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Please scroll down to read our Unconditional Education blog posts.

All-In! Partnership Project

Community Day School (CDS): Alternative Education Campus for Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)

2/13/2019

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​Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) partners with Seneca Family of Agencies to provide behavioral and therapeutic support at their alternative education campus. Students are referred to the Community Day School (CDS) campus through the Disciplinary Hearing Process (DHP), when they have been expelled from their home school campus. Students are assigned to the CDS campus for a set period of time, depending on the severity of the behavior leading to their expulsion. 
 
While at CDS, the staff provide a nurturing environment where students receive academic and behavioral supports, as well as develop a strong sense of community.  Through our behavioral phase system, eligible students are able to receive special monthly lunches, attend monthly field trips, and participate in student store twice a month.  The entire campus community also participates in monthly cultural lunches, where students learn about other cultures and experience food from those cultures. 
 
CDS is a small, intimate campus nestled in the Oakland hills.  The serene environment, combined with smaller class sizes and a variety of staff supports, help students to focus on achieving individualized behavioral and academic goals, and prepare for their readmission hearing.  At the readmission hearing, school staff discuss the student’s progress and either recommend that the student be readmitted to a mainstream school or remain at CDS to continue work on specific goals.  The ultimate goal for students at CDS is to be readmitted.  This past December, CDS had 12 students readmitted, which is the largest number of readmissions the campus has ever seen. 

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Blog Post Written By: Adeya Byrd, Director of Oakland Alameda Public Schools (SOAPS)
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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: The Primary School in East Palo Alto

2/4/2019

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The founders of the Primary School had a vision of a community school that began serving children at birth and offered a holistic approach to serving their students and families. When they opened their doors in August of 2016, they welcomed in expecting mothers for prenatal services, parents with infants and toddlers for early childhood programming, and 3 year-olds for full day Pre-School. Now, The Primary School has their first 1st grade class and will grow one grade level each year until they reach 8th grade. With their own special blend of Whole Child supports, The Primary School maintains close relationships with health clinics in the neighborhood and utilizes their pediatrician (yes, they have a pediatrician!) to collaborate with students' health care providers. In addition to health integration, The Primary School also offers parent coaching for every family. Each caregiver is assigned a Parent Coach and attends regular groups on nutrition, discipline strategies, bedtime routines, accessing community resources, and more.

Seneca has the amazing opportunity to work with this dedicated team to co-design The Primary School's mental health component. We've taken many elements from our Unconditional Education model, such as tiered mental health systems that include social skills groups and intensive therapeutic services, and we've combined them with TPS's existing tier 1 systems and data collection tools. Our Seneca therapist, the fabulous Melinda Brown (featured staff this week!), currently provides social skills groups for 3-5 year-olds who were flagged by the SSIS (Social Skills Improvement System) screening tool. Beyond the data collection component, SSIS offers a robust SEL curriculum that Melinda uses in her group work. At the tier 1 level, TPS employs the Conscious Discipline framework, which emphasizes creating a safe, family atmosphere at school and supporting children in learning self-regulation strategies. We've incorporated these tenants and strategies into our Crisis De-Escalation training, consultation work, and other teacher-facing supports.​

The newest addition to our work with TPS is our first SSA in East Palo Alto, Melanie Antonio! Melanie just started her work at the Primary School and is focusing on a few Kinder students who require intensive behavioral services. She will be providing milieu support, Check-In Check-Out, and targeted social skills groups. Are you curious about our early childhood superstars down in East Palo Alto? Reach out to Jonathan Barnett or Melinda Brown to set up a visit!

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Blog Post Written by: Jonathan Barnett, Director of School Partnerships
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Supporting Students with Moderate Disabilities in Inclusive Settings

1/23/2019

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Four years ago, Seneca Washington began its Unconditional Education Partnership in the new charter school sector.  Working collaboratively with schools in their first years of operation afforded the unique opportunity to build schools with the Unconditional Education Model from the beginning. Excel Public Charter School in Kent, Washington was one of the first. Families were excited for new and innovative approaches to education, and Excel delivers that through a focus on computational thinking, music education and college preparation.

In the first year, the academic diversity of the school population was both inspiring and overwhelming. To meet the academic needs of all students, highly capable programming as well as programming for moderate to severe disabilities would be necessary.  How would we serve all students and meet their needs while keeping a commitment to create the most inclusive settings?

