A Toolkit for Supporting the Implementation of School Employee Wellness in Districts / Schools This quick-start toolkit from SOPHE School Employee Wellness is a supplement to Healthy School, Healthy Staff, Healthy Students: A Guide to Improving School Employee Wellness, designed to increase the capacity of district and school staff in addressing school employee wellness, to improve the health of all school employees, and to improve student health and academic outcomes.
National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care These guidelines, developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), offer best practices, implementation strategies, and practical guidance for the design and development of services that meet the needs of children, youth, and their families experiencing a behavioral health crisis. It is intended to help mental health authorities, agency administrators, service providers, state and local leaders think through and develop the structure of crisis systems for children, youth, and their families that meet community needs. COMPASS for Courage COMPASS for Courage uses game-based activities to teach kids practical skills at home or school to manage worries, solve problems, and face stressful situations with confidence. COMPASS materials can be accessed by community providers, parents, and educators at no cost via PBS LearningMedia. COMPASS uses collaborative game-based learning to teach youth research-supported strategies to manage worries, solve problems, build relationships, and face stressful situations with confidence. The six-lesson plan also has shown to improve emotion dysregulation, grades and test scores, social skills, confidence, and reduce out-of-classroom time (e.g., absences, nurse visits), instructional remediation, and in-class meltdowns.
Complete Guide to PANS and PANDAS from the Child Mind Institute PANS and PANDAS are severe forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that appear suddenly (acute onset) in young children, accompanied by other confusing and distressing symptoms. The linked guide above explains how to recognize PANS and PANDAS, how they’re diagnosed, and what the recommended treatments are. This guide can be helpful in the school mental health context given frequent misdiagnoses.
Mental Health-Related Booklists Looking to increase mental health literacy through summer reading? The following booklists are curated by the Children’s Mental Health Matters Campaign to provide families and educators with age-appropriate mental health books that can help children and adolescents name and understand feelings, deal with painful experiences, cope with strong emotions, and more. Recommended Books For and About Children of Incarcerated Parents The New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents provides a list of books for parents caregivers, providers, and policy makers about the diverse needs and experiences of children of incarcerated parents. Making books available in spaces children and families can access, such as classrooms, libraries, and offices can convey to children with incarcerated parents they are not alone and signal that you or your organization are supportive of families affected by incarceration. This resource list addresses children across all ages. New PBS Television Show Promotes Computational and Critical Thinking Skills With funding from the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, PBS Kids has created a new television show that premiered in February 2023 called Work It Out Wombats! The show introduces computational thinking concepts and problem solving to children ages 3–6 and features a trio of marsupial siblings that interact with a community of animal friends from their “Treeborhood.” It will be broadcast on PBS KIDS; digital games, videos, and other activities will be available on PBSKIDS.org. Gender Diverse Youth Sport Inclusivity Toolkit The Gender Diversity organization provides this resource guide for inclusive transgender and non-binary youth sport best practices. Continued efforts to better understand and implement inclusive practices are vital in creating an equitable playing field. This toolkit provides guidance and resources to assist administrators, educators and coaches in providing an inclusive environment where all students are welcomed. Tis toolkit includes up-to-date language, definitions, policy, FAQ, current ‘best practices’, guidance in nuanced scenarios, and more. WETA’s AdLit: All About Adolescent Literacy Looking for summer resources to keep adolescents who are struggling with reading practicing their skills? Educators and families can find a wealth of free resources for struggling adolescent readers and writers on this WETA site. Find diverse book recommendations, reading discussion guides, and classroom strategies to help make reading more engaging for students at home and in the classroom. Appeal to teens’ interests using the Book Finder tool to sort by reading level and genre. Tools to Improve Practice (TIPs) for Working with Children, Youth, and their Families From of the San Francisco Health Network, Dr. Ritchie Rubio’s TIPs website is rich with practice-oriented resources for clinicians, including culturally responsive and anti-racism tools. These resources also seek to strengthen the use of evidence-based assessment and interventions in a telehealth environment primarily for BIPOC communities. Promoting Black Joy and Countering Bias Through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation A new guidance document from the Children’s Equity Project and the Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMH) places a much-needed emphasis on centering Black Joy in work with Black children and families. The goal of this resource is to support the development of equitable learning environments for Black children. Section One includes information about Black culture, history, cultural strengths, values, and ways of knowing and being; Section Two guides users through the Revised IECMH Consultation Competencies and provides promising practices and concrete strategies to increase consultants’ and supervisors’ capacity to handle personal and institutional bias; and Section Three invites users to consider the real-life implications of harmful practices through a series of case studies with questions for individual and group reflection. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation Releases Dashboard to Track State Frameworks for Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies This data dashboard was developed as a part of the Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies (ITTCC) with an intended audience of teachers and caregivers, administrators, coaches, technical assistance providers, institutions of high education, and/or policymakers. Interactive Model of Virtual Healthy Schools The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Virtual Healthy School (VHS) is an interactive tool that shows schools how to support the health and academic achievement of students through the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model.
