Hi All! Wow! We have all made it to the end of the school year! In reflection, I am both humbled by- and proud of the work we all have done, despite the challenges we faced – and to honor that I would like to highlight one of our newer partnerships.

I’m not sure if you know this, but we have expanded our Unconditional Education reach and have partnered with an amazing school in Marin City called Bayside MLK Jr. Academy. Bayside serves about 110 predominantly African American and Latinx students ranging in grades from TK – 8 and is the only public district school in the Sausalito Marin City School District. We are currently in our 2nd year of partnership and we are feeling so proud of what the school has been able to accomplish thus far 😊.

Bayside, a known landmark for Marin City, has faced many changes, systemic and educational oppressions, yet much like the community that surrounds it, they have shown great perseverance and strength in ensuring they always strive to meet the needs of their students and families.
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*To read more about the history of Marin City,  check out this article Marin City: The Rebirth of a Community.

As Bayside’s mission is to bring together and align essential resources to support students and their families in a safe, healthy and culturally relevant environment (by balancing and focusing on social emotional, creative, physical, and academic skills to ensure that our students have all the tools they need to be successful throughout their lives), it’s no wonder they sought out an Unconditional Education partnership with us.
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Our partnership consists of supporting them through the role of our UE Coach, Kelsey Corrales, and it has been invigorating to support their work and witness the many positive changes that they have created. To highlight a few of those changes, I’d like to share that they have:

• Fully implemented PBIS at the tier 1 level, focusing on “Panther PRIDE”: Pride; Respect; Integrity; Determination; Excellence.
• Created a robust and effective Coordination of Services Team “COST.”
• Began making huge strides toward their tier 2 interventions in all strands.
• Engaged staff to create a Culture and Climate Committee “C3” which uses data to identify goals and objectives to improve the overall culture and climate of the school.
• Have undergone several trainings throughout our partnership, supporting in being more trauma-informed and forming ability to more often utilize trauma-informed approaches in their work.

Bayside has made huge strides in providing Unconditional Education, doing “whatever it takes” to ensure their students receive the education they deserve, such as creating safe and socially-distanced classrooms during this time for students who are not able to access their education at home due to the shelter in place. The principal, Mr. David Finnane, with support from school staff, was able to identify the students and families most in need of support and, all working together, created individual plans for about 6-10 students who came to school every day, in person, to get their academic needs met (this was all done in agreement with families and ensuring proper safety, sanitation, and PPE was in place). This, for me, demonstrates the commitment Bayside has to its students and serves as a beautiful reminder of my “why” for doing this work. 

Each school year brings change and a sense of newness. In the coming 2020-21 school year, Learning Without Limits (LWL) will experience new leadership and a fresh structure. The school as a whole has been actively planning for this transition and our Learning Lab Team, also known as the Special Education Team, had the opportunity to collaborate about what we would like the structure of the Learning Lab Team to look like next year. 

​We utilized this image known as “Below the Green Line” to outline our structures and culture for the next Learning Lab Team. The author of “Below the Green Line,” Steve Zueiback, emphasizes how the components of System Infrastructure and the components of Human Infrastructure are both crucial when it comes to maintaining a healthy and sustainable organization. It is important to constantly build and improve upon the components above and below the green line. The areas below the green line are the heart of the operation. Zueiback notes that an efficient organization works on all six areas simultaneously. 
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LWL is a very caring community – the whole team brings into account the relationships, information, and identity aspects of the school when creating structures, patterns, and processes. During our previous Learning Lab Team meetings, we realized our main attention was focusing above the green line. However, a lot of the systems we identified were rooted in the values we hold below the green line. In other words, the Below values our Learning Lab Team holds also appear in the systems that exist Above. For example, while we have a hierarchy, there is a sense of humbleness from the leadership team which allows for a soft hierarchy and an emphasis on collaboration. Additionally, LWL, like Seneca, values feedback in all directions of the leadership hierarchy. LWL’s Learning Lab Team has created a place for everyone at the table. Each team member is heard and valued. Without collaboration, we would not be able to provide the best individualized services possible to our students and their families. Each member of a student’s team sees a different aspect of the student whether it be academic, speech, behavior, OT or therapy. Collaboration allows us to put all these pieces together and allows us to see the whole student. All the components of the System and Human Infrastructures come together to create a unique organization.

