DPI Student Services/Prevention and Wellness Fall 2018 Updates

Required Trainings for All School District Staff

The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse training module has been updated. Also,  the newly required Mandatory Reporting of Threats of School Violence training module has been uploaded. Districts are encouraged to review the SSPW list of state and federally required trainings available on the SSPW home page: https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/required-trainings.

The Building the Heart of Successful Schools Conference will be held on December 6-7 at Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.  Three pre-conferences will also be held on December 5. The brochure and registration information can be found here https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/conference

Title IV, Part-A-  Districts received new allocations for the 2018-19 school year.  The Title IV, Part-A application is live in WISEgrants and is due September 30th.  For more information on Title IV-A, visit https://dpi.wi.gov/titleiva.  For the Safe and Healthy Students component of this Title, professional development opportunities can be found on the WISH Center website- http://wishschools.org/

State Budget-DPI received funding to support mental health among youth.  Funding for training will focus on Youth Mental Health First Aid and SBIRT (Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment).  See more on the WISH Center website for training details.

School-based Mental Health Services Grant-It is anticipated that the school mental health grant program authorized by WI §115.367 will continue with the next biennial budget. Check the grant website https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/school-based-grant-program for updated timelines, applications and grant guidance.

NEW AND IMPROVED! The Youth Risk Behavior Survey process is now easier than ever!  The old Online YRBS system is being retired after 11 wonderful years of service to Wisconsin.  We will now use Qualtrics, which is the survey software used by the UW System (and many districts, companies, etc.).  And the software isn’t all that’s being upgraded! The survey process itself is being standardized to improve data quality and make the system more user-friendly. Schools and their partners will be invited to register for a Spring 2019 survey (open Jan. 7, 2019-March 29, 2019).  By default, all schools will receive the same basic survey questions. In the registration form, schools can opt to include one of four additional topic modules to the standard survey, or not to include them. During their scheduled survey window, schools will receive their survey link.  DPI will send schools their results on a rolling basis during the Spring. Schools can also opt to have quicker access to their results and more dynamic access to their data by purchasing a YRBS dashboard for $100. The amount covers the complete cost of the Qualtrics dashboard under the terms of its contract with DPI.  

The approximately 50 schools sampled by CDC to represent Wisconsin’s statewide YRBS statistics are also being contacted in Fall 2018 for participation in this process.  These are the schools whose participation is needed to produce 2019 Wisconsin statistics. Sampled schools will work more closely with DPI and will have a few additional steps, but can use the same basic online process described above and can still get school results.  They will also get incentives for their participation.

The 2017 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey summary report and a suicide and help seeking special topic report, are available on the YRBS website https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/yrbs

The DPI’s Suicide Prevention Curriculum is available for download for free on the webpage linked here: http://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/youth-suicide-prevention/student-programs/curriculum.

DPI’s Gatekeeper Training Module
An important step in protecting all students from the dangers of suicide is the ability to understand the context of youth suicide in Wisconsin, recognize the warning signs of suicide ideation, and take appropriate steps to keep a suicidal student safe. This new, interactive suicide prevention gatekeeper module is being piloted for schools and districts to use with their staff. The module takes approximately 20 minutes to complete, and there is an opportunity to provide feedback on how to make the module more effective and user-friendly. Found here:https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/youth-suicide-prevention/training

All school safety crises do not involve externalized behavior. DPI’s full-day School-Based Suicide Prevention Training has been revamped and can be scheduled to be delivered by DPI consultants at CESAs around the state. The purpose of the revision is to build-in more planning/work time for school safety teams around their processes and procedures regarding suicide ideation, suicide attempt, and death by suicide. In addition, the new training will increase focus on students at more disproportionate risk for suicide and programmatic/curricular means for providing universal prevention.  The WISH Center is accepting requests for trainings for the 2018-2019 school year.  Please contact your WISH Center regional director to request a training be scheduled for your CESA region.