Students with significant disabilities are typically served in more restrictive settings. Nationally, 70% of students with significant disabilities are placed in classrooms and settings where they spend much of their day with other disabled peers.  In the 2017-18 school year in the Washington Charter Sector, 74% of students with significant disabilities were served in the general education setting with their non-disabled peers for 80-100% of their school day.

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​With some creativity, curiosity, and a staff that was open and willing to try new things, Excel has created a very inclusive setting for its most impacted students. One of the most valuable resources has been training and continued support on accommodations and modifications. Using a graphic organizer to present to staff, the Special Education team worked through each level of accommodations and modifications. Having teachers bring work samples and creating workshop time was essential to making this a success. Special Education teachers also had drop in office hours on Mondays during teacher prep called “Modification Mondays.” Through continued professional development, classroom support, and weekly check ins, teachers gained new skills and strategies to modify their curriculum for all learners. 
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Recently, one of the founding scholars at Excel, who had previously been served in a more restrictive setting, was awarded at the scholar breakfast for his academic achievement.  His teachers modified his curriculum to meet his needs and he is now confident in his own academic ability. 
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Every one of our students deserves to have access and support to learn. It’s our job to do our best with what we know and have to make that happen, 
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Blog Post Written By: Erin Galloway, Director of School Partnerships
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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Dearborn Park International School

10/26/2018

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Dearborn Park International School (k-5) serves students in the heart of Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. As part of Seneca’s expanding partnership with Seattle Public Schools, a Student Support Counselor was placed at the school in Fall of 2017.
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With an enrollment of about 400 students, Dearborn Park takes seriously it’s responsibility to provide every student with an excellent, holistic education. Dearborn is a dual-language emersion school which embeds Spanish, Mandarin, and English into instruction. As one of the most diverse schools in Seattle, students at Dearborn come from families representing over 25 unique languages and cultures.  About 70% of students at Dearborn come from low-income families, and about 40% are English Language Learners. Dearborn is a school where joy is always in the air, families and community members are active and engaged, and staff care deeply about the students they serve.

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Seneca’s partnership with Dearborn began with a full-time Student Support Counselor focused on carrying out the reset procedure- helping students who are experiencing behavioral challenges, in the moment, to regulate emotions, reflect, restore relationships, and reintegrate into classrooms. With support from Seneca staff, these Tier II and Tier III behaviors became less frequent and shorter in duration. This reduction in reactive interventions provides a powerful opportunity in Seneca school partnerships – focus can shift to proactive PBIS-informed approaches (check-in/check-outs, reward systems, behavior plans etc) for individual students. It also enables Seneca staff to be key resources in systems changes at both the classroom and school-wide level.
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One powerful support that Seneca has been prioritizing with its SPS partners (including Dearborn) is focusing on the Teacher-Student relationship. Research has consistently shown that the relationship between a student and their teacher is one of the greatest factors in student success. This is sometimes referred to as the invisible classroom – “a collection of continuously active neurological and human connections that have an immense effect on learning but little to do with the actual content of the lesson (Olson, 2014).” It is what exists beyond competencies and test scores – it is the behavioral, emotional, and rational elements that create a contextual, safe, and caring environment in which learning occurs for all students. Teachers, more than any other adult in a school building, have the power to create these environments. By closely partnering with teachers and doing in-class proactive work with individual students, Seneca staff play an active role at Dearborn (and other schools) to work towards positive invisible classrooms. These efforts create sustainability, key to the mission of Seneca’s Unconditional Education model.
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Blog Post Written By: Adam Campbell, Director of School Partnerships
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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Learning Without Limits

10/23/2018

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Learning Without Limits is a K-5 school in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland that believes strongly in the balance between constructivist learning and knowledge-based learning using culturally relevant pedagogy. Students attending Learning Without Limits are empowered with the academic skills and character traits necessary to succeed in college and beyond. The teachers and staff help students grow into leaders who care about their peers and who are able to act in support of what they believe in.  

Students and their families are a part of a community where relationships are nurtured and student growth is a collaborative effort, and their actual vision statement was written by founding families and teachers (they chant it as a whole-school community every morning).
 
We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us as we grow into leaders, who are passionate and care about making our world better. We are equipped with skills and knowledge, filled with curiosity and we know that even when we face challenges, we will achieve!