With the support of Zueiback’s article, the Learning Lab Team identified what we would like the incoming team to know about our team’s culture, values, beliefs and systems. A reoccurring theme was the amount of collaboration that takes place as well as the importance of communication, feedback, adaptability and humor. Together, we created a document that will be passed on to the next Learning Lab leader depicting how our culture and structures go hand in hand. 

​The end of the school year should be filled with celebrations and happy memories, but for many of our students this year, that was not the case. Due to the shelter in place, our students who worked hard and achieved their promotions to middle school & high school were not able to participate in their promotion ceremonies. We could not let these huge milestones go uncelebrated and decided to deliver promotion packages to our students at Bridges Academy, Community Day School, Lincoln Middle School, Prescott Elementary School, Sequoia Elementary School, and Think College Now.  

​As with many of our partnerships and programs in Seneca, COVID-19 has thrown us all for a loop. It has been amazing to see how Seneca Staff have jumped at every opportunity to meet the needs of students, families, partnerships, and colleagues. This is especially true at our partnership with Emerson Elementary School where we have two Clinical Intervention Specialists and a Behavioral Intervention Specialist, working what seems like 24 hours a day. They don’t actually work 24 hours a day, don’t worry HR! They just work really, really hard. Throughout the year, and years prior, they have truly integrated themselves within the Emerson Community and have continued to be a constant support and presence throughout COVID-19. We all know that these are confusing times and can only imagine what it must feel like for our younger students. In an effort of prevention and education, Seneca Staff have developed a (Social Emotional Learning) SEL Curriculum to help students understand and explain the effects of the pandemic when students do return to school. This going to be a major aide in supporting the students as they transition back from an extended time outside of the four walls of our schools. 

As one would imagine, and a number of us are experiencing at the moment, it is really difficult to connect with students and families during remote learning. Seneca Staff and Emerson have developed “Communication Captains” which assigns students to a specific staff member for weekly check-ins. This has enabled staff to help meet family needs (food, gift cards, etc.) and continue the facilitation/development of relationships. One of our weekly highlights is our food distribution to students and families during the pandemic. Not to worry, decked out in PPE and social distancing, staff joyously wave to students and families as they coordinate and deliver food packages throughout the Emerson Community. It is also important to acknowledge the affects that COVID-19 has had on our colleagues (including colleagues within our partnership). Seneca Staff at Emerson regularly meet with teachers and provide mental health supports for those who are experiencing their own struggles with COVID-19. Due to the relationships that the CISs and BIS have within the partnership, School Administration highly values these individuals and have trusted them in leading weekly professional development opportunities at the school which include in deep discussions at their book club (“Brain Wash”) and yoga sessions from Seneca’s very own yogi Jenna Laube. All this to say, well done Emerson Crew, we are proud of you all and the work that you do - I appreciate ya’ll! 

In the spring of 2019, the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Department invited interested representatives from Santa Clara County school districts to visit our Unconditional Education (UE) partnership at Verde Elementary in Richmond.  Fremont Union High School District was among those districts who attended the tour and applied for a UE partnership.  Beginning in the fall of 2019, All-In has been proud to be in partnership with Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.  
 
Fremont High has an enrollment of approximately 2,100 students who reflect the diversity of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara County.  61% of their students speak a language other than English at home, with over 60 languages represented.  While FHS has a team of talented mental health providers on campus, the school identified a clear need to provide more support for students in need, particularly students in the general education program.  In September 2019, our Seneca team, composed of Clinical Intervention Specialist Kayla Antes and Bilingual Student Support Assistant Abraham Munoz Godino, began working to serve the school community.  In supporting the students on their caseload, Kayla and Abraham work closely with families and teachers, to create as much consistency and cohesion as possible in the treatment teams. 
 
