​This year marks our 10th year of implementing integrated school-based programs in the vision of what we have come to call Unconditional Education. As we celebrate this milestone and kick off the new school year, it is exciting to reflect on what has changed over that time and the work that is still ahead. When we started this work ten years ago, few schools readily made connections between a students’ academic achievement and their emotional wellness. Fewer still utilized a systematic approach to improving culture and climate as a foundation to promote equitable student outcomes. In our time, we have seen discussions of culture and climate and trauma informed practices readily integrated into the lexicon of schools. In addition, we have seen the adoption of the California state dashboard which institutes accountability measures related to social emotional well-being and the performance of students in special education, and the introduction of initial legislative efforts to incentivize collaboration between school districts and county mental health departments. 

Moving into this new school year, our Unconditional Education programs have continued to grow! This school year we have:
·         48 school or network partners implementing some or all of the UE model
·         12 partners who are new this school year
·         158 staff, which includes:​​​
                           - 48 Clinical Intervention Specialists & Interns
                           - 42 Student Support & Mental Health Counselors
                           - 17 UE Coaches
                           - 9 Academic Intervention Specialists
                           - 6 School Psychologists & Interns
                           - 3 Speech Providers
                           - 2 Occupational Therapists

​With this breadth of collaboration our potential is greater than ever and new state level legislative priorities provide opportunities for further impact.
Looking forward to a safe and happy school year ahead!

Name: Chelsea Hara
Your Position?  Academic Intervention Specialist

What led you to your current position? I was seeking an opportunity to become a special education teacher post grad. I was searching for numerous positions until the position with Seneca jumped out at me. I loved the message about unconditional care within the school systems and also staff members. That is something everyone strives for but Seneca holds it with every best intention. I immediately expressed interests, had some interviews, made a decision, and the rest is history. This is my first job EVER out of college and I am confident enough to say that I believe I made an amazing decision. 

Fun Fact/Quote? I grew up in Vallejo, CA but moved to New Jersey when I was about 3 years old and lived there for 15 years. I recently graduated from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and moved to San Francisco a month after graduating! You could say I live coast to coast!

What does your average day look like?  My average day looks like me implementing Specialized Academic Instruction to students in grades ranging from 2nd to 5th grade. When I am not working with students I have prep time, collaboration time, or meetings with team members. 

Why do you do this work? I do this work because of the deep passion I have for serving students who have not been served in the past. I have experience with being underestimated with the power of my knowledge due to a label given to me on paper and I want to give my students the power they deserve. I believe every student takes their own time and path to get where they need to be. Sometimes with a little help along the way which is more than okay. I want to be that person to help those students find what it is they need to be their most successful self.

​As the school year wraps up and summer nears, I relish the opportunity to spend some quieter time investing in my own professional growth and learning and seek inspiration for the coming year. I often get asked by others doing the same about books or resources have helped inform Unconditional Education or continue to inspire our team. Here are a five of my current favorites that focus on relationship, connection and supporting the well-being of educators. These are important topics essential to building strong and healthy communities of practice. Enjoy!

​Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elana Aguilar
Onward tackles the problem of educator stress and provides a practical framework for taking the burnout out of teaching. Stress is part of the job, but when 70 percent of teachers quit within their first five years because the stress is making them physically and mentally ill, things have gone too far. Unsurprisingly, these effects are highest in difficult-to-fill positions such as math, science, and foreign languages, and in urban areas and secondary classrooms—places where we need our teachers to be especially motivated and engaged. By cultivating resilience in schools, we help ensure that we are working in, teaching in, and leading organizations where every child thrives, and where the potential of every child is recognized and nurtured. Onward provides a step-by-step plan for reigniting that spark.

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond
To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction, including: 

• Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships
• Ten "key moves" to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners
• Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection

While focused on instruction, this book provides valuable information for all!

​Teaching in Context: The Social Side of Education Reform Edited by Esther Quintero
Teaching in Context provides new evidence from a range of leading scholars showing that teachers become more effective when they work in organizations that support them in comprehensive and coordinated ways. The studies featured in the book suggest an alternative approach to enhancing teacher quality: creating conditions and school structures that facilitate the transmission and sharing of knowledge among teachers, allowing teachers to work together effectively, and capitalizing on what we know about how educators learn and improve. The studies also show how social dynamics influence the speed, depth, and success with which any new idea is implemented, and how policies enacted without adequate consideration of their impact on the social fabric of schools can produce unintended negative consequences. Policies aimed at improving teaching should focus on strengthening the organization as a whole so that all teachers are likely to improve.

​In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization by Deborah Meier
We are in an era of radical distrust of public education. Increasingly, we turn to standardized tests and standardized curricula-now adopted by all fifty states-as our national surrogates for trust. In this multilayered exploration of trust and schools, Meier critiques the ideology of testing and puts forward a different vision, forged in the success stories of small public schools she and her colleagues have created in Boston and New York. These nationally acclaimed schools are built, famously, around trusting teachers-and students and parents-to use their own judgment. Meier traces the enormous educational value of trust; the crucial and complicated trust between parents and teachers; how teachers need to become better judges of each others' work; how race and class complicate trust at all levels; and how we can begin to 'scale up' from the kinds of successes she has created.

​ 
Teaching with Vitality: Pathways to Health and Wellness for Teachers & Schools by Peggy Bennett
Perhaps more than any other experience, conflict in schools and workplaces can zap our energy and steal our vigor as teachers. If we knew ways to minimize conflict and maximize vitality, would we use them? Teaching with Vitality offers specific behaviors and attitudes to reframe conflict by diluting and dissolving it.

