Get School Psych'd

Hey there LSSPs,

When I was a kid, I remember thinking that snowboarding looked so cool. I had never been skiiing or snowboarding. I had never seen snow in real life. I'm not positive I had ever left Texas at this point. But it seemed like the most awesome activity.

I have seen snow and skiied since then, but I still have not snowboarded (and after seeing my cousin shatter their leg and be in a cast from snowboarding, it doesn't seem likely that I will), but often try to connect with that feeling of seeing something and having this big feeling of "man, I really want to do that." Some days, particularly with the challenges of 'adulting during a pandemic', it can be very easy to try not to expand. To stick to what I know. To not waste time chasing 'snowboarding'. I think it is important in this difficult time that we find a balance between the comfort and the ease of the familiar with the value of the growth that comes from having and chasing a dream idea. Sometimes it might be another 'snowboard' that goes nowhere, but chasing a dream, whether we get there or not, and learning along the way can be valuable in its own right.

Everyone have a restful break and I will see you next year!

Keep Being School Psych'd,

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

Network 1 Quarterly Chronicle

The Child Find Network's quarterly smore is packed with some great information and updates from the statewide network.

Teaching Isn't About Managing Behavior

From The Atlantic's On Teaching series, Chris Emdin discusses the concept of reality pedagogy and what is means for managing a classroom.

Four School Psychologist Burnout Traps and How to Avoid Them

Another great installment of the School Psyched Podcast (no affiliation) including Dr. Rebecca Branstetter talking about avoiding burnout.

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: Special Education FAQ Updated 10/15/2020

TEA Special Education COVID-19 Resource Page

• List of Guidance Documents

Dr. Perry Zirkel, a legal researcher and frequent contributor to the NASP Communique, released his monthly legal update on special education case. This month's edition includes an interesting district case from Washington on FIEs and IEEs.

Click here for Dr. Zirkel's update.

The Child Find and Evaluation Network is conducting a survey about the possible future of the Statewide Evaluation Personnel conference. The conference has been cancelled for 2021, but there is consideration for how that conference might be conducted differently in the future.

If you would like to provide input for the survey, you can complete it here.

From the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council on November 5th:

The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council voted to discontinue printing and mailing renewal permits at its October 27, 2020 regular meeting. This decision was made in-part because licensees are no longer required to display a renewal permit alongside their license and because the information contained in renewal permits is now available through the Council’s online license verification system.

Beginning November 16th, the Council will no longer print or mail renewal permits when licensees renew their license. Licensees may verify whether their license has been renewed through the Council’s online verification system and print out the status of their license if proof is needed, e.g. to submit to an insurance company. The information available through the online verification system is both accurate and based upon agency records, and is considered primary source verification.

Lastly, licensees can still order a renewal permit through the Council’s online licensing system, if they so desire. The cost for ordering a renewal permit is $10.

So what does that mean for you? If your HR department has a practice of updating your permit annually, you will want to talk with them about a change in procedure so as to not require you to add the expense to your renewal of requesting a permit.

From the Texas Crime Victim Clearinghouse:

Victim services providers recognize that the holiday season is particularly difficult for families in which someone has died by homicide. This webinar will offer practical suggestions for reaching out to these families appropriately and effectively.

Presented by: Derrelynn Perryman, MSSW, LCSW-S

When: Thursday, December 17, 2020 from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM CST

To register now, please click here.

The webinar registration link will send you through a process that will prompt you to create a one-time login ID and password and gather some basic information from you for grant purposes. Adobe Connect will send you an email confirming your registration and include a link to the webinar. This link is only active the day of the webinar. You can use the Adobe Connect ID and password you created on all future TDCJ VSD webinars.

The Office of Special Education Program's (OSEP) has provided an updated report on their recent monitoring visit to TEA. The report discusses the findings related to their visits, their evaluation of the TEA's Corrective Action Response (CAR) steps thus far, and discusses further CAR recommendations to address issues related to IDEA and Child Find.

You can read the letter and report here.

If you missed or were unable to register for the Statewide Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Supports Network's latest webinar, Best Practices for Conducting a Virtual Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee Meeting, is now posted and available to be viewed on demand for free.

You can find this webinar (and all previously recorded Network 1 Webinars) on the Network's website here.

Pearson Assessments is excited to share a free webinar opportunity with Dr. David Kilpatrick, Associate Professor of Psychology from SUNY at Cortland and leading researcher in reading proficiency, provides a deeper dive into how the WIAT®-4 can be used to conduct reading evaluations. This webinar will be offered on Wed, Dec 9, 2020 from 10:30-12:00.

You can register for the Pearson webinar here.

WPS is offering a free webinar from Dr. Steven Feifer about the academic test series from Dr. Feifer (FAR, FAM, FAW). See below for information from WPS:

Title: Feifer Family of Products

Date: Thurs., Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Presenter(s): Steven G. Feifer, DEd, NCSP, ABSNP, and Terri Sisson, EdS

Description: Earn 1 hour of NASP CPD credit* at a FREE webinar and live Q&A on Thursday, December 17 at 11 a.m. ET and listen to Steven G. Feifer, DEd, NCSP, ABSNP, present the Feifer family of products. Attendees of this webinar will be able to:

• Understand the basics of how neuropsychology impacts academic achievement
• Learn how the Feifer products measure the neuropsychological processes of reading, math and writing
• Gain awareness of the specific areas of dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia

There will be a live question & answer after the presentation.

Qual level required for attendees: B

Register with WPS here.

Kognito recently hosted Dr. Scott Poland (former NASP president) and Richard Lieberman presented a session on Suicide prevention. It is a quick 1 hour talk with great information. The recording of the session and related resources can be found here.

The Mental Health America of Greater Dallas association will be holding the 45th annual Adolescent Symposium online this year! The conference will be a one day event on 2/11/2021 with a wonderful line-up of speakers.

For additional information about the conference, presenters, or pricing, click the image below.

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: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

A dense read in both content and size (over 600 pages) Howard Zinn's work gives a heavy, powerful look into our history from the perspectives of the individual.

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