Student Services Director, Carolyn Custard 703.791.7262

“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services “News You Can Use”

January 2019 Volume 7, Issue 4

All of us at the Office of Student Services would like to wish you and your school community a very Happy New Year. The school year is passing quickly, and I know that we will all be very busy during the next few months. The Office of Student Services will continue to work diligently to ensure that we provide you with all the assistance and support needed as you continue to meet the varied demands and challenges that you must tackle daily. We will continue to assist with emotional, mental health, and social barriers that impact student achievement and student performance. Student Services will continue the following to ensure that we are meeting your needs/requests:

• Due to the new school social work positions added this school year, social workers have had over 200% in-crease in the number of student contacts (26,330) compared to last year at this time (7,300). Parent contacts (8,252) have increased over 100%. Community referrals (5,490) for student mental health and family basic needs have increase over 300%.

• Dr. Dolores Robison supports schools as they conduct threat assessments and develop strategies to address student safety concerns. She also supports the provision of homebound instruction for students who are una-ble to attend school due to medical or mental health issues.

• Danica Copp, Mental Health Specialist, supports schools as they address the needs of students who experi-ence serious mental health issues that interfere with their ability to attend school or who represent a potential safety risk.

• Angella Alvernaz and Anthony Clark are now trained to take identified student victims of human trafficking to the Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) to fund therapeutic supports, enabling students to stay in school and be available for learning. A total of 248 students have been identified on the continuum of sex and labor trafficking victims since the projects inception in 2014.

• Elementary counselors will continue to work with students’ self-awareness, self-management, social aware-ness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Elementary counselors will continue to strive to devote 80% of their day to direct and indirect services to students. Direct services include, but are not lim-ited to, classroom core curriculum lessons, small groups, crisis response, CPS, reports, suicide, and threat assessments. Indirect services include referrals, consultations, and collaboration inside and outside of the school building. Elementary counselors continue to provide direct services for all students in the school building.

• Secondary counselors continue to focus to help students organize themselves during the school day and han-dle stress. Look for new information in the coming months about how to help spot the signs of depression!

• Substance abuse prevention education has been presented at Beville, Stonewall, and Lake Ridge Middle Schools. Our substance abuse specialist and social worker are also offering individual and small group counseling following presentations to help students develop skills related to stress and anxiety management, emotional regulation, and coping. Educational workshops regarding electronic cigarettes and vaping have also been presented to parents and school staff at Gainesville Middle School and Osbourn Park High School.

• The Student Assistance and Prevention Programs are continuing to train additional staff to deliver suicide prevention programming in the schools; training more employees on how to recognize homelessness and to share the services available to families under the McKinney-Vento Act; and collaborating with the PWC Court Services Unit on a truancy diversion program in order to improve attendance and keep students from becoming court-involved.

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services January 2019

• School Health Services is proud to share that we now have 99 school nurses to serve our students. School nurses are working collaboratively with PWCS staff and community agencies to prepare staff for emer-gency preparedness. School nurses attended a Tactical Emergency Casualty Course in collaboration with a local Emergency Response Team to enhance our ability to respond and manage emergencies.

We will continue our school visits as this enables us to provide personal contact with you and your staff. Ad-ditionally, this provides us the opportunity to observe, share, and join in the efforts of the excellent activities taking place daily in the schools. The Office of Student Services is here to assist and support you. Please feel free to call or email us at any time.

It is with great pleasure, the Office of Student Services recognizes Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Students L.E.A.D. team senior, Lyndsie Cruz, Freedom High School, as an Asset Building Champion in her school and com-munity. Lyndsie Cruz has been a member of our Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Students L.E.A.D. team, the President of Spanish Honors Soci-ety, Treasurer for her Class SCA, and also the Deputy Group Commander in the Air Force JROTC program at school. She is exploring her future options which include attending Virginia Commonwealth University to major in nurs-ing and joining the United States Air Force. Lyndsie, fluent in both English and Spanish, displays excellent leadership qualities on and off the athletic field and has made a significant impact as an “asset builder” in her school and community. Her demonstrated discipline to exceed academically, athletically, and in the community is evident in her pur-suit of dual enrollment college classes while holding down a part-time job as a sales associate at Potomac Mills mall and participating in JROTC, lacrosse, extracurricular clubs, and community give-back projects. She is truly one who works well under pressure. Representing HCHY Students L.E.A.D. team as a student emcee, Lyndsie was suddenly thrust in the spotlight as the only emcee able to attend due to the unexpected sudden illness of the three other emcees. Possessing strong teamwork skills, she took on the responsibility of quickly learning each person’s script, along with final edits and changes. Her engagement and personality shined throughout the event. Lyndsie is responsible, reliable and always provides excellent customer service. Planning Red Ribbon Week events at Freedom High School, participating in campus visits and the Student Leadership Conference, numerous activities as a Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Students L.E.A.D. team member, or working on “Code of Behavior” revisions provides her opportunities to serve and empower other youth to develop leadership skills and youth voice. The community benefits from her sense of responsi-bility to give back. Although she works part-time during the school year, Lyndsie still finds time to give back to the community by volunteering and planning give-back projects. Her proven discipline, motivation, and tenacity in the classroom, sports fields, and community will lead her to much success. Thank you, Lyndsie, for your dedication to building assets in yourself and others. The Office of Student Ser-vices wishes you much success in your future endeavors.

