ESC Region 12 Safe & Healthy School

August 2, 9-4 Session #255135 Vision Screener Certification

August 3, 9-4 Session #255136 Hearing Screener Certification

August 4, 9-4 Session #255137 Vision Screener Certification

August 5, 9-4 Session #255138 Hearing Screener Certification

Recertification (needed every 5 years) is still available online through DSHS. Contact Paul.Gonzalez@dshs.texas.gov for more information.

August 2, 8-3, session #245776

Drug Impairment Training for Educational Professionals (DITEP)

August 5, 2-3, session #243147

Stop the Bleed

August 5, 3-4, session #243149

Stop the Bleed Train the Trainer

September 9, 9-12, session #245601

Elementary Counselor Best Practice Institute: Childhood 2.0, SEL, Culture & Diversity

September 9, 1-4, session #245606

True Colors Training for Educators and Counselors

Online, On-Demand Courses

• Human Trafficking for Superintendents, session #252332
  
• Human Trafficking for School Boards, session #252323
• SB 11: The Omnibus School Safety Bill Canvas Course, session # 252334
• School Crisis Response & Communication During the Pandemic: Canvas Series, session #251154

*Watch our live calendar at https://tinyurl.com/23d8cp2r

Training available to schedule on-site:

• Behavior Threat Assessment (to train your Threat Assessment/Safe and Supportive Schools Team)
• Digital Responsibility & Social Media Safety (to train your students)
• True Colors (offered for students and staff as a team-building/self-awareness opportunity)
• AS+K Suicide Prevention (to train staff)
• Youth Mental Health First Aid (to train staff)
• Trauma-Sensitive Schools (to train staff)

*Contact us for pricing and to schedule.

1. The U.S. Secret Service has long held that prevention is the best form of protection. The Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) publishes research and guidance to inform the best practices in implementing proactive targeted violence prevention programs in schools, including:

• Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence
• Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence
• Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools

When conducted properly, a threat assessment will involve providing robust interventions and support for students experiencing distress, thereby intervening with and de-escalating situations before they become violent. The primary objective of a student threat assessment is to provide a student with help, while working to ensure positive outcomes for the student and the community.

2. From DFPS

Child Protective Investigations 101

Date: August 17th
Time: 2:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. (CST)
Register

What are the decision-making processes when it comes to investigating child abuse and neglect? Join DFPS staff for a presentation on recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect in Texas. Learn definitions of common terms and warning signs of abuse and neglect. The presentation will provide the basics of reporting to Statewide Intake via the Texas Abuse Helpline.

DFPS Reporting 101

Date: August 12th
Time: 10:00 A.M. - 11 A.M. (CST)
Register

DFPS will discuss information required for reporting, program jurisdiction and eligibility, mandatory reporting, and an overview of the investigations process for the Child Protective Investigations (CPI) and Adult Protective Services (APS) programs.

3. You are invited to the following event:

Active Shooter Training Course #2195-August 7

When: August 07, 2021 08:00, CDT
Where: Distance Learning Center, Midway HighSchool, 8200 Mars Dr, Waco, TX 76712

Will you be attending?

Register

Not attending

EVENT DETAILS:

The Active Shooter Training Course trains School Based Law Enforcement how to delegate and communicate during an active shooter event. Participants will learn and discuss concepts relative to historic school-related active shooter events, response tactics, hostage and/or barricade crisis, emergency aid procedures and simulated scenarios will be offered during the training.

Best regards,
Texas Association of School Resource Officers

4. Educators and school personnel play a vital role in promoting mental health and well-being and identifying and responding to emerging mental illness in children and adolescents. However, they often have not received the education, training, and/or ongoing support needed to respond in the classroom. To address this need, the MHTTC Network, in partnership with the NCSMH, developed a FREE self-guided online course, video library, resource collection, and a website focused on educator mental health literacy. The 3-part training package, Classroom WISE (Well-Being Information and Strategies for Educators) is now available at www.classroomwise.org and presents concrete, universal approaches for promoting student mental health and creating safe and supportive classroom environments; describes student behaviors that may indicate a mental health concern; and provides strategies to engage and support students with mental health concerns