Request a YMHFA training in your area.  YMHFA trainings are available to school district staff by request.  Trainings can be paid for through Project AWARE and a request for a training can be made at:  http://www.wishschools.org/resources/YMHFA.cfm  schools must agree to the terms of the training and sign an MOU.  The coordinator of Youth Mental Health First Aid at DPI is Beth Herman at beth.herman@dpi.wi.gov   The coordinator of Youth Mental Health First Aid at WISH is Christine Kleiman CKleiman@cesa7.org

Social and Emotional Learning training and resources

DPI, in coordination with the WISH Center and state CESAs will be hosting full day trainings to support school teams in getting started with school-wide implementation of social and emotional learning and the Wisconsin Pre K- Adult SEL Competencies. Additional supports will be rolling out this year including online training modules, monthly SEL Professional Development Webinars and Community of Practice activities. To stay update on SEL in Wisconsin, please join the SEL list serve. The link to join can be found here https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/social-emotional-learning on the SEL web page.

Compassion Resilience On-line Toolkit

DPI, in collaboration with Rogers InHealth, and many stakeholder partners, have spent two years developing an on-line toolkit that addresses staff wellness, compassion fatigue, and compassion resilience.  The toolkit can be found at www.compassionresiliencetoolkit.org.

Districts are invited to use these materials to create a two-year focus on the supports and skills necessary for educators to engage in their work with good self care strategies, healthy collegial relationships, and the steps to compassionate action with members of the school community.

DPI School Nurse Professional Development Opportunities

Recognizing that many school districts do not have the resources to provide their school nurse(s) with targeted professional development, the DPI offers a New School Nurse Orientation and other specifically designed professional development.

The New School Nurse Orientation is scheduled for October 18-19, 2018, in Wausau at The Plaza Hotel and Suites. This training is for those nurses who will be working for the first time in or with a school district. It is appropriate for school nurses who have worked in a school setting zero to three years. Topics that will be covered include guidance on the laws that affect school health, information on IEP’s, 504’s, school health records, and delegation in the school setting. The cost of the program is $150.  Registration is now open at: https://www.regonline.com/registration/login.aspx?eventID=2534778&MethodId=0&EventsessionId

Trauma Sensitive Schools

In response to the DOJ school safety grant, DPI has partnered with SaintA, Trauma Sensitive Education, LLC, WISH, CESAs, and WCRIS to develop and provide a 3 hour TSS Awareness training. Training partners can be found at: https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/trauma/contacts  DPI is supporting an additional 44 schools/districts in becoming a Trauma Sensitive School.

Tobacco Prevention: When updating your school district’s tobacco policy, use the checklist aligned with the sample comprehensive school tobacco policy language from the Public Health Law Center available on DPI’s Tobacco Prevention website at:  http://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/aoda/tobacco-program.  If your school district’s tobacco policy was recently updated, notify Sally Jones at sally.jones@dpi.wi.gov and we will add it to our list of school districts on our website.

Academic and Career Planning (ACP). The 12 CESAs around the state will be scheduling ongoing professional development sessions for 2018-2019 to help district teams continue to improve and better meet their individual needs for effective ACP implementation. DPI has a website dedicated to ACP professional development events at:https://dpi.wi.gov/acp/events/upcoming.

As implementation across the state evolves, changes and additions are being made to the comprehensive ACP webpage (https://dpi.wi.gov/acp); including the inclusion of the ACP evaluation process (https://dpi.wi.gov/acp/quality) and the posting of lessons for districts/schools to use with their staff https://dpi.wi.gov/acp/implementation/pl. ACP lessons are grouped into two levels. Level one focuses on “Preparation and Planning” aspects of infrastructure; while level two focus on “Supporting Students in ACP.” Lessons are downloadable and are designed to be user-ready. However, users are free to use as much or as little of the lessons as appropriate.

This year 74 schools registered for the 2018 Wisconsin School Health Award and 49 of those schools will be recognized and celebrated for their efforts to enhance policies, programs, and the infrastructure to support and promote healthy eating, physical activity, physical education, health education, parental and community involvement, and staff wellness. The 2018 awards ceremony will be held at the Building the Heart of Successful Schools Conference in Wisconsin Dells. The 2019 Wisconsin School Health Award is transitioning to a more comprehensive approach that aligns more closely with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. DPI is currently working on guidance to assist and support schools for the next award year. Information will be available this fall, as well as highlighted during the Healthier Schools Workshop in December. Communication updates about the Wisconsin School Health Award and information to guide schools on policy and practice can be found by visiting https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/coordinated-school-health/wisconsin-school-health-award

Current DPI grants in progress:

State Alcohol and Drug Abuse (AODA) Grant There were 72 applications representing 93 school districts submitted for consideration. The four consortium projects have a total of 25 districts between them, while 68 of the applications were submitted to address program development in 68 individual districts. Forty-five projects representing 66 school districts were recommended for funding, including all four consortium projects. This is a funding rate of 63% of the districts seeking funds, totaling 62% of the dollars requested by all applicants.  All CESAs have at least one funded project. Grant projects include SBIRT AODA screening, LifeSkills Training classroom curriculum and N-O-T on Tobacco smoking cessation programing. Further information is available at: http://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/aoda.   A new grant competition will begin in early 2019.

