A week of kudos and one goodbye

We have had a couple of very busy weeks.  Lots of cool activities and happenings around special education, but so much more beyond that program as well.

Cohort I schools involved in the Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) program are wrapping up their first semester.  These 12 initial schools received summer training, have PBIS committees in place on their campuses, and now will engage in targeted support and training second semester.  We are very excited to kick this into high gear and give these schools the support they need to effectively implement the programming.  We like to say that PBIS is about changing "adult" behavior and their approaches to kids and discipline, and ideally should be a collaborative approach.  Of course, this Positive Behavior Intervention Support system cross functions with our RTI/SST processes and cross functions with our Dean of Discipline office, which makes all the work we do in Student Services truly connected - including special education.  Our joint planning is crucial to the work we do.

I received a very positive email last Wednesday from Dr. Darnell Logan, Psychology Coordinator and a co-supervisor of PBIS, regarding Brown Middle School staff and their initial work as part of APS's PBIS Cohort I.  Per Dr. Logan, "I have to give a Big Shout Out to Ms. Crooms (Principal) and Ms. Ragland (Teacher) of Brown Middle School for a dynamic presentation today (the room was packed!) at the Georgia Association for Positive Behavior Support Conference. Ms. Crooms and Ms. Ragland delivered a presentation titled, One Size Does Not Fit All – Personalizing PBIS for your School. In their discussion they illustrated the challenges of working in an urban middle school, which has dealt with frequent leadership turnover, high mobility, and the merging of three different neighborhoods into one school.  They showed and discussed their suspension data both pre and post PBIS implementation and the data is very encouraging!  At Brown Middle School they have significantly decreased the number of suspensions within the first four months of implementing PBIS (Aug – Nov 2014) as compared to that same timeframe (Aug – Nov 2013) last year without PBIS. I salute the work of Ms. Crooms and her team at Brown Middle School!"  Thanks Dr. Logan for sharing.  We are very excited to see where Brown and other Cohort I schools take PBIS second semester.  On to Cohort II!

Speaking of Kudos, Dr. Charnita West, principal of Dobbs Elementary School, sent me a short note highlighting her appreciation for Nurse Managers Harriet Chaney and Jamil Wooldridge.  "I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Nurses Chaney and Woolridge for their assistance this week...these ladies empowered me with medical information that I can share with parents and our larger community, if needed..." Thanks Harriet and Jamil for your professional and responsive approach.



 

Of course, last week was a BIG week in special education as well. We celebrated, along with the entire district, all things Inclusion Week.  Vickie Cleveland, educational specialist Crystal Callaway, and special education staff had daily celebratory activities at schools, as well as at the CLL building.  I was able to catch the CLL presentation and the audience in attendance was very moved by the stories shared.  One of our students and two APS staff members related their personal journeys and it was good to hear of the life successes as each story unfolded.   Special Education has evolved so much in the past few years - especially from what many of us remember from our own school experiences.  Evolution for the good. Additionally, Vickie and Crystal facilitated a special viewing of the documentary Including Samuel and personal quests related to inclusion for people with disabilities. So glad I saw it and another affirmation for our continued work on inclusive practices in our schools and in our communities at large. 




Dr. Spiller in action

Special Education Parent Mentors

Very productive second Special Education Advisory meeting on Monday.  The group of community and staff members who comprise this new advisory are positive, engaging, and have some terrific ideas.  In fact, we wrote many down based on discussion from the evening's presentations.  Thanks to Dr. Nicole Spiller, Student Services Director of Intervention and Support, and to Special Education Parent Mentors Rose Calloway and Edith Abakare for sharing with us timely information on RTI/SST processes, as well as the roles of our parent mentors in the district.  We all determined that as RTI/SST is such a basic system of support for intervention in APS that we need to ensure there is a systemic and defined training for all staff and for all parents.  Think Back to School Night presentations and Pre-service trainings.  Good stuff.  Additionally, our parent mentors have 27 special education PTA committees, and because we had school staff with us, we were able to solidify a commitment for 3 more in January.  Certainly helps us in our goal to increase these PTA sub-committees by 25% this year.  Awesome!
 We also were able to sneak in a group photo of our advisory at evening's end, though not a full representation due to committee commitments elsewhere - busy members who give much of their time to APS.  So though our "official" advisory link photo will need to wait until another day, here's a sneak peak of our group.  Thanks all for your thoughtful comments and commitment to the work.  Appreciated. 

Finally, I leave you with a goodbye, " headed out the door" picture of Student Services staff member and attorney Lee Rideout.  She is headed to the west coast as I write this blog in order to be closer to family and begin her next chapter.  Though I didn't get to work with Lee for long this year, I know she will be missed by many on our floor (me included!) and other CLL floors as well.  Safe travels Lee and all the best!

Stylin' with the glasses to hide those goodbye tears