5. School Mental Health Virtual Learning Series

The NCSMH, in collaboration with the Central East MHTTC & the Danya Institute, is pleased to offer the School Mental Health Virtual Learning Series: a free monthly webinar series. This series focuses on advancing high-quality, sustainable school mental health through a multi-tiered system of support, trauma-sensitive, and culturally responsive and equitable lens. See below for information about the next webinar:

• Supporting Newcomer (Immigrant and Refugee) Youth in Schools
• Wednesday, August 4, 2021, 3:00-4:00 PM ET
• Panelists: Saida M. Abdi, PhD, LICSW; Rebecca For-Paz, PhD; Sonia Rodrigues-Marto, MA, LPC, ACS; Bianca Vargas Ocasio, LSW
• Register

To view all upcoming and previous webinars, visit the Webinars page of our website and view the webinar flyer for the Summer 2021 School Mental Virtual Learning Series.

6. To better understand how school districts develop, implement and sustain comprehensive school mental health systems (CSMHSs), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) and with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), conducted in-depth interviews with teams representing seven school districts with CSMHSs from across the country.

The new AAP report, Supporting Mental Health in Schools, highlights interview findings, including insights into core features of CSMHSs as well as guidance and considerations for advancing CSMHSs. Opportunities for greater involvement with pediatricians and the pediatric community are explored.

7. REMS Newsletter

https://apps1.seiservices.com/remsemailblast/emailfiles/summer2021/summer2021-browser.html

1. In-person vision and hearing screening training sessions are on the website now for sign-ups. See training sessions at the top of the newsletter or search by keyword in escWorks.

2. Summer is the time to relax and refresh, but it is also a great time to get CNEs out of the way! If you need help finding them you can email me and I will send you a long list.

Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention

1. DNA Kits

Senate Bill 2158 requires the Texas Education Agency to provide inkless, in-home, DNA identification kits to all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools, to be distributed by the LEA to the parent or legal guardian (upon request) for Kindergarteners to middle school students. The DNA kits allow families to work closely with law enforcement and appropriate officials to locate their child if the child becomes missing or their whereabouts are unknown. TEA will be providing further guidance on the process for distributing DNA kits and making them available for LEAs to distribute to families.

2. Warning Signs for Criminal Penalties

Senate Bill 1831, also known as the Julia Wells act, requires all public and private schools to post warning signs about offenses and penalties relating to human trafficking of minors on and around school premises. The Texas Education Agency and the Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force will work together to develop rules pertaining to the warning signs information, placement, and distribution of posters that will be used for this purpose.

Adjustments to Mandatory Reporting Training

Senate Bill 1261 amends aspects of the Child Abuse and Mandatory Reporting training requirements, concerning frequency of training and tracking of employee participation. More information from TEA will be forthcoming.

For more information, please email: PreventingHumanTrafficking@tea.texas.gov

Mental and Behavioral Health

1. Dropout Prevention & Mental Health

House Bill 1525 provides opportunities for LEAs to integrate personal and mental health supports into innovations for COVID-19 funded recovery activities in schools.

• New Resource Campus designation for certain schools that includes personal, social, emotional supports and hiring of a licensed counselor or mental health professional in the staffing pattern to address student support needs.
• New PEIMS data elements for collecting information on truancy prevention measures, attendance truancy court filings, and the offering of high school equivalency programs, dropout recovery programs and adult education programs.
• Additional language to the school safety allotment on allowable expenditures for mental health personnel and interventions such as restorative practices in schools. The Commissioner must annually publish a report on the type and purpose of expenditures from the school safety allotment, which includes mental health services and suicide prevention and related training allowable costs.

2. Continuing Education and Professional Development

Senate Bill 1267 amends continuing education requirements for educators and principals by removing continuing education requirements on recognizing warning signs of mental health conditions and substance abuse.