One of our missions in providing mental and behavioral health to students on campus as opposed to an outside clinic is accessibility and flexibility.  There is a great benefit to students having consistent scheduled weekly sessions at school to practice tools of communication, reflection, and self-regulation.  In addition to the scheduled weekly sessions, our students at FHS know that the Seneca Center hub on campus is a place where they can go if they’re experiencing stress or challenge on a given day and could use some support.  If neither of our staff are available at that moment of need, students can leave a note for our team and/or send a text message to our staff requesting support at the staff’s next opportunity.  In this way, our team can be responsive to the needs of our student caseload and provide a Wellness Center-type space for them, which is something our team and the school would like to expand upon as we move into the 2020-21 school year. 

​Extending the secondary benefit of the services we provide is a key priority area. In addition to support provided in our Seneca Center hub, Kayla and Abraham provide push-in support in the classroom as needed, which is a great support for our focal student and also for the teacher and classroom as a whole.

We are excited to continue our partnership with Fremont High into the 2020-21 school year and to expand our support to more students in need.  A significant number of newcomers have joined the school community this year after their journeys of immigration, and we want to partner with the school in broadening and deepening the range of supports those students and their families can access.  We are also looking at ways we can provide capacity building and support for more teachers and staff.  We’re grateful for the partnership with FHS and Santa Clara Behavioral Health and are excited for what the future holds in this collaboration.

Montalvin Manor is a k-8th grade school in the West Contra Costa unified school district. Montalvin Manor is located in San Pablo/ Richmond border and is centered in a residential area, giving the school a small-town feel. Montalvin Manor strives to provide a stimulating learning environment and is a in partnership with our Unconditional Education model, that works towards building capacity to create a positive and inclusive environment for all students to succeed. “Montalvin Manor seeks to develop the student’s maturity and self-esteem and character to enable them to be successful in their academics and their private at Montalvin Manor and beyond by incorporating our core values in every aspect of our student’s education (Montalvin Manor Elementary School).”

• Community - working together, being inclusive and non-biased, and taking care of one another
• Compassion – caring for another, developing empathy, and no bullying
• Curiosity – joy of learning, exploration, and urgency for more knowledge
• Courage – trying new things, standing up for what’s right, and owning up for your actions 
• Grit – do you best while learning from your mistakes, finish what you start, and never give up

​These core values help staff and students reach the full potential here at Montalvin Manor. 

Community is seen as parents that are apart of the PTA put on luncheons to give back to the staff. The upper grades work together to ensure the community is eco - friendly and recycles. We hold weekly team meetings to increase our education around ways to increase engagement in core values and our understanding of the unconditional education model.
Compassion is seen on compass when teachers try to understand student’s back grounds and how they can best support the student to overcome their personal struggles to thrive at school.  Students show compassion by making sure hurt peers are okay and are willing to walk hurt friends to the office. Students also engage in tools like the peace path to resolve conflicts and to ensure everyone involved had a chance to be heard.

Curiosity is seen all around the campus when kids are excited about learning and ask questions to improve their knowledge. Curiosity is demonstrated within the cost process as they take time to understand what the underlying factors around students’ behaviors instead of defaulting to punitive approaches.

Courage is seen when students and staff try new things that maybe be unfamiliar or difficult to best benefit the campus. Courage is seen in every classroom as the students try to gain knowledge and try their best to understand new lesson.
Grit is seen around the whole campus. As we strive to be better as a whole and continuously meet to make sure things that are not working are improved to benefit the whole campus. We teach are students to learn from their mistakes and not to give up.

​As a partnership with the Unconditional Education model, we continue to collaborate with Montalvin Manor Elementary school to support students and teachers.  

​Our program had the opportunity to expand our partnerships in Oakland Unified School District this year in collaboration with Alameda County Behavioral Health. One new partnership we established is at Burckhalter Elementary School where we’ve been providing Tier 3 mental health and behavioral support since August 2019.
 
Burckhalter is located on a beautiful campus in East Oakland where students are supported to thrive in academics, arts, after-school programs, and community connections. The school benefits from the strong, experienced leadership of Principal Geathers and a well-established Coordination of Services Team led by Ms. Mac that works to make sure student support needs are effectively met.  

