SPS News and Those Back to School Forms

From The Center Square (a new-to-me news source): 

Seattle Department of Education expands $4.5M student mental health pilot program

The King County Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning,or DEEL, has announced it is expanding its Student Mental Health pilot program services at up to three additional schools beginning this fall.

FYI, it's a city department, not a county one. The City is working with King County (Public Health—Seattle & King County (PHSKC). DEEL's press release here.

The $4.5 million pilot program, which was launched in May, was conceived of as a partnership between schools, students and community organizations.

The first five pilot schools are Aki Kurose Middle School, Rainier Beach High School, Denny Middle School, Chief Sealth High School and Ingraham High School. Each of these pilot schools received $125,000 to implement student focused mental health services in the 2022-23 school year. That funding expires this August.

Four select schools are invited to apply for up to $500,000 through a competitive funding process to implement services over two school years, through 2025," a Thursday news release touting the program's expansion says.

Additional schools eligible to take part in the expansion of the pilot program are Cleveland High School, Franklin High School, Garfield High School and Nathan Hale High School.

"Existing pilot schools will also receive up to $500,000 through 2025 to support continuity of newly implemented services for students," the news release notes.

And there's this:

A competitive funding process will be conducted to equitably direct available funding to eligible schools ready to successfully implement youth-informed, culturally affirming services for students at the highest risk of adverse mental health outcomes. Funding will increase and expand options for clinical and non-clinical mental health support at schools to prevent and reduce adverse mental health outcomes including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. 

The announcement of the pilot program's expansion was light on implementation details, noting that “schools are empowered to implement services tailored to the specific needs of their students.”

"DEEL will work closely with awarded schools to create school-specific monitoring and reporting plans that align with the priorities of the investment and schools’ goals for implementation, quality, and outcomes," she said about measuring the pilot program's effectiveness. "As part of this work, schools approved for funding will join learning community convenings – comprised of students, school staff, community partners, mental health experts, and DEEL staff – to build upon successful services, share strategies for student and community engagement, and receive support on areas for improvement."

DEEL spokesperson Sage Leibenson said the funding for the $4.5 million pilot program breaks down as follows: $1.5 million from the 2018 voter-approved Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy, $2 million from the Seattle JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax and $1 million from Seattle's general fund. 

Anyone go to the SW region Community Meeting? If you did, tell us about it. This week sees three meetings - the first on Monday for the SE region at South Shore PreK-8, the second on Tuesday for the NE region at Nathan Hale High School, and the third for the NW region at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School. All meetings start at 6 pm. 

I saw that the district put some "Start of School Forms" up at the SPS website. I had a peek and offer this feedback. 

FERPA -  You only have until October 1 to get this form back to the district. That's a pretty short window of time so don't let it get away from you.

A school/district can put out information about a student under "directory information"

Parent/guardian and student name, home address, home telephone number, home email address,
student photograph or video, student date of birth, dates of enrollment, grade level, enrollment status, degree or award received, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports teams, height and weight of athletes, most recent school or program attended, and other information that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed

You have two options - A is yes and B is no. HOWEVER, if you check both boxes or no boxes or don't return the form, the district considers that a Yes.

If you say no (B), you do have the option to allow your child's name being in the school directory, newspaper, classroom roster, etc. ).

If you say no (B), you can make an exception for photos/video of your child for school AND district "websites, social media and district printed publications." But names won't be posted. 

You can also say no except for the yearbook/class photo release for both name and face. 

Naviance for the "high school and beyond" plan, which includes college planning - your student's plan is a state-mandated graduation requirement. 

You can opt out of using Naviance, which requires a fair amount of data on your student which is released to colleges and universities that your student may pick. 

The opt out window will be August 28 – September 29.  Families that do not want their student to use Naviance can opt out by changing their preferences in the Source.

What is odd here is that there are two documents about Naviance and neither tells you what your student would need to do if they are not using Naviance. 

Family Notifications - Anticipated Student Surveys

Anticipated 2023-24 surveys include:

• Check Yourself (King County based - NOT a survey) Contact your student’s counseling office to inspect and/or opt out.
  
• Healthy Youth Survey (OSPI-based, for 6,8,10,12th grade students given in October) Contact your student’s main office secretary to inspect and/or opt out.
  
• Student Climate Surveys (District-based, 2X a year for grades 3-12) Please contact and/or visit the SPS Research Department webpage to inspect the survey and/or opt out.
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Only for schools with City levy dollars funding health centers) Contact your student’s school nurse to inspect and/or opt out.
  
• Youth Risk Behavior Survey (CDC, administered every other school year in October) Contact your student’s main office secretary to inspect and/or opt out. 

Did you notice? Nearly every survey has a different district/school official to contact to view or opt out. 

This is an interesting category. Let's first look at what is stated and what the actual definition of "survey" is.

A survey is a method of gathering information using relevant questions from a sample of people with the aim of understanding populations as a whole.

 

Now the Student Climate, Youth Risk Behavior and Health Youth ARE all surveys to gather information to understand student populations. 

 

For whatever reason, the district put Check Yourself and the Strengths and Difficultities Questionnaire in this group but neither are surveys. 

Here's why parents have to be informed about these activities by the district (some of which are county-based).

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) is a federal law that gives parents/guardians of elementary and secondary students rights regarding the collection of data for surveys, marketing, and certain physical exams.

The PPRA requires parents or guardians to be informed before students are asked questions in a survey about:

1. Political affiliations or beliefs of the student or student’s parent;
2. Mental or psychological problems of the student or student’s family;
3. Sex behavior or attitudes;
4. Illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior;
5. Critical appraisals of others with whom respondents have close family relationships;
6. Legally recognized privileged relationships, such as with lawyers, doctors, or ministers;
7. Religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; or
8. Income, other than as required bylaw to determine program eligibility.

For surveys that ask questions about one or more of the eight identified topics, parents/guardians have the right to: Receive notice, inspect upon request, and be given an opportunity to opt their student out of participation.

I have written about Check Yourself - which comes via King County - and I still say to parents that you should ask to see all the questions before allowing your child to take this questionnaire.

Check Yourself is a middle school mental health screening tool (basically a questionnaire) but it is not a survey.  

I think it is:

- overly long

- invasive (asking questions before the student into family issues)

- not truly data protected 

- given in a classroom where students can try to look at each other's answers

- Based on student answers, if follow-up is indicated the person doing the follow-up may or may not be a trained mental health specialist. 

I will have a post soon on the most recent information on Check Yourself. For now, I advise you to opt out.