Upcoming PAYS Input opportunities:
The PAYS Advisory Group would like to invite you to apply to be a part of two outstanding opportunities for school entities to provide input on the development and direction of the PA Youth Survey (PAYS).
- PAYS Advisory Council You are invited to apply to become a member of this distinguished group of school entities who will provide input to PASAG and state-level PAYS leadership on a variety of PAYS topics via online surveys or virtual listening sessions a few times per year.
Click here toregister.
- 4th-Grade PAYS Survey Development Summer Listening Sessions
To continue the development of PAYS for 4th-Grade, PAYSAG is seeking input from school entities who have experience with PAYS/student surveying &/or working with 4th-grade students.
You will apply to be a part of a one-day, in-person only event to provide input on a variety of topics including:
- Subjects/questions to include on survey
- Question wording
- Survey length
- Each participant will receive a $250 STIPEND!
- PAYSAG is seeking up to 20 participants per location scheduled as follows:
- July 11: PaTTAN - Malvern
- July 12: IU #20 - Easton
- July 13: PaTTAN - Harrisburg
- July 19: IU #10 - Philipsburg
- July 20: PaTTAN - Pittsburgh
Click here for more information.
Keystone State ChalleNGe Academy (KSCA)
Applications are open for class beginning July 2023. KSCA is a positive, high energy, learning environment designed to guide at-risk teenagers in furthering their education and setting a path to a brighter future. The academy is a tuition-free program for Pennsylvania residents. It is geared towards 16-18 year old students who are disengaged in school, behind in credits, or at risk of dropping out. The academy is located at Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville, PA. During the 22-week residential phase cadets can work towards passing the GED ® or towards earning credits or recovering high school credits through adaptive credit recovery. Click here to learn more. KSCA is also seeking trustworthy, caring and committed adult volunteers to mentor cadets.
Click here to learn more on how to become a mentor.
It’s that time of year again-time to start completing the PDE 4092 SAP data!
Where is it?
Ok let’s start at the beginning. If you are like me and you feel silly asking questions about what you think you should know and would rather spend 30 minutes looking for something than ask, then this article will hopefully help you. Let’s start with the reporting site- in your defense you may only go here once a year so it is hard to remember where to start. Click here to go to the Safe Schools reporting site. My advice is not to wait until the end of the year. (Yeah, I know you just may not have the time to do that.) At the very least, do the next step before the end of the year….
Do you have your password? Its ok if you don’t. Each district has a zone administrator to create accounts in their district. Contact the Jay Wasser at the PDE Help Desk at 814-243-3658 c-jwasser@pa.gov and he can help you if that person is no longer at the district or you are not sure who it is. Jay can help walk the new person through the registration process and how to give out passwords.
Data Entry
Does one person on the team complete entry or is this duty shared? If you are the one lucky person-thank you for all your hard work! If it is spread over all team members who enter data, how do you make sure you are being consistent in how you complete the data? It is a good idea to take some meeting time to double check the instructions and make sure you are all on the same page as far as how to report. It may also be good to double check with others if a specific issue doesn’t seem to fit, so that you are all interpreting things the same.
There are always a few questions that are a little trickier than others:
- Question #10- Best practices suggest gathering behavior checklists on students referred to SAP. This data helps look for observable behavior trends and can help identify additional concerns or strengths while driving decision making.
- When you collect behavior checklists can change depending on your team’s SAP and school policies. If your process is to gather data on all SAP referred students, then you should do this consistently with all students. If your process is to send out behavior checklist after you receive parent permission, then you will only include those. Either process is correct, just be consistent.
- Question #17- Ask your SAP liaisons how to answer this question. Each county is unique in how they provide liaison services. Sometime the name of an agency can be misleading, and we assume that the name of the agency is an indicator of the type of screening or assessment they provide. Also, things can change from year to year. So, my advice is to double check this before completing this question.
- Question #23-If you developed recommendations for a student, then you developed an intervention/action plan, so take credit for it! Don’t worry you didn’t have to do a formal chart, but it is best practice to keep your recommendations and who is responsible to do what and when to check back in. This can be in case management notes in the student’s SAP file. However, if you would like to start using a more formal action plan there are plenty of models out there.
Once you are done, review the data. You will see any mistakes/blanks in reporting on any student will be highlighted in red. Make sure your team corrects these and then submit it. Then your district SAP zone administrator can review and release all district reports to the state. However, if there is a mistake on any report, it will not release to the state. It is always good to go back in and double-check that the data has been released.
Questions-That is what we are here for! Reach out to your regional coordinator and we will gladly help you!