HCHY L.E.A.D. Team Senior Spotlight

From the Director, Continued Director, Carolyn Custard 703.791.7262

Elementary Counseling Supervisor, Debbie Ransom 703.791.7265

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services

Be purposeful, intentional, and repetitive. Each December, HCHY Students L.E.A.D. Team members gather together for the annual Reindeer Games: Fun, Food, and Fellowship. Youth from across the district enjoy low cost-no cost games involving team building, planning, and decision-making, along with interpersonal social competencies skills. Team members rotate through Minute-to-win-it, What’s On Your Phone, Jingle Bell Box, Holiday Trivia, Capture it Photo Booth, Hula Hoop Rolls, Candy Cane and Cup Stacks, Snow Ball Toss, and of course, the all- time teen favorite…food stations ending with a Build Your Best Sundae. Once again, I am reminded of how much they look forward to doing this each year. Watching them enjoy the activities and the chance to chat with those from across the district, I see so much personal growth in each one. There is the shy one stepping up to assist another who doesn’t quite understand a particular game. Or the numerous requests for the instructions to the games so they can play them with their families and friends over the winter break. Just a snapshot of proof that purposeful, intentional, repetitive practices do help young peo-ple be and become their best selves. Kindness does exist year-round in PWCS. Elementary students have been sending cards to students impacted by the California wildfires, refurbishing computers, high-schoolers organizing clothing drives, and middle-schoolers featured on NBC4 Washington working to create a bully-free culture based on kindness are just a few examples of Kindness Matters spreading across PWCS. Looking forward to seeing your schools’ Kind-ness Matters activities.

January 2019

National School Counseling Week 2019, "School Counselors: Providing Lessons for Life," will be celebrated from February 4-8, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school suc-cess and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is celebrated the first full week in February. Please join us in celebrating the work and dedication of your elementary school counselors. Take a video/photo of the day’s theme and share on Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram with the #Nscw19. Get students, families, and school colleagues in on the fun. Take part in the photo/video challenge during Na-tional School Counseling Week with these signs:

Monday: Happy National School Counseling Week Take a picture/video with the new National School Counseling Week sign Tuesday: Lessons Learned School counselors: Take a photo with the sign – "As a school counselor, I have learned…” Wednesday: Lessons Shared School Counselors: Download the “As a school counselor, I want my students to know…” sign Supporters: Download the “My school counselor taught me…” sign Thursday: Life #Goals School Counselors: Download the “This School Counselor’s #Goal” sign and share your school counseling goals Supporters: Download the “Thank you (insert school counselor’s name) for helping me set my #goal to become a…” Friday: Building Better Humans School Counselors: Download the “I’m Building Better Humans by…” sign Supporters: “My school counselor helps me be better by…”

Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Program Specialist, Debbie Bishop 703.791.7845