IES What Works Clearinghouse v5.0 Training and Certification Opportunity The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), of the Institute for Education Sciences, has launched online training and certification for the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Version 5.0. The WWC offers this training to inform the public about key elements of the WWC group design standards, increase transparency of their review process, and to train reviewers who wish to become certified in the WWC’s group design standards. There are three levels of certification: Group Design, Advanced Group Design, and Single-Case Design. The trainings are free and available online through a series of video modules. After completing the training, reviewers can take a multiple-choice exam to become certified to review studies under WWC standards. | | | Barriers to School-Based Mental Health Resources Utilization Among Black Adolescent Males Black adolescent males use available mental health services at a disproportionately lower rate compared to males of other racial groups. This study examines barriers to school-based mental health resource (SBMHR) use among Black adolescent males, as a means of addressing reduced usage of available mental health resources and to improve these resources to better support their mental health needs. Secondary data for 165 Black adolescent males were used from a mental health needs assessment of two high schools in southeast Michigan. Logistic regression was employed to examine the predictive power of psychosocial (self-reliance, stigma, trust, and negative previous experience) and access barriers (no transportation, lack of time, lack of insurance, and parental restrictions) on SBMHR use, as well as the relationship between depression and SBMHR use. No access barriers were found to be significantly associated with SBMHR use. However, self-reliance and stigma were statistically significant predictors of SBMHR use. Participants who identified self-reliance in addressing their mental health symptoms were 77% less likely to use available mental health resources in their school. However, participants who reported stigma as a barrier to using SBMHR were nearly four times more likely to use available mental health resources; this suggests potential protective factors in schools that can be built into mental health resources to support Black adolescent males’ use of SBMHRs. This study serves as an early step in exploring how SBMHRs can better serve the needs of Black adolescent males. It also speaks to potential protective factors that schools provide for Black adolescent males who have stigmatized views of mental health and mental health services. Future studies would benefit from a nationally representative sample allowing for more generalizable results regarding barriers and facilitators to Black adolescent males’ use of school-based mental health resources.
Williams, E. D., Lateef, H., Gale, A., Boyd, D., Albrecht, J., Paladino, J., & Koschmann, E. (2023). Barriers to School-Based Mental Health Resource Utilization Among Black Adolescent Males. Clinical Social Work Journal, 1-16
Implementation of a School Mental Health Learning Collaborative Model to Support Cross‑Sector Collaboration Facilitating success for students with behavioral health challenges requires effective collaboration among professionals from traditionally disparate systems (e.g., education, health, and mental health). The current investigation describes a case-study implementation of a school-based learning collaborative model and explores its effectiveness in promoting knowledge, skill, efficacy, and systems-related improvements in cross-sector collaboration. The learning collaborative (LC) was offered to school teams over the course of a year and consisted of a combination of didactic and experiential learning opportunities, guest speakers, district-specific improvement goals, peer learning and support, and individualized consultation support. Evaluation efforts included evidence demonstrating the efficacy of the LC, improvement in person-centered knowledge skills and competencies, and generation of concrete changes in school systems. Respondents consistently shared that the quality of the LC was high that the topics were highly useful for their day-to-day practice, and that they would recommend the LC to their colleagues and peers. In turn, this process fostered improvement in educators’ knowledge, skills, and confidence, and generated systemic improvement in districts to support children with behavioral health needs and their families. Specific components of this model that best account for changes are discussed, along with implications for application and next steps.
Heatly, M. C., Nichols-Hadeed, C., Stiles, A. A., & Alpert-Gillis, L. (2023). Implementation of a school mental health learning collaborative model to support cross-sector collaboration. School Mental Health, 1-18.
Special Education Teachers of Color Burnout, Working Conditions, and Recommendations for EBD Research This article is in direct response to Garwood’s call to action about burnout and the special education teacher workforce. While Garwood’s call to action is critically needed, we contend that the call is incomplete as it lacks emphasis on factors linking sociocultural identity and burnout. Therefore, in this article, we discuss the significance of elevating sociocultural identity, specifically race and ethnicity, into research about special education teacher burnout. We argue that any research on special education teacher burnout that does not include race and ethnicity is overlooking the racialization of special education teachers’ working conditions, and ultimately is incapable of addressing one of the most pressing issues in the special education field—retaining teachers of color. Recommendations for researchers to address sociocultural identities (i.e., race and ethnicity) in their research, specifically about special education teachers of color teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders, are addressed.
Scott, L. A., Bettini, E., & Brunsting, N. (2023). Special Education Teachers of Color Burnout, Working Conditions, and Recommendations for EBD Research. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 10634266221146495.
