NASP Dialogues

Mindfulness research suggests that cultivating a mindfulness practice is related to physical and mental health benefits for all ages and backgrounds. Specifically, mindfulness programs in schools can lead to improved attention, self-regulation, and empathy in children. This skill-based workshop will demonstrate activities to teach formal and informal mindfulness practice, including games and counseling strategies. Participants will learn to use the activities in schools with diverse populations, as well as to enhance their personal lives.

LGBTQ youth are often classified as a homogeneous group, but the diversity among and within them is more distinct than many people realize. The need for school-based counseling supports for LGBTQ youth is evident in higher rates of unhappiness, drug use, school dropout, truancy, suicide, harassment, family discord, and reduced self-referral rates. Despite the need and demand, little is available in terms of resources to use in a counseling format. This program is designed to empower school-based mental health staff to serve as advocates for LGBTQ youth, provide counseling support for students in grades 6–12, and encourage and foster resiliency in at-risk students. Participants will leave with the ability to effectively advocate for sexual minority and gender-diverse youth as well as implement an innovative counseling program within their own schools to support these students.

This session focuses on four things school psychologists can do to help schools prepare students for present and future social–emotional and academic challenges: identify focal skills and ensure generalization across tiers, identify core values and purpose, promote and assess positive school culture and climate, and create “schools of character” by building social–emotional competence.

This introduction to restorative practices provides participants with foundational restorative concepts that address the need to shift schools from a punitive disciplinary model to a restorative empowerment model. Disproportionate discipline of a select group of students has led to students being pushed out of schools, which leads to what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative practices help all students feel that they belong as a vital member of the school community, where their voice and their humanity is valued.

In this session, participants will learn to apply new research findings for frequently monitoring the progress of struggling readers in kindergarten through second grade. Participants will learn state-of-the-art knowledge and skills on selecting ideal measures, setting goals, understanding when to adjust instruction, and on making data-based decisions to improve reading instruction.

For questions or additional information, please contact [email protected].

Screening data can be used to better inform schools about where to focus resources for children who demonstrate behavioral and emotional difficulties. This session will provide guidance on how to use universal behavior screening measures, procedures, and a decision-making framework to guide service delivery.

This session will focus on the LA street gangs and their influence on gang culture. The presenter will discuss topics such as gang structure, language, motivation, hand signs, bravado, gangbanging, influence, the difference between Black and Hispanic gangs, lifestyle, denial, enabling, cultural icons, gang violence and retaliation, intimidation, and bullying. Mentorship of gang members, mentorship in the community, media perception of gang members, police and probation perception, and street perception.

Next Steps: Ensuring Seamless Recovery and Reunification Procedures

This session will examine best practices and current reunification models to prepare schools to successfully reunite students and parents after a crisis. The session will cover specific considerations for and details of planning and preparation, along with lessons learned based on actual school crisis events. Participants will receive specific planning forms and tools to help facilitate effective reunification.

This session will summarize empirical findings regarding the importance of school-based prevention of behavioral and mental health problems. The presentation will address issues specifically related to implementation supports, tiered interventions, and integrating programs. The science of prevention will be discussed relative to the framework of behavioral mental health.

Bullying victimization is typically thought of as between peers but what if teachers join in on the bullying? Ms. Datta discusses how often this occurs and offers suggestions on how these findings can be used in the schools and how she is following up on these findings.