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​Please scroll down to read our Unconditional Education blog posts.

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OUR UE MODEL AND SERVICES

Co-Treatment: A Beneficial Approach to Student Services

1/30/2023

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Team work makes the dream work, right? This statement rings true when multi-disciplinary teams work together to support the needs and goals of our students. In Seneca Washington, we have a team of 14 specialists – School Psychologists, Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP), Speech and Language Pathologist Assistants (SLPA) and Occupational Therapists (OT) who work collaboratively together along with school teams to provide special education services and consultation to our partner schools.
If a student receives speech or occupational therapy services on their IEP (Individualized Education Plan), you may see students pulled out of class to work with providers individually or the provider may push in to support the student in the classroom. However, another approach to providing services to students that our team embraces is co-treatment. The American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) states co-treatment is “when practitioners from different professional disciplines can effectively address their treatment goals while the patient is engaged in a single therapy session.” In schools, this could look like the OT and SLP working together simultaneously to target skill building in their respective discipline during a session for an individual or group of students. For example, while working with a student whose IEP goal is increasing their social emotional skills, the session may include a turn taking game. During this activity, the OT is supporting the student with turn-taking, emotional regulation and fine motor skills, while the SLP is supporting the student with peer engagement, sportsmanship, attention to the activity and following directions.
The co-treatment approach may not only benefit the student, but also positively impacts the classroom, school environment and the providers themselves. After asking the Specialists team, here are some of the benefits they experience when co-treating:
Student Benefits
  • Allows for a student to practice skills working as a team, conversation skills, turn-taking, practicing skills in a social group
  • Maximizes therapy time (could prevent fatigue or withdrawal, allows student to stay in class more)
  • More functional for students – in co-treatment sessions students are working on many skills which may increase a higher chance of carryover into other settings
  • Increased engagement – two professionals allows for more fun and involved therapy sessions (i.e. cooking, crafts, games, community outings, etc.)
Provider Benefits
  • More opportunities to learn from other professionals – tips, strategies, activity ideas, etc.
  • Supports in learning flexibility in how to target goals (being able to adapt any activity to work on skill building)
  • Supports with behavior management
  • Fun and involved therapy sessions bring joy to providers!
School Benefits
  • Promotes collaboration and a student-centered approach
  • Learning from other providers can increase information sharing with other school staff
While the term co-treatment is used with specific disciplines, the idea could also be used with clinicians, behavior specialists, School Psychs, special education teachers and other staff that support student learning and goals. Keep in mind co-treatment may not be appropriate for all students, so check with your school team and asha.org (or your professional organization) for guidance. We have found overwhelming positive feedback on co-treatment, and encourage other teams and professionals to keep this approach in mind when providing services to students.
A big shout out to Kelsey Kircher (SLP), Danielle Farrand (SLP), Devon McNeeley (Lead SLP), Nic Huang (OT) and Nicole Matichuk (Lead OT) for sharing their thoughts on co-treatment and how it can be a beneficial approach for all.

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Blog Post Written By: Gini Sanders, Director of Specialized Services ​
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Practicing Radical Self-Care During the Busy Season

12/12/2022

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“The tree is only as healthy as the root.” - @decolonizingtherapy

