Connecting During COVID-19
The need to recognize and support students of concern didn’t simply stop when Coronavirus affected our schools. In fact, for many, the number of student’s needing support increased while options for supporting them, decreased. Now that almost all of our country's institutions and districts have gone to some form of virtual instruction and remote ways of supporting students, Case Managers, School Psychologists, and Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) leaders have taken on a new task—identifying creative ways to check in on the students they serve. Here [...]
Some K-12 Districts are Ready to Identify Students of Concern, Others Are Not… Yet
The date was April 16, 2007. I think it was a Monday. I know it was a day that changed the landscape of student support on college campuses, forever. On this day an undergraduate student opened fire, shot, and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on the campus of Virginia Tech. The nation was stunned. If this could happen on a college campus—where smart and capable students were focusing on bettering themselves and their futures—it could happen anywhere. In the years that followed, colleges [...]
Mental Health Classes in Public Schools – The Ripple Effect
Can you see me? I’m standing in my kitchen with a half-eaten pear in one hand, my mouth full, and the other hand ‘air-pumping’ up and down in celebration of the great news: Florida will now require mental health classes in public schools. Florida students (joining their peers from New York, Texas and Virginia) in grades 6-12 will now be required to take courses that help them identify: The signs and symptoms of mental health disorders, How to get help and, How to help peers [...]