Burckhalter is located on a beautiful campus in East Oakland where students are supported to thrive in academics, arts, after-school programs, and community connections. The school benefits from the strong, experienced leadership of Principal Geathers and a well-established Coordination of Services Team led by Ms. Mac that works to make sure student support needs are effectively met.  ​

Seneca staff Johndalyn Armstrong has been at Burckhalter since the beginning of our partnership there. Johndalyn has done great work building relationships with students, families, and school staff.  In early February, we were excited to welcome Rachel Most to join the team as she returned from her maternity leave.  We’re looking forward to finishing this school year strong - continuing to provide the best possible care to the students and families on our caseload and to have a positive impact on the school culture at large - and to continue deepening and enhancing our Burckhalter-Seneca partnership as we move into the future. 

As a response to feeling unseen and a sense of confusion from staff about our model of inclusion at Learning without Limits (LWL), Student Support Services Coordinator Katie Ruffman and I decided to write weekly blog updates on the work that the Special Education staff, also named the Learning Lab Team, at LWL was doing. We specifically wanted to highlight the work that the Learning Lab Team covered in our monthly meetings that we felt was important to share out and norm on as a whole school. We called them Learning Lab Blasts! Our first two posts have included information about positive breaks and how we respond to property destruction. The latest blog post that you can read below is about what general education staff can do when they see a crisis occurring. This is a resource that I wanted to share out because when a student is in crisis, it is easy for folks outside of the special education team to feel like “a deer in headlights,” or respond in a way that can intensify the crisis.
 
Here are some helpful tips that I hope you can share with your school communities so that folks are normed on how to support during a crisis.

Using the visual above, we can look at different stages of an escalation. When a student is at baseline, they are relatively calm, able to have rational thoughts, and are able to access their education. For every student, their baseline looks different, and we would consider this state as “ready to learn.” Then we move into the early escalation and escalation phases. These are times where the student may still be able to access some levels of rational thinking, but their emotions are starting to heighten, and behaviors can occur. This can look obvious, such as a student yelling at a peer or leaving class; or can be more subtle, like rocking in their chair continuously or tapping their foot. We want to be vigilant of signs like these to make sure the student does not reach the crisis phase and can move back toward baseline. However, this is not always possible, and if unable to de-escalate, students reach a crisis phase. This is the state in which a child loses control, rational thinking is none to little, and emotions are heightened. Their nervous systems are in fight, flight or freeze mode. This is where you may see students exhibiting tantrums like behaviors, voicing extreme verbal threats towards themselves or others, becoming physical with themselves or others, doing other things that are unsafe like climbing fences, throwing objects or even making suicidal comments. A crisis is a very sensitive time for students and, thus, we as a school community need to be aware of best practices when witnessing a student in this very delicate and should-be-private time. The last pieces on this graph, de-escalation and reintegration (restoration), will be covered in the next Learning Lab Blast – so keep an eye out for it if you want to learn more!

​If the child is being supported by a counselor or administrator, then you may think that they got it covered and do not need any additional support. However, this is not always the case. If you have ever witnessed a student in crisis, you probably notice it is not usually a moment that feels very private; often because the behaviors exhibited can include yelling, property destruction and any number of behaviors that would naturally draw attention to the child. This leads to the first and most important action you can do in order to make this moment of crisis feel a little more contained for the student.

Clearing the surrounding area
A student in crisis is not a show, and the best thing that you can do is clear students and families from the area. If the students or families are expressing concern, that is perfectly normal, and you can validate those feelings as well as reassure them that there are folks with the appropriate training to support these students and that they are safe. If there are additional comments or concerns that they would like to discuss, you can direct them to the front office to talk about next steps - without the student being able to hear.

Do not engage with the student
When a student is in crisis, all rational goes out of the window and they are only able to hear very short (5 words or less) directions coming from one person, known as crisis communication. It may feel supportive to reinforce the directions being given to the student by the adult with them, but this can often lead to confusion for the student or even make you a target of their behaviors. It is best to let the primary respondent take the lead.