As we step into December, we get ready to end the Gregorian New Year, wrap up work with our clients and their families, and prepare for the holidays.  We keep in mind ways to hold our clients and their families through the winter break.  We often put ourselves on the back burner as we tend to others.  We play multiple roles in our families (chosen or biological and sometimes both). We are the nurturers. We are the “listening ear.” We are the ones who hold compassion. We are the “understanding ones.” We are the givers.  We can be challenged to give to ourselves what we generously offer to others – compassion, love, kindness and grace.
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In Audre Lorde’s collection of essays, “A Burst of Light,” she reclaims self-care as self-preservation and “an act of political warfare.”  She invites us to tend to our hearts and soul – as means to heal.  That is the essence of radical self-care. Inviting us to say “no” and re-prioritizing ourselves, which is crucial in order to continue doing our work.  We’ve all been bombarded with “self-care activities” such as getting our “me time.”  While that is a start, we must step further into the act of radical self-care in order to heal ourselves, those who were unable to heal in past generations and our seeds, so they carry a little less than we do in this lifetime.  For example, for many first generation folx like myself, we tend to over-work and often hear family members telling us “Not be lazy” and not to take time off when we are really “not that sick.”  Value is placed on working and taking a day off is considered a luxury.  I invite folx to reclaim their time and deconstruct how this has shown up in their personal lives.  As Audre Lorde reminds us, “it’s self-preservation.”  I invite readers to deconstruct and challenge the narratives that have been passed down through generations and become societal norms. 
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Here are some tips to consider as we get ready to take some needed rest:
  • Be intentional – what does your heart and soul need?
  • Practice self-compassion – don't measure your “productivity” on “how much” you get done. Be gentle with yourself.  Maybe your body needed to just binge watch and not necessarily get “anything” done.
  • Tap into your joy. What makes you laugh? What makes you smile? Find one thing that taps into your joy and do it. Then do more of it.
  • Play music that makes your soul smile.
  • Tap into your creativity whether it’s drawing, painting, coloring mandalas, writing, acting etc.
  • Move.  Stretch. Dance. Spend time connecting with your body.
  • Set time aside to unplug to tend to your soul.
  • Connect with nature. Walk barefoot on grass, sit outside and let the sun kiss your face. Feel the breeze. Breathe.
  • Eat food that helps bring balance. Remember that foods like hummus, grapes, nuts and oranges help when feeling stressed.
  • Increase serotonin by practicing gratitude at the beginning and end of your day. 
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Helpful tips on “how boundaries can sound like during the holidays” from @selfloverainbow:
  • “I’m not able to attend this year.”
  • “I appreciate the invite but this year, I'm going to be staying home.”
  • “I would love to bring that dish, but my schedule is full. Maybe next time?”
  • “I’m not discussing politics.”
  • “I’m focusing on my mental health and doing xyz...”
  • “I can come, but I need to leave by...”
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Things To Stop Apologizing For (source: LinkedIN - Anonymous)
  • Asking questions
  • Not being available at all times.
  • Feelings
  • Vocalizing your needs
  • Outgrowing a place or situation.
  • Your accomplishments
  • Not looking “presentable”
  • Doing things that make you happy.
  • Having boundaries. 

​Resources to consider:
  • @selfloverainbow – will give you reminders on how to take care of your body, soul and heart.
  • @thetappingsolution – it's a great resource on using tapping for anxiety and helping you sleep.
  • Set up a monthly calendar of acts of self-care. Check out the calendar on Light the Change’s (LTC) monthly newsletter, “In the Kitchen."
When all else seems too hard, maybe you just need a pep talk. Call (707) 873-7862 for a pep talk from some of our youngest teachers from K-6th grades from West Side Elementary School. AND above all, be kind to yourself and show yourselves some grace. 
​“It can be scary to rest.  To slow down can feel terrifying. Also liberating. Be in your body. Intuit more. Breathe more. Tap on your energy centers more. Consciously & constantly clear your space. You are building a Growth map. One that leads to your best Self. This is magic too.” - @DrJennyJennM (Decolonizing Therapy) 
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Blog Post Written By: Karina Gonzalez, Clinical Supervisor 

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Our Native American Communities and Resources to Continue the Conversation

11/28/2022

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As November comes to an end and some of us get more into the holiday spirit, I want us to continue to have conversations about our Native American and Native Alaskan communities. For years November is a month many of our classrooms learn about the first Thanksgiving and review some brief facts about Native Americans. Here are some helpful resources and topics that we can use in our classrooms to increase awareness of Native American and Native Alaskan communities. There are over 500 tribes in the U.S that fall into the Native American and Native Alaskan categories. Each tribe is unique and has contributed to the foundation of the land that we currently live in. We constantly see Native Americans represented as one large group of people in our textbooks without acknowledging the impact that each tribe had on the land. Bringing alternative resources into our classroom can help us educate others about the different tribes, customs, rituals, and power dynamics that those before us had. It allows us to present a different point of view from the one most of us found in our textbooks. I hope you use this information to continue to have conversations and celebrate the richness of our Native American community. I also want to acknowledge some of the challenges our Native American communities have and continue to experience due to the ongoing trauma that they have experienced in their own land. I have added some information to spread awareness of some of the challenges that Native American communities face.

This poster that describes the meaning of the first Thanksgiving to the different tribes and their contributions to our agriculture system.
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The Smithsonian's feature on the National Museum of American Indians provides videos and topics to continue the conversations in our classrooms.

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And finally. the non-profit, Native Hope, works to address the injustices done to Native Americans, in part by promoting healing through sharing their stories.