Organized into brief topics for busy readers, Teaching with Vitality combines common experiences and practical options for lessening the turmoil that is inevitable in schools. As beneficent stewards of our children, educators are priceless contributors to the quality of our lives. The main goal of Teaching with Vitality is to elevate teachers in their day-to-day lives by deconstructing the major and minor conflicts that sap their peace and dampen their power. School wellness is contagious. And, this book aims to offer daily pathways to health, wellness, and vigor.

​What are some of your favorites and what’s next on your work-related reading list? Share in the comments below!

I wanted to share the essay “Privileged”. The article was written by NBA player Kyle Korver and caused quite a bit of controversy last month. It’s a great read and you’ll be glad that you did, but if you just don’t have the time, here are some points that impacted me:

• It is an intensely personal essay from the perspective of a successful white man. It explores the privilege he's been granted as a such and how much it took for him to “get it”. He admits being unsympathetic for a long time. 
• Kyle discusses his ability to opt in and out of tough conversations whereas people of color cannot.
• Kyle Korver has tasked himself with becoming a "part of the solution" against racism and put forth some of his own efforts, including:

• "I have to continue to educate myself on the history of racism in America."
• "I have to listen. I'll say it again, because it's that important. I have to listen."
• "I have to support leaders who see racial justice as fundamental -- as something that's at the heart of nearly every major issue in our country today."
• "I have to do my best to recognize when to get out of the way -- in order to amplify the voices of marginalized groups that so often get lost."

While the essay is not the solution to all our problems, it is a great start! The article is extremely well written and what really got me is that you can tell the emotional turmoil he was having while writing it. Hopefully, this article creates a domino effect of self-awareness! 

​Every spring, as part of our continuous improvement efforts, staff from our All-in! program reach out to parents to gather their insights on the services their students receive. These phone calls are conducted with parents whose students receive individualized academic, behavioral, and clinical services. This year we spoke with over 100 parents from 22 of our school partnerships! Responses from our four quantitative questions are summarized below:


80% agreed that Seneca Staff were skillful and knowledgeable in their work with their child
78% felt well informed about what their child was working on and how they were progressing
82% felt that with Seneca services, they were supported in meeting the needs of their child
79% felt their child made progress as a result of their work with Seneca


Our program goal is to have 80% of parents agree with these statements. As the data demonstrates, we have hit the mark on two of these questions and have room to improve on our efforts to keep parents well informed about the services their student is receiving and to help parents to understand the progress their student is making. Over the summer, the leadership team will reflect on this feedback and brainstorm programmatic changes that will help us continue to improve in these areas.

In addition to these four questions where we ask for a simple “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t know” response, the survey includes two open ended questions that allow for parents to elaborate on what is going well and where we can do better in supporting their students. Responses help provide insight into the parent’s perspective of success and what is most important to them. Many parents commented on the progress and improvements they have witnessed in their student(s) as a result of the services they have received, and several parents shared appreciation for our communication and collaboration efforts.

Here are some highlights from our open-ended questions:
Student Progress“One of the things is his self-esteem and how he wants to spend more time with his friends. He used to spend a lot of time alone. Now he has more confidence and wants to spend time with his classmates.”

“My daughter stuttered before, and I can tell that she now takes more time to think about what she's going to say, and that's from the speech therapist. I see now that she voices that she's trying to say something if she is getting cut off by somebody. We play games at home, and she tells me how the speech therapist taught her to connect games to her speech.”

They pay attention to him, and talk and listen to him, and see how he is doing. I feel like he is doing well. He comes home calmer and happier, and it's easier to talk with him.

My son can open up more thanks to his therapist and I like the tools she brings in order to engage my child, for example he loves cars and they're building a car in session and that helps him open up to her.

She's more independent on some of her homework. She tries harder. I'm happy with the services that she gets.

Name: Brittany Allinger
Position: Bilingual Outpatient Clinician at Elmhurst Community Prep and Alliance Academy (Middle Schools)
 
What led you to your current position?
I was an intern with Seneca for 2 years before becoming full time. I entered my Master’s in Social Work program with the specific intention to work in schools, so my first year internship with SOAPS was a perfect fit. I loved the people I worked with and the level of support I received. In my second year I interned with All-In and I loved that too! Through both of these internships I discovered my love of working with middle and high-school students. When I graduated I knew I wanted to stay in a school based Seneca position, but I was struggling to decide between All-In or SOAPS. Luckily, they merged and I was fortunate enough to be offered a position with SOAPS that had everything I wanted.
 
Fun Fact/Quote?
I have three grandkids, and I’m also a DJ. Feel free to ask me questions about this in person!
 
What does your average day look like?
I arrive at school at 8am and spend a few minutes walking around to greet my co-workers and any early students. If I have time I get caught up on emails. I see kids individually throughout the school day, and when I’m not with them I engage in collateral conversations, offer in class support, and attend meetings such as IEPs, SSTs, and COST. In the later afternoons I spend time connecting with parents/caregivers and getting caught up on notes.  I try to leave between 4 and 4:30pm and most days I succeed J
 
Why do you do this work?
I love kids. I find them hilarious, ridiculous, brilliant, sweet, creative, and resilient beyond belief.  Also, I had a school counselor who was incredibly meaningful to me in high school, and she demonstrated unconditional positive regard towards me at a time when nobody else in my life had that to offer. I remember vividly how safe I felt in her office. I hope to provide a similar feeling of safety and trust to the students and schools I work for.  These two reasons combined bring meaning and joy to my days and that’s why I love what I do!