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services January 2019

Thank you to the following schools for hosting Winter Camp 2019, Alvey, Belmont, Fitzgerald, Henderson, River Oaks, Rockledge, Signal Hill, and Victory Elementary . Your support is greatly appreciated. Please review the next Teacher Workday SACC schedule for January 28 to see if your school will host the all-day program. Know your SACC students’ plan for early dismissals due to inclement weather/emergency dismissal! SACC Inclement Weather School Closings: When PWCS is closed Code Red or Green, SACC and Next Generation programs are also closed. Early Dismissal: If schools are dismissed early, prior to the regular dismissal time, SACC and Next Generation pro-grams will not open, and the Inclement Weather/Emergency Dismissal Plan should be implement-ed. Principals should work with AlphaBEST site directors at their school to acquire and keep on file copies of completed Inclement Weather/Emergency Dismissal Plan forms for all SACC and Next Generation stu-dents. In the event of an early dismissal, it is the school’s responsibility to dismiss SACC/NG students ac-cording to the parent-completed dismissal plans. AlphaBEST site directors may be available to assist with dismissal procedures. Two-Hour Delayed Opening: If schools open on a two-hour delay, SACC will also open on at two-hour delay, at 8 a.m. All currently enrolled SACC students may attend. If the "delayed opening" designation changes to "schools are closed," the SACC program must close and parents will be required to pick up their chil-dren. AlphaBEST will notify parents. PWCS Cancels All After-school Activities: If schools are dismissed at their regular bell schedule, but all afternoon and evening activities are can-celed, SACC and Next Generation programs will close at 5 p.m. AlphaBEST will notify parents.

School Age Child Care (SACC) Supervisor, Glynis Taylor 703.791.8844

January is Eye Health Month. One of the many responsibilities of the school nurse is conducting vision screenings on our students. Students are typically screened in kindergarten, third, fifth, seventh, and tenth grade, along with all incoming students to PWCS. School nurses also perform vision screening on any student referred by a teacher and all Special Education students for eligibility. Janice Klein, the nurse at Marstellar Middle School, has been awarded a grant from SPARK, the Education Foundation for PWCS titled “Vision Screening Guidelines for PWCS”. Ms. Klein’s grant provides funding for fur-ther training of school nurses. SHS looks forward to implementing the latest evidence -based screening methods for our students.

The following are tips we all can use for our eye health (National Eye Institute): Have a comprehensive dilated eye exam. A dilated eye exam is the only way to detect many common eye diseases such as glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration in their early stages.

Continued Next Page

School Health Services Supervisor, Teresa Polk 703.791.7266

School Social Workers Supervisor, Betsy Young 703.791.7260

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services January 2019

Happy New Year!!!! The school social workers were very busy over the holidays working with your school teams to provide holiday support for students and families. We are happy to report that 1,446 students and families were supported by the efforts of 23 school social workers in 29 schools. 830 students were provided with gifts and winter clothing. A total of 616 families were given meals and gift cards. 30 faith-based and community organizations, PWCPD, Savors, Girl Scouts, and the VFW participated, and 18 schools had their staff donate to giving trees. Staff delivered these gifts and food all over Prince William County from Bull Run Mountain to the Route 1 corridor and in between. This was truly a rewarding experience to see the smiles on the faces of students and families. The generous spirit of PWCS in partnership with the community made a lot of students and families happy this holiday.

Know your family’s eye health history. It’s important to know if anyone has been diagnosed with a disease or condition since many are hereditary. Eat right to protect your sight. Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, particularly dark leafy greens such as spinach, kale, or collard greens is important for keeping your eyes healthy, too. Research has also shown there are eye health benefits from eating fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, tuna, and halibut. Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing diabetes and other systemic conditions, which can lead to vision loss, such as diabetic eye disease or glaucoma. Wear protective eyewear. Protective eyewear includes safety glasses and goggles, safety shields, and eye guards specially designed to provide the correct protection for a certain activity. Quit smoking or never start. Smoking is as bad for your eyes as it is for the rest of your body. Research has linked smoking to an increased risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, cataract, and optic nerve damage, all of which can lead to blindness. Be cool and wear your shades. Sunglasses are a great fashion accessory, but their most important job is to protect your eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. When purchasing sunglasses, look for ones that block out 99 to 100 percent of both UV-A and UV-B radiation. Give your eyes a rest. If you spend a lot of time at the computer or focusing on any one thing, you some-times forget to blink and your eyes can get fatigued. Clean your hands and your contact lenses properly. To avoid the risk of infection, always wash your hands thoroughly before putting in or taking out your contact lenses. Make sure to disinfect contact lenses as instructed and replace them as appropriate. Practice workplace eye safety. When protective eyewear is required as a part of your job, make a habit of wearing the appropriate eyeware at all times and encourage your coworkers to do the same.