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Blog Post by Mariana Aranda, Assistant Director of School Partnerships

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Oakland Academy of Knowledge (OAK)

11/7/2022

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​Kaycee Hasan supports Oakland Academy of Knowledge (OAK) as one of Seneca’s Unconditional Education Coaches, focused on promoting inclusion and wellness for all community members. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, the principal expressed a desire for Kaycee to support staff wellness, acknowledging that educators at OAK were experiencing the challenging transition back to in-person learning after the pandemic, at the same time the school was experiencing a significant redesign. Since that time Kaycee has consistently shared weekly Wellness Wednesday Emails, that address topics such as self care, self nurturing, gratitude, boundaries and joy, while providing practical tips and tricks and activities for staff to engage in. Below is one example of an email focused on gratitude:
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Today we want to express our gratitude to you all for showing up everyday, putting your best foot forward, and embracing change. This year has brought many changes for each of us in different ways but each of you continue to show perseverance and fortitude. The consistency in how you show up each day, in your classrooms or amongst your students, is what we are most grateful for. We know that it is not always easy. 

We want to invite you all to take a few moments to reflect on what you may be grateful for - specific to your role or the work that you do. If you feel brave, we would like for you to email us back, and let us know the 2-4 things you are grateful for. We would like to put them all together and share them (anonymously) with the campus team. 

Fostering a culture of gratitude is something that we are actively working towards. We hope that with time, as a community we can learn more ways to practice gratitude with each other and with the community we serve. 

The mind-body connection is strong and as such there are physical and emotional benefits of expressing and practicing gratitude.  Gratitude can help to alleviate pain, help improve our health, help us to sleep better, help us to be more mindful of our choices, and help to create long lasting change psychologically (ease depression/anxiety, enhance empathy, enhance relationships). 

Please take a few minutes and share what you may be grateful for. 

Over time, staff have reached out in appreciation, sharing the ways in which the emails have supported them in the work (see a few examples below!). This practice has also served as an invitation for deeper connection with Kaycee (pictured right), helping staff to feel comfortable seeking out her support in addressing challenges that arise in their work with students. Thank you Kaycee Hasan for serving as an example just what is possible when we create space for staff to feel consistently seen, supported, and valued!

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“I just want to take the opportunity to say that I really appreciate getting your wellness emails every Wednesday. For me it is a weekly reminder of how important it is to take care of ourselves in order to serve our students and their families.  I have shared with my colleagues how I enjoy reading your messages and how I like implementing some of your self-care activities in my daily life. Once again GRACIAS for making sure that we feel appreciated, that we matter, and that it is essential to take care of ourselves.” ​
“I really appreciate the Wellness Wednesday emails. The weekly encouragements, affirmations, and reminders always feel like they come at the right time in the week. I appreciate that they are usually brief enough to read when I first see them in my inbox. The reminders to take care of myself come right when I need them, in the middle of the week when I'm so focused on students that I'm often starting to forget to take care of myself. They also remind me that the people I work with are experiencing similar challenges or may also need the same reminders and encouragement that I do. It's fun when there's a reply-all prompts and many people engage.”
“Your Wednesday wellness emails have personally  made me feel seen in this work that I sometimes feel overlooked and could become taxing at times. It provides essential reminders to be gentle with myself and to take care of myself so that I am better able to care for others.  The consistent reminders are helpful in creating a toolbox for myself and students in self-care. I really do appreciate the wellness Wednesday emails.” ​
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Blog Post Written By: Jenny Ventura, Senior Director of Education Innovation

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A Year for Deepening Connections

10/19/2022

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Welcome to October – the new school year is officially in full swing! Through the start of the year our education teams have been hard at work building and deepening their connections with students and each other as the foundation for the year ahead. There has been incredible joy in the new school year as we settle into what a year of learning that looks more “normal” than anything in recent memory. We have also witnessed deep grief alongside our school partners as gun violence has continued to wrack our school communities both on and off campus including the devastating shootings at the King Estate Campus and the loss of two incredible young people from the Berkeley High community. It is absolutely unacceptable that gun violence incidents like these have become nearly common place. Since 2020 guns have surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers and gun related homicides have shown a dramatic uptick during the pandemic.
 
At the center of our education work at Seneca is creating schools where students are safe and cared for so that they can learn and thrive. We will continue to work to be part of the solution and promote policies and practices that reduce the prevalence of firearms in our communities, address the extensive mental health impacts of the pandemic, and increase safety and wellness in and out of school.  We have been pleased by the investments put forth by Governor Newsom and the attention being given to the mental health needs young people deserve including:
  • $4.1 billion on a community schools strategy to connect students and families to essential services, including health screenings, meals, and more. 
  • $5 billion to support the implementation of California’ Medi-Cal reform effort, CalAIM 
  • $1.4 billion to build a more diverse healthcare workforce that expands  CA’s capacity to meet the health needs of children and families 
 
We have also been proud to work with our partners at the California Alliance of Child and Family Services to support legislation that promotes mental health access and support at school, including most recently the passage of AB 58 which requires LEAs to review and update their policy on pupil suicide prevention, encourages LEAs to provide suicide awareness and prevention training to teachers, and requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop and issue resources and guidance to LEAs on how to conduct suicide awareness and prevention training remotely.

