for the future of students in our schools," Lt. Gov. Brian Calley said during a news conference.
The legislation will mark the first major push to adopt recommendations made last month by a task force Calley headed that urged changes in the way schools serve special-education students. More.
...Colorado has the distinction of having the nation's seventh highest suicide rate. The statistics get a little trickier on youth suicides, though that number is also high. (We're third in the nation for youth suicides, ages 10 to 18, though Kirk Bol, interim vital records registrar for the Colorado Center for Health and Environmental Data, says statistically there is no real difference between the rates of the top 20 states.)
El Paso County isn't exactly a role model. While statistically speaking, there's no difference between the county and state suicide rates, it's reasonable to assume that El Paso County is nowhere near the low end for the state. More.
StopBullying.gov has launched a free online bullying prevention and response training course. This professional development tool provides guidance on how to take a public health approach to bullying prevention through long-term, communitywide prevention strategies. The self-directed training allows stakeholders to test their knowledge on the latest research, statistics, and best practices on bullying prevention and response and to earn continuing education credits. Access training.
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School Social Work Positions
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Webisode: Behavioral Health Concerns in Classrooms
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) latest webisode recording with Knowledge Network for Systems of Care TV (KSOC-TV) addresses the topic of identifying and managing behavioral health concerns in elementary school classrooms. The panelists, including Center for School Mental Health affiliate faculty, Dr. Kimberly Becker, provide specific strategies on how students, parents, teachers, and administrators can work together to support positive mental health among elementary school students. Watch by clicking here. Approx. 1 hr.
Webisode: Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings
The Child and Family Policy Consortium webinar features presentations on expulsion and suspension policies in early childhood settings. Speakers include Dr. Walter Gillian (Yale University) and Dr. Oscar Barbarin (University of Maryland - College Park). Click here to watch. Approx. l hr.
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1st Quarter Deadline: March 31, 2016
Grants of up to $500 are available for "innovative programs, events, or projects" from the Meemic Foundation for Michigan, Wisconsin or Illinois. Apply online using their easy application that takes less than 30 minutes to complete. These grants are open to any employee of a K-12 public or private school. Universities and colleges may also apply. Fill-in-the-blank application.
Grants are accepted year round, but the first quarter cycle ends March 31st. Grants are up to $500. Recipients will be notified by May 15th.
The foundation says it supports "basically anything that supports teachers and enhances the student's educational experience" - from field trips to books to behavior modification programs; science, music, or art equipment to professional development.
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