Using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model to Support Mental Health in Schools The COVID-19 pandemic increased already high rates of student mental health concerns and further underscored inequities and disparities in access to services and care. As schools continue to address the effects of the pandemic, they must prioritize student mental health and well-being. In this commentary, using feedback from the Maryland School Health Council, we present the connection between mental health in school and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, a school health model commonly employed by schools and school districts. In doing so, we aim to highlight how school districts can use this model to address child mental health needs across a multi-tiered system of support. Lever, N., Orenstein, S., Jaspers, L., Bohnenkamp, J., Chung, J., & Hager, E. (2023). Using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model to support mental health in schools. Journal of School Health.
Prescription Stimulant Medical and Nonmedical Use Among US Secondary School Students, 2005 to 2020 Recent information on the prevalence of prescription stimulant therapy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NUPS) at the school-level among US secondary school students is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the school-level prevalence of and association between stimulant therapy for ADHD and NUPS among US secondary school students. This cross-sectional study used survey data collected between 2005 and 2020 as part of the Monitoring the Future study (data collected annually via self-administered survey in schools from independent cohorts). Participants were from a nationally representative sample of 3284 US secondary schools. Across US secondary schools, the past-year prevalence of NUPS ranged from 0% to more than 25%. The adjusted odds of an individual engaging in past-year NUPS were higher at secondary schools with higher proportions of students who reported stimulant therapy for ADHD, after controlling for other individual-level and school-level covariates. Students attending schools with the highest rates of prescription stimulant therapy for ADHD had approximately 36% increased odds of past-year NUPS compared with students attending schools with no medical use of prescription stimulants (adjusted odds ratio, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.20-1.55). Other significant school-level risk factors included schools in more recent cohorts (2015-2020), schools with higher proportions of parents with higher levels of education, schools located in non-Northeastern regions, schools located in suburban areas, schools with higher proportion of White students, and schools with medium levels of binge drinking. In this cross-sectional study of US secondary schools, the prevalence of past-year NUPS varied widely, highlighting the need for schools to assess their own students rather than relying solely on regional, state, or national results. The study offered new evidence of an association between a greater proportion of the student body that uses stimulant therapy and a greater risk for NUPS in schools. The association between greater school-level stimulant therapy for ADHD and other school-level risk factors suggests valuable targets for monitoring, risk-reduction strategies, and preventive efforts to reduce NUPS.
McCabe, S. E., Schulenberg, J. E., Wilens, T. E., Schepis, T. S., McCabe, V. V., & Veliz, P. T. (2023). Prescription stimulant medical and nonmedical use among US secondary school students, 2005 to 2020. JAMA network open, 6(4), e238707-e238707.
Educators Are Not Alright: Mental Health During COVID-19 Educator mental health sits at the intersection of multiple pressing educational issues. We are among the first to provide estimates of school system employee (SSE) stress, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most participants reported clinically meaningful anxiety and depressive symptoms (77.96% and 53.65%, respectively). Being in the lowest strata of family income was associated with higher stress, a greater likelihood of clinically significant depressive symptoms, and reduced intentions to continue in the same job, portending the current staffing shortages affecting schools. Supporting SSE mental health should become a policy priority.
Hirshberg, M. J., Davidson, R. J., & Goldberg, S. B. (2023). Educators Are Not Alright: Mental Health During COVID-19. Educational Researcher, 0013189X221142595. | | | The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Delivering Service in School-Based Settings: A Comprehensive Guide to Medicaid Services and Administrative Claiming. Developed in consultation with the U.S. Department of Education, the new guide represents an important part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). BSCA charged CMS with expanding access to Medicaid health care services in schools, including behavioral health services, and reducing administrative burden for states and schools. On April 18, 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order that represents the most comprehensive set of executive actions taken by any president to improve access to child care for the nation’s babies and improve job quality for early childhood educators, President Biden’s Executive Order includes more than 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to expand access to affordable, high-quality care, and provide support for care workers and family caregivers. Institute of Educational Sciences Report: How Districts Use Federal Funds to Attract, Train, and Retain Educators The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released a report providing the first comprehensive review of activities grantee districts prioritized with their Teacher and School Leader (TSL) funds and how well these activities aligned with key aspects of the program. The report is based on interviews conducted near the end of the initial 3-year grant period for the 24 districts in TSL’s first cohort awarded in 2017 and is part of a broader evaluation of TSL required by Congress. Key findings include: TSL districts most commonly prioritized performance-based compensation and personalized support, such as with bonuses or teacher leaders who coach teachers. Only some TSL districts indicated that their prioritized activities were central to improving educator diversity or increasing underserved students’ equitable access to effective educators, suggesting that grantees may not have emphasized these issues as much as the program expected. TSL districts prioritized strategies to improve their educator workforce over strategies to improve their data infrastructure, perhaps because districts felt they already had an adequate system to drive decisions.
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