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Sisters Katy Noeli (left) and Heymer Johana Domingo Godinez stand outside their new school, Elmhurst United Middle School, in Oakland on Aug. 30, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
We know that even small investments can have a big impact. Our school partnership team was able to be a part of telling the story of California’s investments in mental health as KQED shared what this looked liked in one Oakland School. The piece highlights Seneca clinician Yesi Inga at Bridges Academy in this short radio segment and a longer article. As exemplified at Bridges, as we continue through this year we hope that it can be one where we foster safety, authentic connection, and community healing so that schools can be places where all students are welcomed and can thrive.
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Blog Post Written By: Robin Detterman, Chief Program Officer, Education Services

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Rising Into the New School Year in Stride

9/10/2021

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Welcome back to the new school year! I couldn’t be more thrilled to launch into a year of in-person learning after our year of separation. While I know that this transition will be anything but predictable as we implement strict procedures for quarantine in order maintain the health and safety of our communities, it still comes with a great deal of relief that we have entered this year together. Our journey over the past eighteen months has been a tremendous one. I first and foremost want to give a big THANK YOU to all our staff, school partners and families. I want to acknowledge all that we have collectively endured and know that we all have experienced varying levels of loss that, for some of us, was quite profound. I have been humbled to witness the tremendous levels of ingenuity and perseverance across our community. So often, we have needed to call upon one of the most important interventions in our Seneca toolbox – the intentional cultivation of HOPE and persistence even in the face of immense challenge. I also know that in this past year, I have been fueled by the support of our extended Seneca Family and found purpose in our shared commitment to this work for the students and families we serve.

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​If nothing else, this past year has challenged many of our assumptions about education and schools, and we have done some incredible learning together. I hope that as we enter this new year, we can take some of those learnings with us to create schools that truly serve all students. 
  • Leveraging Technology for Connection - While we are all tired of connecting only virtually, there are many ways in which we have learned to use technology to bring us closer together. Whether it’s connecting with colleagues in other geographic locations, or with clients and families in the comfort and convenience of their own homes, video technology will continue to allow us additional flexibility for collaboration and support.

  • The Central Role of Families – In our move to distance learning, families became increasingly central and connected to what was happening at school, and educators and practitioners have had a new insight into the lives of their students. This mutual awareness can continue to support children’s wholistic experience between home and school and increase accountability between schools and the families they serve.

  • Real Individualization – While many students struggled with pandemic learning, some students actually did better with new models that promoted greater flexibility and individualization. We can continue to challenge the notion of what “school” should look like to best meet the varied learning and social emotional needs of students.
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  • Community Wellness - For the first time, we are having a real conversation on the wellness of whole school communities, including the adults within them. As a nation we have begun to reckon more broadly with racial and socioeconomic inequities upheld by our public institutions, and the ways in which community wellness interplays with systemic power, particularly along the lines of race and class. We must continue to address how both individual actions and systemic change are ongoing and build schools that engage in anti-racism work alongside a full and complete cultivation of JOY.
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While we have returned to school, largely in person, the pandemic and its impacts are far from over. To provide healing spaces for students, school professionals need emotionally attuned communities and support in implementing practices that promote personal sustainability. School partner, Kyndal Easter offers these tips for administrators on How to Build Emotional Support for Teachers. In the year ahead, emphasis on wellbeing and connection will be paramount as we build on what we have learned to create schools where all students are truly welcome and can thrive.
 
Best wishes for a safe and happy launch to the school year and beyond!
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Blog Post Written By: Robin Detterman, Chief Program Officer, Education Services
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WA State's Cross Coordination of Supports Team (CrossCOST)

6/21/2021

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My name's Emily Dunk and I'm a Behavior Intervention Specialist with the CrossCOST Program in Seattle, WA. But before I tell you more about our program, I'm going to start this blog post the same way many of our program meetings start off - by talking about good food and drinks 😊

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Recently I had gone to one of those fancy pants restaurants where they do wine pairings with your order. This was the first time I had been to one and originally, I did not want wine with my dinner because I had not found one before that I truly liked. The waiter asked me if I would be open to trying something and offered to help me figure out which one would be best. They even went as far as to say that I would not be charged for the wine if I did not end up liking it. I agreed, the waiter brought out my pairing, and I LOVED it.