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Learning Without Limits is leading a visioning around inclusion, which secures opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers in general education classrooms. This work is being led by Katie Ruffman, former Senecan and LWL's MTSS Lead/Sped Admin.  Katie has always had strong leadership with a critical lens of how SPED can be more inclusive across the school community. Along with still holding a caseload of students, Katie (sped teacher) works alongside the gen-ed teacher supporting LWL's first true inclusive classroom utilizing the co-teaching model!
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The purpose of co-teaching in inclusive classes is not to double the content knowledge of the instructors. The purpose is to figure out ways to meet the needs of the students in the room in a way different than what has been tried and was unsuccessful in the past. Co-teaching is meant to provide specialized services to students with disabilities in regular classrooms, while ensuring they also get access to the same academic material as their peers.
Some notable advantages of co-teaching include:
  • Increased adult attention to students, since co-taught lessons can reduce the teacher-to-student ratio.
  • Shared expertise among two or more teachers.
  • Shared responsibility for instruction and management.
  • Increased opportunity to differentiate for student needs.
  • All students can benefit from the additional supports, resources, and diversity in the classroom.
  • Stronger, more creative, lessons due to teachers sharing the planning process with each other.
Want to learn a little more about co-teaching. Check out this quick reading resource.
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Blog Post Written By: Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships
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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Legacy Academy

10/8/2018

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Legacy Academy was created by a group of people in Santa Clara County who have a deep understanding of  the needs of systems-involved youth. Marc Buller, the founder and CEO, was the Chief Assistant District Attorney who oversaw Juvenile Justice matters in San Jose. The board also includes a former director of Santa Clara County Mental Health, a mental health non-profit CEO, and a few former teachers/school leaders. This group of change-makers saw a lack of  supportive middle school environments that could adequately serve students who have had contact with the Juvenile Justice and/or Foster Care systems. Knowing that many of these youth would benefit from therapeutic supports, the board reached out to Seneca and heavily included our approach into their school model. Now, Seneca has the amazing opportunity to work with a dedicated team and co-design a supportive, therapeutic environment for adolescents.

When it comes to implementing our Unconditional Education model, Legacy Academy is a very different kind of campus. The school currently serves only 13 students, and most of them demonstrate at least some level of behavioral and socio-emotional need.  So how do we tailor our tiered mental health systems to serve this unique setting? We provide the same quality tier 1 supports, building out Legacy's PBIS system with Power, Purpose and Passion (the 3 P's) as their school-wide expectations. Staff constantly reward students for demonstrating the 3P's by handing out tickets that can be used to purchase items at the school store (snacks, free dress passes, dollar store items, etc). At the tier 2 level, we will be opening our first social skills groups this month. The talented Jacqueline Leong-Abad (also featured in the blog this week!) will be using her knowledge of DBT to support students in building emotional self-regulation skills in a small group setting. With 1.6 clinicians, we have been able to open 7 out of 13 students for Tier 3 services (i.e. individual and family therapy), and we will likely open 3 more in the next month. The 3 remaining students will be receive therapeutic services outside of school. We have a COST system where we can coordinate services and triage emerging needs, but most of the collaboration occurs in tier 3 meetings. Essentially, we have an inverted pyramid where the majority of students receive tier 3 supports.

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As a brand new school and program, we definitely have our work cut out for us down at Legacy Academy. The majority of our students have experienced trauma and around half are in special education. While the needs stand out, so do the personalities. Our students are HILARIOUS. Nicknames are in full effect, and almost every student has one (Jimbo, Shorty, and Mango, just to name a few). The students are currently choosing a mascot, and they meet weekly with our fabulous SSAs, Matthew Kang and Samantha Adamson, to select items for their school store. As you can imagine, student voice is extremely important in this school community, and they have a LOT to say! Are you curious about our all-star program down in San Jose? Reach out to the amazing Jennifer Uribe-Sanchez or another member of our team to set up a visit!
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Blog Post Written By: Jonathan Barnett, Director of School Partnerships
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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Lazear Charter Academy