State Alcohol and Drug Abuse (AODA) Mini Grant Comprehensive school health programs require youth involvement to create environments conducive to healthy, resilient, and successful learners. As part of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) efforts to encourage youth initiatives, we offered the AODA Student Mini-Grant Program for the 29th year, in the 2017-2018 school year. Funds were made available to 64 programs throughout the state to support education, prevention, and intervention programs designed by the students, targeting alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA) and other youth risk behaviors such as tobacco use, alcohol traffic safety (ATS), violence, suicide, etc. In addition, a major funding priority of the mini-grant program is the involvement of youth in the planning and implementation of the project. Consideration was given based on the educational value of the project and statewide geographic distribution of funds. A new student AODA mini-grant competition has begun with applications being due October 12th. https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/aoda/mini-grant

Earlier this summer, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction awarded $4.35 million in 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants which can renew for five years. The 37 sites receiving funds were among a pool of 142 that requested more than $17 million through the competitive grant program. Including sites funded with previous competitive grants, students will have access to over 150 after school programs funded by the state’s $15.6 million 21st CCLC grant. https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sspw/xls/clcgrantees.xlsx

Applications for 2019-20 21st CCLC competitive grant cycle will be released in early November. https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/clc/grant-information.

Wisconsin DPI was awarded a two year In School Pregnant/Parenting Interventions, Resources, and Education Project (InSPIRE) Grant through the Office of Adolescent Health.  DPI will work with 8 Wisconsin school districts through 2020. Outcomes include increasing high school graduation and enrollment in higher education, increasing parenting knowledge and skills, and decreasing repeat pregnancy.  

Through the Safe Schools Healthy Students grant, and a recent grant and partnership with CASEL, Wisconsin is developing state level Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies for grades K-12. These competencies will align with the current Model Early Learning standards.  The competencies will be available to all schools who choose to use them and will be accompanied by a number of resources to help schools fully implement social emotional learning. Additional focus will also be on developing a model for high school SEL implementation and a model for after school sites in order to provide them a method of effectively teaching and enhancing SEL skills in children in a manner that is consistent with in-school SEL application.  For more information contact Beth Herman at beth.herman@dpi.wi.gov. or look here: https://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/mental-health/social-emotional-learning

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received the School Climate Transformation Grant, funded by US Department of Education at $578,521/year for five years, through 2019. The project will effectively build local capacity to provide, improve, and expand multi-level systems of support by directly strengthening positive behavioral interventions and support (PBIS), as well as integrating school mental health services and supports into PBIS. The work of the grant is to strengthen Wisconsin state capacity to: a) deliver expanded effective training and technical assistance through an existing statewide PBIS Training Center; and b) deliver training and technical assistance on school mental health. Mental Health Framework Roll-out trainings are available upon request.  For more information on the School Mental Health contact Elizabeth Cook at elizabeth.cook@dpi.wi.gov

Wisconsin DPI received the Project AWARE Grant, funded by SAMHSA for $9.8 million for five years through 2019.  The purposes of this project are to: 1) make schools safer; 2) improve school climate; 3) increase capacity to identify warning signs of mental health problems among children and make appropriate referrals to mental health care; and 4) increase capacity of the state and local education agencies to connect children and youth with behavioral health issues with needed services. The focus is on the needs and supports of students, staff, and families in the School District of Ashland, Adams Friendship Area School District and Milwaukee Public Schools, with project innovations and lessons learned available to all schools statewide. Youth Mental Health First Aid trainings will be available to those involved in working with youth ages 12-18.  The Project Coordinator of Youth Mental Health First Aid is Beth Herman at beth.herman@dpi.wi.gov.  For more information on AWARE contact the Project Coordinator, Monica Wightman at monica.wightman@dpi.wi.gov.