This workshop is designed to provide a training program pertaining to the topics of racial equity and leadership to school social work professionals. The program consists of topics related to ethics, data analysis, and broaching at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice using a lens of racial equity.

Do you need an introduction or a refresher on how you can champion PBIS to ensure learning environments are producing equitable outcomes? Do you know if your current PBIS implementation is producing equitable outcomes? This workshop will review foundational PBIS principles through an equity lens with the aim of providing new insights on your role in promoting equitable student outcomes. The activities in this hands-on workshop will utilize the schoolwide PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI), to help you assess and apply the core features of PBIS. Participants will utilize the Integrated TFI to discuss ways and formulate action plans to foster greater cultural responsiveness within our buildings to promote student social, emotional, and behavioral supports. The workshop will conclude with recommendations on building capacity for PBIS and equity in our profession’s ongoing work in promoting student achievement.

There are numerous practice experiences needed to move from entry-level to proficiency in school social work (SSW). Framed by a 2019 study in which 78% of SSWers said they did not feel well prepared for the SSWer role, this presentation will provide essential information for new SSWers. Research showed that 85% of SSWers would have benefited from taking more SSW classes and 49% did not have an SSW internship. Presenters will provide real life school social work experiences and tips, SSWer role definitions, and orientation to and understanding of school culture.

Join us for an engaging & interactive workshop that centers on the basic principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This dynamic session will go beyond theory and framework by providing you with exposure to ACT interventions specifically applied in the school setting through an iterative implementation partnership. Gain exposure to ACT interventions, opportunities to practice with peers, and access to a completely packaged ACT group curriculum that we partnered to organize and adapt to meet the real world needs of school social workers.

This workshop focuses on introducing the philosophy of Restorative Justice (RJ). The workshop models and introduces the RJ practice of Peace-Making Circles, Victim/Offender Mediation and Family Group Conferences and its implementation at the school and classroom levels. These practices can be used to facilitate check-in Circles, prevent and address disciplinary infractions, build relationships, provide support and safe space for difficult conversations. Social workers will be engaged in visioning activities as they prepare to engage their district/school teams in implementing restorative practices across their school sectors.

Promoting a just and equitable society requires authentic dialogue with adults and youths to collaboratively discuss and seek social justice solutions. Utilizing a variety of conversational methods, participants will receive tools and activities to engage in authentic dialogue to explore and understand change—creating a roadmap to racial healing.

Participants will gain knowledge of the impact trauma has on the developing child's brain, how this may impact the child's behavior, enhance participant knowledge regarding expressive art-based interventions and provide hands on experience with expressive art activities that may be used during individual sessions or small group interventions for all students Pre-K-12.

What helps identify and support suicidal students? Are these methods truly working? How do staff develop competency in this area? Learn how to train and implement suicide prevention and intervention with K-12 populations through: evidence-based interventions, capturing data that guides future focus, and implementation of a “Reach-Back” training model with staff.

Adult social emotional learning (SEL) and mental health are vital pieces of the puzzle when it comes to school climate and culture, student SEL and academic achievement. School social workers are in a prime position to help administration prioritize and expand SEL and well-being support to other staff. In this workshop participants will learn how to support staff in building self-awareness of mental health and SEL competencies, in modeling self-care and work/life balance, and in identifying best practices for professional learning, advocacy and coaching around SEL and mental health.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth, and disproportionately higher for BIPOC youth. However, districts and schools often deprioritize suicide prevention efforts. This workshop examines the dilemma of centering equitable, culturally responsive and youth-centered suicide prevention policy and practice, and concludes with concrete solutions for all educators.

This expanded session, informed by ecological and narrative theories, provides school social workers with the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which educational settings oftentimes place the “problem” of attendance on and within individual students and families. At the completion of this session, participants will be able to identify ways in which they can improve the practices of the school in order to create a community that fosters school connectedness.

