Extending Best Practices Series – Supporting Students in Times of Stress & Struggle

When

Session 1 – Positive Adaptation and Coping:  JANUARY 25, 2023, 9-10:30AM -This session will NOT be recorded.

Session 2 – Effectively Contributing to a Student-Centered Response Plan:  MARCH 30, 2023, 9-10:30AM -This session will NOT be recorded.

Series Description 

We care about our students and their success, while recognizing that all students will likely experience some degree of personal or school-related stress or struggle during their K-12 years. In times of biggest struggle such as mental or physical health crises, traumatic events, or personal loss the stakes feel high, and many caring adults feel the pressure to be all things to all students. While stemming from the best of intentions in the long run this approach can take its toll on the educator – leading to burn out, or even secondary traumatic stress. We also know that with caring adults taking appropriate steps of support, students have the capacity to grow and recover from life’s greatest challenges over time. As professionals in education we can continue to add tools to our toolbox that provide helpful interventions for students and their families AND stay healthy ourselves!

In these sessions, participants will be invited to explore actions and strategies that may be applied personally and professionally to identify, connect, and activate plans of support that help students heal, recover, and achieve positive outcomes.

Session 1 – Positive Adaptation and Coping

(JANUARY 25, 2023, 9-10:30AM)

As caring professionals in education, we have the opportunity to connect and support student academic, behavioral, and attendance success. We also play a critical role in supporting positive youth development and student wellness. To deepen our ability to be effective facilitators in this area, it is important to have clear knowledge of the benchmarks of positive adaptation and coping. This session will allow participants to explore how healthy coping with life stresses can appear as an uneven trajectory in students while highlighting areas where signs of concern may begin to emerge. This insight best prepares educational professionals to intervene early as advocates and supports for students and their families in times of difficulty.

Objectives:

• allow participants to explore how healthy coping with life stresses can appear as an uneven trajectory in students
• highlight areas where signs of concern may begin to emerge

Session 2 – Effectively Contributing to a Student-Centered Response Plan

(MARCH 30, 2023, 9-10:30AM) 

This session will explore practical approaches to develop effective, trauma-responsive individualized student support plans. Participants will have the opportunity to explore frameworks to guide collaborative planning with other school or community-based professionals, the student, and their family. Insight will be offered strategies to progress monitor the plan’s success that focus on strength-based pathways to adapt or modify the plan over time. Additional emphasis will be made on maintaining healthy boundaries for staff to support their well-being while extending themselves as supports to students experiencing struggle.

Objective:

• explore practical approaches to develop effective, trauma-responsive individualized student support plans

About the Presenter

Amy Scheel-Jones, MS Ed brings depth and breadth of experience to capacity building and change management strategies. In her work as a School Counselor, Amy spent 10 years developing expertise in practical approaches to prevention, resiliency and fostering well-being. A committed youth and family advocate and systems thinker, Amy has consistently applied these core principles to accelerate practice transformation efforts in educational settings, behavioral health system planning, and cross-sector community impact efforts. The core of her work includes sustainable system transformation grounded in trauma-responsive principles, positive youth development, and resilience enhancement. Specifically, Amy oversees the Consortium on Trauma, Illness & Grief in Schools (TIG), a regional collaboration of comprehensive training and integrated crisis response network serving participating districts for over 18 years. She is an Assistant Editor and contributing author to the 2nd Edition of Reaching Teens: Strength-based, Trauma-Sensitive, Resilience-Building Communication Strategies Rooted in Positive Youth Development (published by the American Academy of Pediatrics), Areas of focus include training and consultation on the impact of childhood adversities (ACEs), trauma-responsive practices, resilience development, behavioral health system transformation, suicide, strategic planning for crisis response, and change management for school-based initiatives. She received her BS in Human Development and Family Studies at Cornell University followed by her MS in Education in Counseling from SUNY Brockport.

The content in these presentations is geared towards serving the migrant populations in New York State as defined under Title I, Part C and the approved State Service Delivery Plan, and may NOT be appropriate to all situations.

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