Get School Psych'd

Hello LSSPs,

1st off, a quick PSA. If you are reading this on the day of publication (4/1/2019) please know that all of the content in this newsletter is 100% true. I am not a fan of April Fool's Day, even if that makes me a bit of a fuddy duddy (though I now feel that using the phrase fuddy duddy makes me a bigger fuddy duddy that anything else I've said so far in my life.)

Flowers blooming and my allergies flaring up tells me that spring has sprung!

As this year has gone by, I have continued to be amazed by all of the awesome work going on in Region 10 and across the state by LSSPs. Everyone I meet and collaborate with is working so hard to power through all of the work that needs to be done and to do the important work of supporting students.

The biggest issue with LSSPs in my (and many directors) opinion is that we just don't have enough of them! As I am sure you all know, we have a shortage of LSSPs in Texas.

One of the clear challenges that I see is that many people simply don't know that our field exists! I know I am not alone in my school psychology 'origin story'. I had no clue that School Psychology was a career path until the end of my junior year in undergrad, where I happened to have a professor that was an LSSP. Had it not been for that chance encounter, I'm not sure what would have become of me. A lack of knowledge of our field is a problem that we can now chip away at.

NASP has put together a presentation called the NASP Exposure Project that aims to educate high school and college students about the field of psychology with an explanation of our work and what an educational pathway to becoming an LSSP looks like. There is a focus and goal of increasing diversity of background among LSSPs, but informing any and all who might be interested is key to starting to increase the number of practitioners across the state.

If you have connections to high school psych students or connections with undergraduate psychology programs, I would encourage you to reach out to see if there is an opportunity to present. If you have the connections but not the time, please reach out to me and I would be happy to help. I recently presented at the University of Texas-Dallas to a group of undergrads and got a number of curious questions about the career and will likely be going back in the fall. I even have a 'Texas-ized' version of the Exposure project presentation ready to go for you.

Let's spread the word and help grow our field. For our self-care and the needs of our students, we have got to address this shortage.

Stay School Psych'd!

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

The Link Between August Birthdays and ADHD

A New York Times article discussing the results of this recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and issues surrounding early childhood academic expectations and diagnostic criteria concerns for ADHD.

More Educators Adopting Restorative Discipline Practices

NEA article with first hand accounts from teachers about the use and implementation of RP in their schools.

A Calm Down Space

A brief blog post from the Momentous Institute about ways to provide or improve a calm down space in the classroom.

One of my biggest goals of GSP is to get information about our 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.

Some people had asked about whether I would share some of the results from the Two (sometimes three) question quiz, so I will publish those results from time to time. Here are the results from waaaaaaaaaay back in November.

Here's a small sampling of what we having coming up at Region 10. Get over to the Calendar of Events to register.

4/12/19 - Recommendations Based on Normative & Classroom Data

• 9:00-3:00, Session ID# 2620404

4/16/19 - Youth Mental Health First Aid

• 8:30-4:00, Session ID# 2621028

5/16/19 - Strategies For Motivating & Managing Students

• 9:00-4:00, Session ID# 2621723

5/31/19 - Educational Summit - Developing Cultural Competence

• 9:00-3:30, Session ID# 2623073

4/9/19 - Best Practices in Evaluation and Identification of ID

• 10:00-12:00, Session ID# 2619682

5/7/19 - Assessing English Learners for Special Education Identification

• 10:00-12:00, Session ID# 2619683

The Region 10 Direct Services team will be offering some summer PD opportunities which include the Every Move Counts training. This is a multidisciplinary evaluation training about addressing AT evaluation needs of students in low incidence populations. This is an area not often covered in trainings, so if you would like to learn more about supporting AT evaluations, here is your chance.

The training will take place on June 12th and 13th at the Richardson Civic Center. Check out this Smore Newsletter for registration instructions.

The Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Texas is a newly formed nonprofit organization whose vision is to advance and support Social and Emotional Learning practices in all schools and communities in Texas.

The website, which just launched recently, includes news, information, and resources. Their resources section includes some great documents and supports for SEL implementation and program selection. There are also resource sections for parents and community partners.

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