This workshop will present the findings of the 2021 School Social Worker Job Satisfaction and Burnout study. Study results highlight not only the tremendous pressures and challenges currently faced by school social workers, but also the deep commitment to children's mental health and well-being. Themes emerging from the study include the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on school social worker responsibilities and stress levels, perceptions of support, prevalence of trauma-related cases, and limited resources needed to meet increasing caseloads and demands. This workshop will explore these challenges as well as strategies for tackling them at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

Our service to others is based on the basic fundamental values of recognizing the dignity and worth of every human being while challenging injustices that continue to oppress and divide. As school social workers, we not only practice on the micro level with students and families but recognize the necessity of aligning our practice to transform policies and practices that further marginalize or negatively impact the populations we serve. Presenters will guide and assist participants in identifying action steps within the 3 tiers of school social work advocacy and participants will leave with the ability to develop a personal advocacy action plan. Thus, this session will strengthen and enhance your advocacy and leadership skills to be a voice for those that feel voiceless and to be an agent of change. As a unified force, we truly can be agents of change bringing about the best outcomes for all people.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and racial injustices prompted the need to engage students in macro-level interventions addressing racism and equity in schools. Empowering students to address equity issues in a developmentally appropriate way can maximize their civic development, enhance critical consciousness, and promote self-efficacy efficacy.

This multi-media, interactive workshop will present findings from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative of schools (2019-2020), which promoted trauma-informed schools to keep students in the classroom. In this workshop participants will explore what it means to implement evidence-informed, racially-just, trauma-informed practices in schools.

This workshop will explore how school social workers , can step out of their comfort zone and step into culturally responsive leadership. With reflection, school social workers will be able to examine thoughts, feelings, about their leadership experiences and identify innovative ways to meet the needs of their school sites.

An overview of the creation of a school social work program from the ground up, with only a blank canvas and social workers eager to change lives. In this workshop, participants will learn the creative process and stages of implementation to include policy, procedures, training and evaluation, all while advocating for the role of a school social worker.

School mental health staff play a vital role in promoting mental health and well-being and identifying and responding to emerging mental illness in children and adolescents. Partnering with educators is essential; however, they often have not received the education, training, and/or ongoing support needed to respond in the classroom. Learn how school mental health staff can use the free Classroom WISE suite of tools to move school mental health forward.

Participants will learn how to collect and analyze universal social emotional screening data in order to proactively, collaboratively, and responsively provide students with tiered levels of social/emotional instruction and services at the school level.

Two Part Session (D1 is part II and should be selected with C1). Participants will learn to apply a seven-step model of ethical decision making with real-life case studies. Part I will focus on ethics within an MTSS framework focused on Tier I and Tier II issues. Part II will focus on ethics when providing mental health services to minors in Tier III.

This workshop will address two proposed DSM-5 diagnoses for self-harm: Suicidal Behavior Disorder and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. It will address the prevalence rates of both disorders, differential diagnosis, screening and assessment, and intervention using a multi-tiered systems of support framework. Case studies will be used for discussion