Ask the adult if they need additional support
If you feel like the adult needs support, you can ask the adult if they would like for you to notify the office or administration for additional support. Realize – you do not need to support directly to be helpful.

If the child in crisis is unsupported, your main objective should be to make sure that the student stays safe by keeping eyes on them and immediately contacting the front office, administration, or a Learning Lab team member for support. If you need to engage with the child to ensure their safety, it is important that you follow these guidelines.

Use brief language
As mentioned above, a student in crisis is unable to process many words at a time. When communicating, it is imperative that you can state directions in 5 words or less. Example: “put the chair down.” This crisis communication should be used in the case that the student is doing things that have the possibility to cause imminent harm to them or other students while you are keeping eyes on them. Otherwise, if for example, they are just yelling and screaming in the yard but not posing a threat to those around them or themselves, you can just keep your eyes on the student and call for support.
 
Caveat: If you are a teacher or other staff that is highly familiar with the student and their plan, please feel empowered to use crisis communication and try to de-escalate the child while waiting on further support

Don’t talk about consequences
The main focus in a crisis moment is to get the student to a de-escalation stage, not to let them know about their consequences. Following an escalation, there will always be a key reflect, restore and reintegration piece, but that is only talked about when the student is back at baseline. Talking about consequences in the moment, or, for example, using language around important people in their lives being “disappointed.” tends to only exacerbate the situation. Remember: the key focus is to get the student back to baseline and in a state of relative control.
 
I hope this was helpful and empowers you to feel more able to support our students in crisis!

Charter schools in Washington have only been around for a handful of years, and have had more than their fair share of controversy. Now educators, families, communities, and politicians are anxiously watching to see how all of this rolls out. One of those schools is Rainier Valley Leadership Academy. RVLA is a public charter school in the South Seattle area. Opened in August of 2017, they started with an inaugural sixth grade class, and are now up to tenth grade. By the 2021-2022 RVLA will be open to all students in 6th-12th grades. The current student body is made up of 76% Black, 9% Hispanic and Latino, 3% Asian, 2% White, and 3% identify with other races.
 
Originally started as part of the Green Dot Public Schools network, RVLA had the backing of a nationwide network of schools. The mission of Green Dot “is to help transform public education so that all young adults receive the education they deserve to be prepared for college, leadership, and life.” As of a couple of weeks ago, the Washington State Charter Commission approved for RVLA to make changes to their charter contract to separate from Green Dot and become a standalone community centered school.
 
While Rainier Valley Leadership Academy may be a relatively new school, the community it is located within is not. And that is exactly what the current leadership of RVLA is weaving into its fabric. Shifting the main focus from college, the future of the school will be community driven, scholar led, and leadership focused. School staff want their families and scholars to be prepared for the future of their choice. If they want to go to college, scholars will they have the skills to succeed; if they want to be an artist, a mechanic, or an esthetician, scholars who graduate from RVLA will have the skills to pursue their passions.
 
Transitioning from Green Dot Public Schools to an independent stand-alone community-based school while simultaneously continuing to educate scholars is no small feat. After the 2019-2020 school year, there will no longer be a centralized office. In place of that, there will be dual leadership that reports to the board: a Principal as the head of academics and a Head of Schools as the head of Development and HR. There is also a stakeholder group made up of families, students, staff, and community members to help guide the transition. Through the Seneca partnership, the school is working towards having cohesive systems and clear data to support their scholars with academics, social emotional learning, and behavior.
 
RVLA staff and educators are also actively working to decolonize the curriculum. Racism is systemic, and schools are not exempt from this system. To address this, RVLA is taking a critical look at its curriculum and making changes to the way they are educating scholars. Instead of focusing Black History Month on slavery, scholars learn about Black leaders. Instead of celebrating Christopher Columbus Day, scholars are challenged to think critically about the impacts of Christopher Columbus.
 
As the manager of the Seneca and RVLA partnership, I look forward to seeing how RVLA defines the term community. To get the community to hear the vision of the school, RVLA is attempting to develop their vision with ALL families as their audience.