Get School Psych'd

Hey there LSSPs,

So here we are. For many, the year has begun. ARDs are being scheduled and evaluations are being planned. We here at Region 10 have begun to return to the physical office and plans are being made for some initial trainings to begin to take place on site.

The quote that I have found most useful right now is from President Eisenhower: "I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable". This feels like a helpful quote for when I want to pull my hair out when things begin to go awry.

Much work was done this summer across education to prepare for the shift that this year will bring. The Great Educational Upending (trademark pending :) that was the Spring gave us some lessons learned and provided some ideas. Now, some of those lessons are being put into action and new lessons are being learned.

What's important is that we not get deflated when another issue arises or a problem pops up. Things will go wrong. Issues we didn't anticipate will appear. Just when we get a handle on something, it can quickly turn on us. All of that is challenging, but it will be okay. Please know that we will do the bast we can with what we've got, and fix things that need fixing. As always, I'm here to help in whatever way I can.

Keep Being School Psych'd,

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

The Momentous Institute Heartbeat Newsletter

The Momentous Institute is a wonderful school in the Dallas area that serves student using a social-emotional learning focus. The Heartbeat provides some quick links to some interesting articles and wonderful training opportunities.

COVID-19 Guidance and Case Law: The Next Update

Dr. Perry Zirkel, noted special education lawyer and noted person of fame in OSEP Dear Colleague letters, releases a newsletter update including case updates and some review of current guidance and thoughts on addressing the challenges to IDEA brought about by COVID-19.

So I have been thinking about the links that I post in this newsletter and it dawned on me that 'Hey, wouldn't it be nice if all of these links that show up every month could be pulled together into one easy to find place?" Well, that idea is now a reality. Presenting:

For the time being, as information continues to change and get updated, I highly suggest bookmarking and referencing the TEA special education COVID-19 guidance page and general guidance documents. The documents are posted and dated with the latest updates to them.

Current Highlight resource: Evaluation Considerations during the 2020-21 School Year Powerpoint

TEA Special Education COVID-19 Resource Page

• List of Guidance Documents

During the school building closures in the spring, we started to hold weekly virtual office hours. This was an opportunity for LSSPs and diags to come together to ask questions about how we are addressing the myriad of issues that we will be dealing with and learning from each other.

With the school year starting up, we know that many of people will have ideas questions, and concerns, so we will be offering the virtual office hours again from 1:30-2:30 on the dates below. This is not a formal PD session, but rather an open forum to ask and answer questions of your colleagues.

Dates for the sessions:

9/2/20 - Session ID # 2635547

9/23/20 - Session ID #2635876

The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists has published its August 2020 Newsletter. The newsletter is available for download from the agency's website, or by clicking here. This issue includes some great information on releasing of records, the differences in test data and materials, and some reminders on 'psychotherapy notes'.

TSBEP August 2020 Newsletter

From the BHEC:

House Bill 2059 (HB 2059) was adopted by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Abbott following the 86th Legislature. This bill, which added Chapter 116 to the Occupations Code, requires health care practitioners to successfully complete an HHSC-approved Human Trafficking Prevention training course as a condition for renewal of a license on or after September 1, 2020.

Information about HHSC-approved Human Trafficking Prevention training courses is available on HHSC’s Health Care Practitioner Human Trafficking Training webpage.

School psychs across the country are facing new realities in service delivery as they consider how to provide high-quality school psychological services during the pandemic. In response to this need, NASP has created a series of webinars designed to help them explore problems of practice related to the remote delivery of school psychological services. Each webinar is 30-45 minutes in length and is publicly available*. The webinars are designed to:

• Address critical questions emerging as a result of the need to provide virtual telehealth school psychological services
• Provide advice and guidance from experts
• Offer suggested strategies and resources for addressing professional practice issues

NASP Webinar Series: Ask The Experts

*Return to school mini-series is exclusive to NASP members, all other webinars are publicly available.

Network 1, the Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Supports Network for the state of Texas, has released their schedule of free webinars for the 2020-21 school year. You can find the flyer with registration links here. The schedule includes wonder ful sessions on a number of key topics and it kicks off with a great session on conducting evaluations by Dr. Gail Cheramie herself.