'Effective family-school partnerships are an integral component towards promoting student academic success. However, schools and educators often struggle to develop successful partnerships, particularly with low-income, Black parents. As such, educators and others have created family-school partnership and parent involvement models and frameworks from which to guide practice. However, too often, these models frame involvement and partnership from the point of view of schools and educators as opposed to from the perspective of families. In doing so it assumes that families and schools have shared goals and are working together in a relationship framed in equal power. This school-centric focus fails to acknowledge the historical and present-day power imbalance inherent in relationships between schools and families marginalized and targeted for oppression due to race and ethnicity and the societal social inequities in which they are held. Further, it does not recognize the multitude of ways that parents and families may be supporting their children’s education at home, about which the school may or may not be aware. In addition, family-school partnership frameworks often hold as a primary focus the relationship between teachers and families, losing sight of other relationships that also play an integral role in families’ partnership experience. Further, they do not consider the various influences that are impacting the partnership relationships. Together, this negatively impacts schools’ ability to use family-school partnerships to support best outcomes for all students, suggesting the need for a recalibrated family-school partnership framework. The shared stories of twelve low-income Black parents at a New York City public elementary school garnered from a qualitative study conducted by the presenter revealed a suggested recalibrated family-school partnership framework – Relationships & Influencing Factors in Family-School Partnerships. This framework includes four primary relationships that play a role within family-school partnerships: parent-child, parent-school, parent-principal, and parent-teacher. It also includes particular influencing factors impacting these four relationships. For the twelve study parents, these influences were the school-based support program; parent demonstrated belief in their role in their child’s education; parent knowledge and opinion of teaching strategies, curriculum, and public education system; and race and ethnicity. Using this suggested framework, schools can apply the aforementioned identified influences or fine-tune them as needed for the school and school community in which the framework is being employed. In this way, a clearer picture of the many relationships and influences that together make up the larger family-school partnership entity will be revealed. In doing so, a more specific investigation and understanding of each is afforded. This more nuanced comprehension will improve schools’ ability to strengthen and make more effective use of family-school partnerships in support of best outcomes for students and their families. The goal of this workshop is to share this recalibrated framework, why it is needed, and how it supports an anti-oppression, equity, and liberatory-based practice. In doing so, the aim is for school social workers, and other key stakeholders, to strengthen their ability to best guide, promote, and support family-school partnerships in benefit of all students, families, and communities served.'

SBHCs provide the nation’s vulnerable children and youth with access to primary care, behavioral health, oral health, and vision care, via in-person and telehealth care, where they spend the majority of their time – at school. Working at the intersection of health and education, SBHCs collaborate with school staff, families, and students. Evidence shows that this collaboration, care coordination, and youth engagement results in not only improved student, school staff, and community health literacy and outcomes, but also contributes to positive educational outcomes including reduced absenteeism, decreased disciplinary actions and suspensions, and improved graduation rates. Now, more than ever, partnerships between school social workers and SBHCs are critical--with the rise in mental and behavioral health care needs of students. Learn about the SBHC model and how SSWs and SBHCs can partner to provide comprehensive, coordinated care.

The student advocacy group Save Queer Youth will teach foundational knowledge on sexuality and gender identity from the student perspective. Their presentation will consist of the modern language used to describe queer identities and experiences. Save Queer Youth will address the need for LGBTQ+ tools for mental health support and provide a variety of crisis resources for staff and youth. The presentation will breakdown the unique obstacles faced by LGBTQ+ youth and methods of supporting them. Information will be shared via PowerPoint followed by a student panel for open questions & answers.

Students from oppressed groups have been falling into the school-to-prison pipeline for decades. In today’s climate, the hardening of schools in response to mass shootings may be making a wider range of students more susceptible to this reality. How can we stop this from becoming our “new normal?”

We are at a critical moment in the state student mental health, but there is a solution. Attendees of this session will leave with the tools to shift classroom focus to student wholeness, development, and healthy identity formation to improve mental health and well-being.

This expanded session, informed by queer and narrative theories, provides school social workers information and resources on ways to implement support for LGBTQ+ students at all three tiers of intervention in order to improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes. At the completion of this session, attendees will be able to support and empower individual students, educate staff and families, and improve the climate of the school community.

Two Part Session (C1 is part I and should be selected with D1). Participants will learn to apply a seven-step model of ethical decision making with real-life case studies. Part I will focus on ethics within an MTSS framework focused on Tier I and Tier II issues. Part II will focus on ethics when providing mental health services to minors in Tier III.

How can you engage families in a way that builds their capacity, confidence, and self-efficacy? How do you inspire them to act with hope through discouraging circumstances? Using tools from the evidence-based Check & Connect Student Engagement Intervention Model, spark continual growth and leave families feeling equipped to win.

School social workers are incredibly skilled at providing services to students and families, but we balk at collecting data and marketing ourselves. This leaves us vulnerable to budget cuts and inappropriate tasks assigned by those who do not know our role. This workshop will share the results of a recent study on administrator perceptions of SSW and give participants solid tools to collect data that will demonstrate their value to their administrators. Participants will also walk away with simple marketing methods that promote the school social worker’s role and worth. Participants are encouraged to bring their own data collection tools and marketing methods to share with the group.