School Health Services Continued Supervisor, Teresa Polk 703.791.7266

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services

January 2019

Student Assistance & Prevention Programs Supervisor, Richmond Hill 703.791.7436

A Team Approach to Improving School Attendance With the recent ramped up focus on absenteeism and accreditation, schools are under increased pressure to intervene and provide multi-tiered support with the goal of improving overall attendance. Chronic absentee-ism deteriorates the academic and social skills needed to succeed in school. Being chronically absent signifi-cantly affects a student’s ability to read at grade level, perform academically, and graduate on time. When chronic absence is widespread, it can affect teaching and learning for the entire class. In response to the increased focus on improving attendance, schools across the nation and in our School Divi-sion are developing School Attendance Review Teams. The School Attendance Review Team’s objective is to ensure that the school adopts a comprehensive, multi-tiered approach to improving attendance. This team could be a new team or part of an existing team (e.g., PBIS—Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports). Teams may vary in size but should ideally include an administrator, school counselor, social worker, school nurse, parent liaison, and attendance officer. It is easy for teams to find themselves spending the majority of their time working with students with the highest level of absences. While these students do require intervention, it is important to keep in mind that they represent a small percentage of the entire student body. A good use of the team’s time is to plan and im-plement prevention measures to ensure that good tier one interventions are in place to reduce the number of students who are chronically absent. It is also important to review school attendance data to see if absences are getting better or worse, concentrated among subgroups of students (e.g., students on free or reduced lunch, ELL’s, students with chronic health conditions or from a particular neighborhood). Collecting and reviewing

Continued...

Secondary Counseling Supervisor, Bekah Schlatter 703.791.7258

During the month of December, all middle and high school counselors attended an online professional devel-opment session about academic and career advising. Counselors were encouraged to think about the structures we have in place to ensure the best possible academic or career advising experience for students. At the middle school level, the best practice recommendations for career planning are:

1. Partner with Career Investigations teacher 2. Multiple lessons, if possible 3. Create a video to set the stage 4. Research options for the best cluster finder for your students 5. Utilize Virtual Job Shadow resources

Click here to view the entire middle school presentation. At the high school level, it is recommended that school counselors consider the following when planning for academic advising sessions:

1. Consider structures to maximize time and student impact 2. Organization is key 3. Consistent themes across all counselors 4. Tie the experience to post-secondary plans – ALWAYS 5. Find ways to remove barriers to course enrollment for underrepresented groups of students

Click here to view the entire high school presentation.

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“Preparing All Students to Achieve Success” Office of Student Services

January 2019

Threat Assessment Supervisor, Dr. Dolores Robison 703.791.7263

This month, I am sharing a resource that can support your violence prevention efforts. The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students. The NCSSLE hosts webinars on a range of topics related to improving conditions for learning (e.g., preventing disruptive behaviors such as bullying, harassment, vio-lence, and substance abuse). There is a wealth of great information on their website! https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/ I hope you find this resource helpful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me regarding the threat assessment pro-cess or to consult on specific situations. Dr. Dolores Robison 703.791.7263.

this information helps to identify barriers or to put effective strategies in place. The team should spend most of their time cultivating a culture of attendance and addressing the needs of individual students by engaging stu-dents and families, rewarding good attendance, addressing attendance barriers, and setting and monitoring school-based attendance goals. Attendance Works (www.attendanceowrks.org) is a great online resource that provides information about in-novative ways to improve attendance and tips for developing a School Attendance Review Team. Your attend-ance officer and the Office of Student Services is also available to provide consultation and support to im-prove attendance.

Student Assistance & Prevention Programs Continued

Office of Student Services

Carolyn Custard, Director ......................................................... 703.791.7262

Elementary Counseling & Related Services ............................. 703.791.7265 Dr. Deborah Ransom, Supervisor

Healthy Communities Healthy Youth ....................................... 703.791.7845 Debbie Bishop, Professional Development & Program Specialist

School Age Child Care & Next Generation Programs ............ 703.791.8844 Glynis Taylor, Supervisor

School Health Services ............................................................... 703.791.7266 Teresa Polk, Supervisor; Gina Bellamy, Coordinator

School Social Workers ................................................................ 703.791.7260 Elizabeth Young, Supervisor

Secondary Counseling & Student Support Services ................ 703.791.7258 Rebekah Schlatter, Supervisor

Student Assistance & Prevention Programs ............................. 703.791.7436 Richmond Hill, Supervisor

Threat Assessment ....................................................................... 703.791.7263 Dr. Dolores Robison, Supervisor. Danica Copp, Mental Health Specialist