Hey there LSSPs,

I hope you have been having (and continue to have) a nice and relaxing summer. After the incredible challenges of last year, this summer was a well-earned and highly needed break for y'all.

Just like in districts, summer brings about change here in Region 10. I recently accepted a position as Special Populations Program Coordinator here at Region 10. For the time being, I will continue to provide support and be a contact for you all, but we have begun our search for my replacement. If you have watched me these past few years and thought "I could do this guy's job", we would love to have you join the Region 10 team! =)

Seriously though, we going to have a new school psychology consultant position available here to provide professional development and technical assistance in areas related to Evaluation, Child Find, and Mental Health. If you are looking for a different way to share your skills and expertise, come check us out.

You can look for the position posting (and other opportunities at Region 10) here.

I want to say thank you to everyone of you that I was able to work with in building this role into what it is. Without your desire to grow professionally and expand your skills, I would not have been able to put the things in place that we have and I look forward to helping my replacement maintain and grow all of that for the future.

Keep Being School Psych'd,

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

Do you have any new LSSPs in your district? Brand new to the field? Or maybe just new to Texas? We will be hosting a session for new eval staff here at Region 10 on 8/6/2021, 9:00-4:00

Registration (which is free for all Region 10 LEA staff) is available here.

Region 10 is excited to announce that we will be offering the 1st annual Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Evaluations (ICE) Symposium in collaboration with Region 11. This all day event will feature a variety of breakout sessions designed to provide all multidisciplinary evaluation team members (LSSPs, Diags, SLPs, OTs, PTs, VI/OM, etc) with valuable insights and information about engaging more integrated comprehensive evaluations.

Please save the date - March 22,2022

In addition to the wonderful variety of sessions we will be offering, Region 10 is looking for some presenters from our LEAs who are interested in providing a session for our symposium. We are interested in getting some 'boots on the ground' practical advice that our evaluators can hear about from people who are doing amazing things in their LEA.

If you or a group of evaluators are interested in presenting, please develop a brief proposal for the session. The content of the proposal should consist of the following components:

1. COVER PAGE:

a. Title of the proposed work

b. Names, titles, and affiliations of presenter(s)

c. Date of submission

2. ABSTRACT

The abstract should be on a separate page and be no more than 175 words in length. It should summarize the focus of the presentation, including the learning objectives of the presentation/poster. Please do not use any personal identifying information in your abstract.

3. SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

The summary should be no more than 900 words in length. This section should include a summary of the purpose and learning objectives of the presentation. It should also discuss how the proposed session will help others improve collaboration and interdisciplinary work across multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). Please do not use any personal identifying information in your abstract.

Submissions will be accepted now through November 30th, 2021.

If you are ready to submit the proposal, click the button below!

I have developed a Smore dedicated to listing Region 10 trainings that may be of interest to LSSPs. You can access it via the button at the bottom of every issue of the newsletter, or you can click here to see the sessions.

Mental Health Academy (MHA) have partnered with the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) to bring you the 2021 Suicide Prevention Summit.

The purpose of this Summit is to equip practicing mental health professionals with the most up-to-date, advanced knowledge and treatment options on suicide prevention.

The conference will be live July 24-25, then you will have on-demand streaming access to video recordings until the end of the September.

Best of all, the entire conference is completely FREE.

Registration information can be found here.

Susanna Knight and Laura Richard, LSSPs, have been invited to speak at the SEL4TX conference in the fall. As part of their presentation, they want to gather some data from LSSP across the state, in regards to mental health and SEL. They have created a Google Survey. Please help them by providing your info via the following link.

The State Board of Education has reopened the 2018 Dyslexia Handbook and made some proposed revisions. A summary of items reviewed and actions taken at that meeting can be found HERE on TEA's website. At this time these revisions have not been accepted. There will be an opportunity for public comment and opportunity for those interested to register for public hearing at the September SBOE meeting.

5. Proposed Amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 74, Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions, §74.28, Students with Dyslexia and Related Disorders
(First Reading and Filing Authorization)

This item presents for first reading and filing authorization a proposed amendment to 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 74, Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions, §74.28, Students with Dyslexia and Related Disorders. The proposed amendment would update the Dyslexia Handbook: Procedures Concerning Dyslexia and Related Disorders (Dyslexia Handbook) adopted as Figure: 19 TAC §74.28(c) to clarify requirements related to student evaluation and the required dyslexia screening for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1. Statutory authority is the Texas Education Code (TEC), §7.102(c)(28) and §38.003(a) and (c).

Summary of Proposed Amendments to the Dyslexia Handbook

Draft of Proposed Amendments

Please note the proposed amendments currently include the chapters of the Dyslexia Handbook and not the appendices. Appendices will be updated once the SBOE takes action on changes to the chapters.

PUBLIC COMMENTS: The public comment period on the proposal begins July 23, 2021, and ends at 5:00 p.m. on August 27, 2021. The SBOE will take registered oral and written comments on the proposal at the appropriate committee meeting in September 2021 in accordance with the SBOE board operating policies and procedures. A request for a public hearing on the proposal submitted under the Administrative Procedure Act must be received by the commissioner of education not more than 14 calendar days after notice of the proposal has been published in the Texas Register on July 23, 2021.

I have always gotten a lot of questions about the books I am reading (mostly because approximately 84% of my sentences start with "you know I just read this book..."), so I decided to start sharing some of my personal favorites that I have recently read (or in some cases, reread).

This month: Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations by Dan Ariely

I love the writings of Dr. Ariely, particularly Predictably Irrational, so it was no surprise that I found Payoff to be very enjoyable. In some ways it felt like a refresher, but if you have not read his past works, Payoff is a quick read on some big ideas of behavioral economics.

One of my biggest goals of GSP is to get information about our Region 10 LSSPs. I know your time is valuable and I don't want to ask you to spend half a day filling out tons of information, so I have settled on what I am calling the Two-ish Question Quiz. Every so often, I humbly ask for you to answer two questions about yourself to help us get a better picture of the LSSPs in Region 10.

If you have any questions or need support in your campus/district, give me a shout!

Email: keya.saleh@region10.org
Website: www.region10.org/programs/evaluation-special-education/overview/
Location: 904 Abrams Road, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: 972-348-1598
Twitter: @getschoolpsychd