Youth are struggling with a barrage of toxic environmental challenges at home that can have a huge impact on how they feel at school. This session examines supportive school climates that put kids before content, build positive connections and allow for kids to stop running and start learning.

Students in military families move frequently, both throughout the country and overseas.  Families can also be separated due to deployments and training. This can have both negative and positive impacts on the family.  School Social Workers can assist students, their families, and staff by addressing challenges and supporting growth.

The Mental Health Assistance Team represents a unique research-based intervention framework that utilizes school-employed practitioners to identify students in need, provide them with greater access to services, and increases outcomes through the use of Evidence-Based Practices. Throughout its three-year existence, the MHAT framework has shown success. A majority who received the intervention displayed positive outcomes through the 12-15-week intervention. This advanced presentation, intended for program administrators and practitioners, will show how to implement the framework.

This interactive workshop (bring your laptops!), helps participants learn to use data to inform decision-making, determine the type of data they might need, learn how to use different types of data (including the new SSP2020 universal screener) to answer important questions, and learn how to effectively share results with others.

How do we know if our interventions are having the intended impact? This workshop will highlight a research project that is looking at the impact of an intervention on the development of social competencies. Presenters will share specifics about their collaboration and research process, including strategies for building university-school partnerships.

Over the past few decades practitioners and researchers have developed hundreds of interventions to address the academic challenges faced by minority populations. Some interventions have been effective; however, as a system we are still struggling to meet the needs of minority students. The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how the following theories of action (racism, adultism, and ableism) are the antecedents to most of the academic adversities experienced by minority students. This presentation will explore how the dissolution of racism, adultism, and ableism in the school settings can effectively bridge the academic achievement gap between minority students and their peers.

This presentation will assist SSWs in building capacity to advocate for the profession and the students, families, schools, and communities we serve. Beyond the basics of advocacy 101, participants will be guided through an application of the advocacy process to strengthen the skills needed to be an effective agent of change.

Erika’s Lighthouse will present its free video-based classroom programs for grades 4-12. The programs take a hopeful and empowering approach for students to learn about taking care of their mental health and what to do if concerned about themselves or a friend. These best practice programs are evidence-informed and easily adapt to the needs of your school.

School social workers on the front lines- what do they need to know to be prepared to support school communities, impacted by gun violence? Do gaps exist in school social work preparation? Learn from one social work educator’s experiences supporting students and families following the deadliest high school shooting.

Research shows that in the Latinx/Hispanic population, youth are more susceptible to mental distress relating to immigration and acculturation. Religion can be a protective factor for mental health in Latinx/Hispanic communities (faith, prayer) but can also contribute to the stigma against mental illness and treatment. Mental health issues are on the rise in Latinx/Hispanic youth ages 12-17. Ethical guidelines for using spiritually-based activities in school mental health will be explored.

A school social worker, a state legislator/psychologist, and a mental health advocate discuss the history of Kentucky’s Trauma-Informed Schools Bills, and explore opportunities for Trauma-Informed Schools policies in other states. We will consider components of an effective trauma-informed school plan, along with advocacy strategies to address students’ mental health needs.

One of 13 children will experience sexual abuse by the age of 18. Most never disclose. Join Cherie Benjoseph, LCSW Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Expert as we focus on this child health crisis. Learn how to proactively integrate personal safety education skills into your practice, empowering your most vulnerable students.

Social stories, an evidence-based practice for children with autism, can be expanded as a trauma-informed classroom tool. Developing a social story builds relationships between social workers, teachers, students, and families. Participants will learn an intervention to improve both student behavior and school-home connection as students adjust to the new normal.

This workshop is designed to assist practitioners in providing services to youth who have been exposed to (and/or personally impacted by) community violence, particularly homicide co-survivors. Using expressive-arts modalities (i.e., creative writing), school social workers will provide safe opportunities for youth to express themselves, leading to trajectories of healing.