RESOURCES AND NEWS
New SAMHSA Advisory: Cannabidiol (CBD) – Potential Harms, Side Effects, and Unknowns
SAMHSA has issued a new advisory on “Cannabidiol (CBD) – Potential Harms, Side Effects, and Unknowns”. This advisory introduces readers to cannabidiol (CBD), how it is derived, and how it differs from delta-9 THC and other cannabinoids. The advisory focuses on the risks and harms of CBD, especially those sold over the counter. This advisory also clarifies common misconceptions about CBD, given its broad availability and marketing for several medical conditions despite limited evidence of efficacy. It is critical that the general public be made aware of the potential harms associated with CBD use, and parents, in particular, should be advised to not let their children use non-FDA-approved CBD products.
Click here for more information.
National Survey on LBGTQ Youth Mental Health in PA- The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ young people, produces innovative original research that amplifies the experiences of diverse LGBTQ young people and brings new knowledge and clinical implications to the suicide prevention field. For the first time ever, they have published the findings of their national survey. This survey captured the experiences of nearly 34,000 LGBTQ people ages 13-24 across the United States in 2022, segmented by all 50 states. These data provide critical insights into the suicide risk faced by LGBTQ young people, top barriers to mental health care, the prevalence of anti-LGBTQ victimization, and the negative impacts of recent politics. Importantly, this research also points to ways in which we can all support the LGBTQ young people in our lives by detailing per state LGBTQ young people’s access to accepting communities, LGBTQ-affirming spaces, and social support among family and friends- protective factors that are consistently associated with better mental health and lower suicide risk. These findings strive to underscore the unique challenges faced by young LGBTQ people, a group consistently found to be at significantly increased risk for suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.
Click here for the PA report.
WELLNESS CORNER
How to Be Happy: 27 Habits to Add to Your Routine
Regardless of your version of true happiness, living a happier, more satisfied life is within reach. A few tweaks to your regular habits like getting more sleep and exercise can help you get there.
Daily habits
1. Smile You tend to smile when you’re happy. But it’s actually a two-way street.We smile because we’re happy, and smiling causes the brain to release dopamine, which makes us happier.
2. Exercise Exercise isn’t just for your body. Regular exercise can help reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and symptoms of depression while boosting self-esteem and happiness. Even a small amount of physical activity can make a difference.
3. Get plenty of sleep Most adults need at least 7 hours of sleep every night. If you find yourself fighting the urge to nap during the day or just generally feel like you’re in a fog, your body may be telling you it needs more rest.
4. Eat with mood in mind You may already know that your food choices have an impact on your overall physical health. But some foods can also affect your state of mind. If you want to eat with your mood in mind, consider starting with making one food choice for your mood each day. For example, swap a big, sweet breakfast pastry for some Greek yogurt with fruit. Consider adding in a new food swap each week.
5. Practice gratitude Simply being grateful can give your mood a big boost, among other benefits. For example, a two-part study found that practicing gratitude can have a significant impact on feelings of hope and happiness. You might try starting each day by acknowledging one thing you’re grateful for.
6. Give a compliment Research shows that performing acts of kindness may also help promote your overall well-being. Giving a sincere compliment is a quick, easy way to brighten someone’s day while giving your own happiness a boost.
7. Breathe deeply You’re tense, your shoulders are tight, and you feel as though you just might “lose it.” We all know that feeling. Instinct may tell you to take a long, deep breath to calm yourself down. Turns out, that instinct is a good one. Research supports the fact that slow breathing and deep breathing exercises can help reduce stress.
8. Acknowledge the unhappy moments A positive attitude is generally a good thing, but bad things happen to everyone. It’s just part of life. If you get some bad news, make a mistake, or just feel like you’re in a funk, don’t try to pretend you’re happy. Acknowledge the feeling of unhappiness, letting yourself experience it for a moment. Then shift your focus toward what made you feel this way and what it might take to recover.
9. Keep a journal A journal is a good way to organize your thoughts, analyze your feelings, and make plans. And you don’t have to be a literary genius or write volumes to benefit.
10. Face stress head-on Life is full of stressors, and it’s impossible to avoid all of them. There’s no need to. Stress isn’t always harmful, and we can even change our attitudes about stress
11. Avoid comparing yourself to others Whether it happens on social media, at work, or even at a yoga class, it’s easy to fall into a place where you’re comparing yourself to others. The result? You experience more discontent, lower self-esteem, and even depression and anxiety.