9/24/2018

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This year at Lazear, clinician Chrissy Highet is continuing to lead a GSA group for middle schoolers, partnering with Ed Specialist Ms. Rivera and 7th grade Humanities teacher Mr. V. GSA usually stands for Gay-Straight Alliance, but it can also stand for Gender and Sexuality Alliance (which is a much more inclusive name). GSAs are school clubs in which students can talk and learn about sexual orientation, gender identity, and some of the issues that surround them. The students took lead on spreading the word about the group this year, and have taken charge on naming the topics they want to discuss in the group, including media influence, feminism, and gay rights in the community and internationally. Group members are also planning a PRIDE celebration for October around National Coming Out Day. This year we will also have guest presenters from Sigma Epsilon Omega, UC Berkeley's gay fraternity.
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If you're interested in learning more about GSA or starting a chapter at your school, check out this handbook with information and resources!
https://gsanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GSA_Advisor_Handbook-web.pdf


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Blog Post Written By: Chrissy Highet, Clinical Intervention Specialist
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SOAPS Site Highlight: Intensive Counseling Enriched Classroom at Bridges Academy at Melrose

9/24/2018

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The mission of Seneca’s Oakland Alameda Public Schools program is to provide each student with the best individualized academic, behavioral, social, and emotional support possible in the least restrictive environment.  Our program partners with Oakland and Alameda Unified School Districts to provide behavioral interventions to support students in better accessing academics through a counseling enriched program, as well as outpatient therapeutic services. The goal of the Intensive Counseling Enriched (ICE) classroom is to accelerate academic and behavioral progress and develop students’ skills that are needed to successfully transition back into a general education setting. We support students in this by providing structure, therapy, behavioral systems, incentives, and behavioral interventions throughout the academic day. Students who have struggled behaviorally at previous placements and need additional behavioral support are referred to our program through district referrals.  
 
The ICE classrooms include a multidisciplinary team of the district teacher, district teacher’s aide, Seneca Mental Health Counselors, and a Seneca Classroom Therapist. The Seneca Mental Health Counselors are responsible for intervening when students are exhibiting disruptive behaviors in the classroom. Through team collaboration, each student’s unique needs and goals are addressed through a personalized treatment plan that includes individual, group, and often family therapy, supported by intensive case management and crisis intervention services. Program services are designed and tailored to enable each individual student the best possible behavioral, therapeutic, and educational support.
 
Our ICE classroom at Bridges Academy at Melrose has just kicked off its fourth school year in Oakland Unified School District. There are currently eleven 4th and 5th grade students enrolled in the classroom, all of whom are working on specialized behavioral and academic plans. Throughout the school day, the students participate in music class, PE, science, and go to the library in addition to their regular academic classes. Students receive individual therapy every week as well participate in group social skills, and the classroom therapist is available for check-ins with students as needed. With the support of our Mental Health Counselors, there are three students who are already mainstreaming in general education classes, and many others who are motivated to progress on their behavioral goals to begin going to general education classes. Additionally, there are multiple students who earn time as mentors in the kindergarten classes where they support and help younger students during the school day. This allows students to be viewed as leaders not only in their own classroom, but the school community as well. With the use of a behavioral phase system that includes incentives such as special lunches and field trips, the students work towards earning privileges and rewards. Many students are on individual contracts to further work on their own personal goals and to be able to earn a reward of their choosing for their progress. While there are blow outs, escalations, and hard times along the way, the students in our classroom continue to grow and progress with the help of our strong collaboration with the Bridges administration and school community.

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Blog Post by: Adeya Byrd, Program Director of Seneca Oakland Alameda Public Schools (SOAPS)
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School Highlight: Lodestar

3/5/2018

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No better way to start the week than viewing an artifact that lives up to Lodestar's school vision: Where Oakland Shines!
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View this video for some of the highlights students have been working on this year!  

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Summit K2

2/22/2018

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Summit K2 is a public charter school located in the southern region of West Contra Costa County Unified School District. K2 opened its doors to its founding 7th grade class in 2014. The school’s mission: to prepare a diverse student population for success in a four-year college or university, and to be thoughtful, contributing members of society.

The K2 campus is the beautifully restored and historic Chung Mei Home for Boys (est. 1935). While this is now an institution of learning, the campus retains many of the structural components that pay homage to the building’s rich culture and history.
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 The school has added one grade level each year since their opening and will continue to do so until it serves 7th -12th grades. K2 currently has grades 7th through 10th and approximately 300 students. K2’s partnership with All-In provides one to one counseling, drop in counseling services, and social skills groups. 

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