Next month, Seneca’s second book Unconditional Education: Supporting Schools to Serve All Students will complete production. We caught up with Executive Director of School Partnerships Robin Detterman, who is also one of the book’s authors, to get a sneak peek at what we can expect from this next edition.

What’s this book about?
This is a book about transformational change in schools. Change at this level requires that we consider not only the actions of individual students, families, teachers or schools, but also the systemic conditions that create inequitable outcomes for so many of our nation’s youth. Even after decades of reform, America’s public schools continue to fail predictable groups of students, with the greatest opportunity gaps faced by those whose achievement is hindered by the complex stressors of disability, trauma, poverty, and institutionalized racism. Dramatic change is required to disrupt these existing patterns of inequity. Unconditional Education draws on what Seneca has learned from years of operating specialized education settings, such as counseling enriched classrooms and non-public schools. What we know is that in order for students to be ready to learn they must first experience safety, connection and a sense of belonging. It is not uncommon for students and families who participate in our intensive programs to report that it is the first time they feel welcomed or wanted at school - and that has to change. 
Our current educational and mental health systems work on a “fail first” model where students must reach identified thresholds of failure to access certain services. This means that students who enter specialized programs have already experienced years of trouble in school. Rather than waiting for students to get to this point, we must build a system of education that focuses on wellness from the beginning, promoting prevention and early intervention over remediation, and where schools have the knowledge, skills and resources needed to be safe and inclusive places for all students, regardless of their presenting needs. This book highlights specific practices that make up the school transformation framework we have come to call Unconditional Education and discusses implementation successes and challenges within our partner schools.
 
How does this book connect to Unconditional Care?
In Seneca’s first book, Unconditional Care, John Sprinson articulated how attachment theory and behavioral leaning theory intersect to form the basis of Seneca’s treatment model bearing the same name. At the time of the book’s publication, our agency’s clinical approach was just expanding to also consider how addressing a client’s individual and community context was also needed to promote lasting and sustainable change. Based in systems theory, we now call this the Ecological Stream of our treatment model.  Unconditional Education explores how the theoretical concepts behind each of the three streams of unconditional care (relational, behavioral, and ecological) can be applied to individual students and even whole schools.
 
Why write this book?
For many years, Seneca has sought to break down siloed systems and build a continuum of care across settings and sectors. In the beginning, the agency focused largely on mental and behavioral health interventions, but what we have come to know is that separating a child’s well-being from their success at school is both impossible and absurd. We hope that this book will serve to articulate a set of ideas that will inspire education and policy leaders to rethink the ways in which they support all students. In addition, we hope that the practices described in the book can provide guidance to the many practitioners it requires to enact this important work. The trials and tribulations captured throughout the book are a testament to the many amazing staff who have blazed the trail and continue to define what it takes to provide an unconditional education.

As we settle into the new school year one of the most pressing issues facing educators is that of school safety.  Incidents of gun violence at school are statistically very rare, but these tragic events live within our cultural consciousness and occur with much greater frequency in the United States than any other part of the world.  According to a 2016 US Department of Education Report more than 90% of public schools have developed a written plan for responding to school shootings and more than 70% of schools have conducted drills to practice those plans.

In recent months, several of our school partners have experienced verbal threats of violence and have had to put these crisis response protocols to the test.  Thankfully, in each instance, no actual incidents of violence occurred, and the threats were deemed to lack credibility.  In each instance, schools were able to successfully identify areas of concern and respond promptly to ensure the safety of their communities.

Partnering with schools through these incidents has led me to consider: What is it that Unconditional Education brings to the conversation on school safety?

Building upon the foundation of Unconditional Care, Unconditional Education emphasizes the important role relationship and connection play in the process of growth and learning. It has become commonly accepted that students must experience a relative sense of security in order to attend to the processes required for academic learning. However, what is further emerging is an understanding of how strong relationship in and of themselves contribute to a culture of safety.
While many schools across the country have installed metal detectors, security cameras and in some cases uniformed or even armed guards, there is no conclusive evidence that these measures work to prevent school violence. And in some cases, they may exacerbate troubling patterns of identification of perpetrators fueled by implicit bias.

A 2001 Safe Schools Initiative study conducted jointly by the United States Secret Service and Department of Education shed light on what we do know about incidents of youth violence, particularly mass violence, in the school setting with these 10 key findings:

• Incidents of targeted violence at school are rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
• Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea and/or plan to attack.
• Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack.
• There is no accurate or useful "profile" of students who engage in targeted school violence.
• Most attackers engaged in some behavior, prior to the incident that caused concern or indicated a need for help.
• Most attackers were known to have difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Many had considered or attempted suicide.
• Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.
• Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
• In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.
• Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.

These findings point to an understanding that beyond physical safety measures, it is meaningful and trusting relationships between staff and students and whole school approaches to the social emotional well-being of students that serve as protective factors against incidents of school violence.  When individuals can access appropriate mental health supports and feel a sense of belonging within their school community, they are less likely to become perpetrators of violence. When students have strong relationships with adults that they trust, they are more likely to alert those adults to the comments or actions of other students that indicate potential for harm. When adults have strong and trusting relationships with each other, they can successfully respond at the earliest signs of trouble. Schools that are trusting and inclusive communities provide members with the needed sense of security to support their growth and learning.
​
Have a safe and happy school year!

Blog Post Written by: Robin Detterman, Executive Director of School Partnerships

Blog Post Written by: 
Robin Detterman, Executive Director of School Partnerships