Weekly habits
12. Declutter Decluttering sounds like a big project, but setting aside just 20 minutes a week can have a big impact.
13. See friends Humans are largely considered social beings, and while the research is mixed on how exactly socialization impacts happiness, the consensus is that having social relationships can make us happy.
14. Plan your week Feel like you’re flailing about? Try sitting down at the end of every week and making a basic list for the following week.
15. Ditch your phone Unplug. Really. There’s mounting evidence to support the fact that excessive phone use can lead to changes in the brain and impact your mood, with one review even revealing more serious cognitive and emotional changes in adolescents and young adults.
16. Get into nature Spending 30 minutes or more a week in green spaces can help lower blood pressure and the chances of developing depression, according to one study .
17. Explore meditation There are many methods of meditation to explore. They can involve movement, focus, spirituality, or a combination of all three.
18. Consider therapy We’re certainly happier when we learn how to cope with obstacles. When you’re faced with a problem, think about what got you through something similar in the past. Would it work here? What else can you try?
19. Find a self-care ritual It’s easy to neglect self-care in a fast-paced world. But trying to find time to nurture yourself as much as you can is important in supporting your body’s responsibilities of carrying your thoughts, passions, and spirit through this world.
Monthly habits
20. Give back If you find that giving daily compliments provides a needed boost to your mood, consider making a monthly routine of giving back on a larger scale.
21. Take yourself out No one to go out with? Well, what rule says you can’t go out alone?
22. Create a thought list You arrive for an appointment with 10 minutes to spare. What do you do with that time? Pick up your cell phone to scroll through social media? Worry about the busy week you have ahead of you?
Yearly habits
23. Take time to reflect While the start of a new year is a good time to stop and take inventory of your life, you can set up yearly habits at any point in the year. Try setting aside some time to catch up with yourself the way you would with an old friend: How are you doing? What have you been up to? Are you happier than you were a year ago?
24. Reevaluate your goals People change, so try thinking about where you’re heading and consider if that’s still where you want to go. There’s no shame in changing your plans. Let go of any goals that no longer serve you, even if they sound nice on paper.
25. Take care of your body You’ve likely heard this before, including several times in this article. Your physical and mental health are closely intertwined. As you build habits to improve your happiness, it’s important to follow up with routine appointments to help take care your body, such as:
26. Let go of grudges This can often be easier said than done. But remembering that you are not necessarily doing it for another person or other people may help you be more open to beginning the process. Sometimes, offering forgiveness or dropping a grudge is more about self-care than compassion for others.
27. Plan a trip With an ever-hectic schedule, sometimes it’s easy to forget to schedule something else that’s crucial to your well-being: time off. You can reap even more benefits by planning a trip, whether it’s close to home or somewhere further away.
For more information click here.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
SAP Trainings are available both in person and virtually in certain locations throughout the state. These trainings are delivered by PA Approved SAP Training Providers. For a complete listing click here to access the training calendar.
Trauma Training: The Offices of Children, Youth and Families, and Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services have partnered with PA Care Partnership to provide any child welfare professionals in Pennsylvania FREE Trauma Training provided by Lakeside Global until September 30, 2023, or while funding is available. For individuals looking for Trauma Training, there are multiple cohorts for courses and workshops scheduled on specific dates and times available through https://lakesidelink.com/training/course-registration-2023/Training available includes the following: Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Deepening Trauma Awareness, Applying Trauma Principals, Train the Trainers, and Trauma 101 through 109 Workshops.
2022-2023 Equity Speaker Series: Click here for courses and registration the speakers series is funded by PDE Statewide Systems of Support.
Topics of upcoming trainings include:
- 4/18/2023: Hispanic/ Latino
- 5/16/2023 Students with interrupted education
National SEL Conference-Finding Common Ground
May 15-17, 2023
Click here to register.
HealtheKnowledge
Self-paced Professional Development & Training HealtheKnowledge offers hundreds of courses on topics related to substance use disorder, recovery, mental health, and prevention efforts. These self-paced courses are available online, anytime, anywhere! Join over 89,000 behavioral health professionals-take a HealtheKnowledge course today! Click here for more information.
Center for Safe Schools
There are several resources available at the Center for Safe Schools. Including: False Threats: Immediate Action Steps for Schools, Model Door Numbering System, Safety and Security Assessments. Training and Technical Assistance, Act 26 and Act 44, Third Thursday Digital Learning Series, and more.
Click here for more information.
GRANTS
PCCD Grants
There are open grant applications in PCCD’s Egrants System.
For more information contact the Egrants Help Desk is available at: (717) 787-5887 or (800) 692-7292, or by emailing RA-eGrantsSupport@pa.gov. Click here to register.