Given the introduction of this webinar series, The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Supports Network will not provide the Statewide Evaluation Personnel (SWEP) conference during the 2020-2021 school year. In lieu of holding a statewide conference, the Child Find Network will gather information on regional and state level needs and develop a proposal that considers the efficacy of large in person conferences as professional development.

Thank you for all you continue to do for your staff, students, parents, and families. We are here to support you, so if you or your local education agency should need anything, please do not hesitate to contact the Network team here.

The Texas Association of School Psychologists (TASP) has announced that registration for the 28th Annual Fall Convention is live. This year’s convention will be held virtually and TASP is hard at work making many components of the convention “virtual friendly” to bring you the best experience possible

This year’s speaker lineup is full of sessions meant to empower the professional within you and provide tools to positively impact our youth and communities. TASP is especially excited to announce the Keynote speaker, Dr. Carla Shedd, author of Unequal City.

Click the image below for more information.

Sanford Harmony, a free social emotional learning program for Pre-K-6 grade students, has recently added to their supports with on-demand training videos to help implement SEL in the classroom or virtual learning environment. Their new training videos, available in the How It Works section of the dashboard, will provide support and guidance on using the SH content in teaching.

See the Sanford Harmony Online Learning Portal here.

Panorama Education, an industry leader in resources and support for student success and social emotional learning, are providing their updated 2020-21 SEL Toolkit for Educators. This toolkit includes:

• *NEW* Panorama's Adult SEL Measures (survey topics and questions for teachers and staff)
• *NEW* 4 Adult SEL Strategies from Panorama's Professional Learning Library
• 3 Activities for Adults to Practice Modeling SEL
• SEL Exploration Worksheet

Access the Toolkit here

The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) is hosting an ongoing series of webinars for educators (for free!). See details here:

Whether you’re a counselor, teacher, or social worker, serving children is hard. At any given moment, there are numerous tasks required of you, and you often feel like your plate is overflowing. In addition to the pressures of work, stress in your personal life – taking care of a family, health concerns, or financial burdens - take their toll. You’re taking care of everyone, and often feel exhausted.

We see you and are excited to invite you to our ongoing series on self-compassion. This webinar aims to teach techniques to feel more confident and grounded. Research has shown that those who are more self-compassionate experience less stress, anxiety, and depression, are more resilient, and better able to deal with emotional challenges.

Throughout September, we will have Sessions 10 through 12 of this 12-part-series. It's OK to join us if you've missed one! Join us anytime:

September 1, 4-5 P.M. CDT: REGISTER HERE

September 8, 4-5 P.M. CDT: REGISTER HERE

September 15, 4-5 P.M. CDT: REGISTER HERE

Are you a member of your campuses or districts threat assessment team and haven't been trained? If so, The Texas State School Safety Center has moved forward with an online model for their trainings on school behavioral threat assessment to meet your needs.

With the passage of Senate Bill 11, Texas now joins the short list of states in our country to legislatively mandate the implementation of threat assessment teams in its Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools. Threat Assessment provides a proactive, evidence-based approach for identifying individuals who may pose a threat and for providing interventions before a violent incident occurs.

The board of trustees of each school district is now required to establish a threat assessment team to serve at each campus of the district. The Board must also adopt policies and procedures for the teams that are consistent with the model policies and procedures developed by the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC). In addition, each team is required to complete training provided by the TxSSC or a Regional Education Service Center. At this time, virtual trainings are exclusively offered through the Texas State School Safety Center.

To find out more about meeting the SB11 requirements and how to access the online course and virtual training opportunities, click below.

In order to keep the size of the newsletter manageable and make it easier for you to find Region 10 session info, we will be moving to a separate attachment for our list of trainings. Going forward, each monthly newsletter will have a link to the training info, and sessions will be added as they come available.

You can also bring up the PD info newsletter with the following link: bit.ly/R10ECFPD

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: The Yes Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

This one was recommended to me by one of you out there (Thanks, Cassie!) after I talked about reading the Whole Brain Child a few issues back. Much like WBC, The Yes Brain provides a very easy read with practical tips for changing the way you interact with kids, both those we work with in schools and the ones in your own home!

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