• For all topics related to mental health and at-risk students in this section of statute, the Act changes allowable continuing education on these topics to “no more than” 25% of time on continuing education time over 5 years, from "at least" 25% focused on at-risk and mental health related training, such as grief and trauma-informed interventions, bully prevention, suicide prevention, building relationships/managing emotions/responsible decision-making, etc.
• Removes commissioner rulemaking authority for specific trainings (suicide prevention, bully prevention, building relationships, managing emotions, etc., grief and trauma informed practices, child maltreatment).
• Creates a new SBEC Clearinghouse for all Educator Training and Continuation best practices and requirements for the industry. LEA boards are to use recommendations from the Clearinghouse to develop an annual professional development policy.

3. Suicide Prevention Information

Senate Bill 279 requires that each student identification card issued by a public school to a student in grade six and higher must have printed on the card the contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) (8255), the Crisis Text Line (Text HOME To 741741) and may have printed on the card information for a local suicide prevention hotline, if available. Both resources provide free 24/7 confidential crisis counseling and emotional support on any topic for people in distress. LEAs should confirm the accurate contact information for printing these suicide prevention resource numbers on the ID cards for students. This new requirement applies to student ID cards issued after September 1, 2021.

Sign up for our Mental and Behavioral Health newsletter to stay updated!

1. The summer training calendar is coming to a close. If you haven't had a chance to attend our trainings, please take the opportunity to register today for our virtual School Behavioral Threat Assessment, Sandy Hook Promise - Say Something, Standard Response Protocol/Standard Reunification (SRP/SRM) Train-the-Trainer, and Digital Threat Assessment trainings.

2. Don't forget to register for our Region 12 specific TxSSC trainings!

• Advanced School Behavioral Threat Assessment Training – December 14, 2021
  https://txssc.txstate.edu/events/adv-sbta-trainings/
  
• Advanced Digital Threat Assessment Training – December 15, 2021
  https://txssc.txstate.edu/events/adv-dta-trainings/

1. 2021 Texas Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program Summit - August 3rd & 5th

TNOYS and TEA believe we can best support students experiencing homelessness by elevating their voices and experiences. Guided by this principle, the TEHCY Program Summit engages young adults as speakers, consultants, and facilitators throughout the conference. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to learn directly from youth and young adults with lived expertise, putting the power of youth-adult partnership into action.

Register at https://www.tfaforms.com/4893156

2. Register Now! October 14-15, 2021

The theme of this year’s conference is School Mental Health: Moving Forward Together. Each year, the Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health brings together leaders, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders in the school mental health field to share the latest research, best practice, and innovation. The conference emphasizes a shared family-school-community agenda to bring high-quality, evidence-based mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention to students and families as part of a multi-tiered system of support.

1. Safety Audits
Public Schools should conduct a safety audit of facilities from September 2020 through August 2023.

Charter Schools should conduct a safety audit from September 2019 through August 2022.

2. District Audit Reports

At the culmination of the Safety Audit process, schools will be required to submit a District Audit Report to the Texas School Safety Center.

The Public School expected deadline is August 2023.

The Charter School expected deadline is August 2022.

3. Threat Assessment/SSSP

Collection period September 1, 2020 through August 31, 2021 is due in November 2021 by Qualtrics survey (https://tinyurl.com/27fp2437).

Take a look at the proposed data to be collected (https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/november-2021-proposed-survey-questions.pdf).

Last cycle was due in November 2020 and covered September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020.

4. Emergency Operation Plans and Annexes

Can be requested at any time by TxSSC.

5. Vision, Hearing, Spinal Screening State Reports

Due to the state by June 30, 2021

https://chrstx.dshs.state.tx.us/Login.aspx

Here is the July-August issue of the MTSS Newsletter from the ESC Region 12. You may access the previous issues HERE if you'd like.

ESC Region 12 offers professional development, expert support and guidance in meeting Title IV, Part A state and federal requirements, including student access to a well-rounded education, school conditions for student learning improvements, and the use of technology to improve the academic achievement and digital literacy of all students.

David Baker, ESC 12 Clinical Mental Health Liaison

Michelle Butler, Education Specialist/Nurse

Jeni Janek, Education Specialist III/Coordinator

Heather Wheeler, Education Specialist

Email: hwheeler@esc12.net
Website: esc12.net
Location: ESC Region 12, West Loop 340, Waco, TX, USA
Phone: 254-297-1166
Twitter: @R12SafeHealthy