It was such a great experience that later that week I went out to dinner again and I very confidently sat down, opened the wine menu, and was ready for another amazing wine experience. The waiter came over and asked what kind of wine I liked and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what I had with my last meal! I tried to describe it but all I could come up with was "red" and "very tasty." The waiter began to ask questions to see if they could figure it out. They asked what food I was eating with it and more. Was it sweet? What protein did I have? Tannins, full-bodied... Do these words sound familiar? They took the time to work with me and be curious about what I was looking for. We came to a decision and they brought out a delicious red that, once again, went perfectly with my meal.   

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​I like to think that CrossCOST is like the waiter in this story. Not knowing where to start in asking for what you need is frustrating. Whether it's about learning vocabulary that is highly specific to other fields or being so close to a problem that it's almost impossible to step back to see solutions, most of us just need a little extra support sometimes. Without the waiter’s patience and curiosity, I would be stuck thinking that there isn’t a wine out there for me, or maybe worse, continue to pay for and order wines that I don't enjoy!  We strive to provide that same patience and curiosity to the schools we partner with to consult around behavioral, clinical, and school systems needs to coordinate the right kind of support. 

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A great example of this was when CrossCOST received a request from a school that wanted a school-wide training in Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).  This school faced a number of challenges: high staff turnover, numerous leadership transitions, disproportionately high academic, behavioral, and SEL student needs... all while taking on virtual learning in the middle of a pandemic. Our team leader, Katrina, met with the school’s admin to get a better idea of what they were looking for. With Katrina’s amazing strengths in communication and relationship building, she was able to see the school’s needs extended beyond just training staff in MTSS.  Just like our students, when we are escalated or in crisis, it’s not always clear what we need to make things feel better. 

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​Acknowledging that the school could really benefit from centering self-care first, and also wanting to meet the initial request, we decided to do both!  Our MTSS of Self-Care training not only taught the model of tiered intervention, associated language of MTSS, and the basics of behavioral intervention, but did so through the lens of staff wellness.  We provided a framework for thinking about self-care as a tiered model of support, giving tools to each staff member for recognizing their behaviors through their escalation of burnout, and identifying interventions at each tier. Staff reported feeling better equipped to care for themselves, and in doing so, increased their understanding of how to support their students through escalation too.

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Sometimes it feels like progress comes at the expense of our own wellness. Often, it feels like working to shift systems to be more equitable, inclusive, and healing centered competes with a school’s academic and results-based goals. We're here to flip that narrative. By centering Unconditional Education (UE), we not only help schools meet their goals, but balance offering support with challenging existing systems. This allows us to impact lasting change within our school communities.  We like to call this process, “sprinkling the UE fairy dust.” ​

So what is CrossCOST? In formal terms, we are a team of behavioral, clinical, and school-systems minded specialists who coordinate services to support schools with UE as our philosophy of change.  And in informal terms, we’re just your friendly neighborhood waiters. So, what’ll it be? A glass of red or white? 😉

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Blog Post Written By: Emily Dunk, Behavior Intervention Specialist
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Building Upon Parent and Caregiver Insights to Grow Our Work

5/21/2021

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​Every spring, we reach out parents and caregivers of the students at our schools who are receiving direct services from our amazing All In staff and ask questions aimed at both lifting up our successes and providing feedback on our area of growth. 

This year, despite all the challenges and barriers faced by parents, students school staff and our teams due to the global pandemic and everyone adopting virtual spaces as the setting of learning and for our services, there is an overwhelming amount to celebrate in the responses. In April, we spoke to 246 parents. These are the percentages compared over the last 3 years of those who agreed with the following statements about the services they received:
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It is always wonderful to see the year over year growth but it is truly remarkable to see this positivity in response to the work you all did this year, especially given the presenting challenges we all faced. Of course, we wouldn’t know any of this if it wasn’t for the support of All In staff members themselves making the calls and connecting with all these parents and caregivers on our behalf. This year we had an amazing crew of people who offered their time to support this project. Huge thanks to Juliana Batista, Justin Vizinau, Cedric Guillory, Ali Manrique, Ceci Duran, Jessica Ramos, Brenda Larios, and William Chiang for their time and support!! It is no small feat I assure you.
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The celebrations don’t stop with the numbers though. What parents and caregivers have to say in their own words about out services is also extremely important and informative. In the coming weeks, you will be seeing your school and cluster specific reports and be able to hear both the glowing things parents have to say about you all, and get a chance to review areas of growth offered directly from parents and caregivers. In the meantime, here are a few quotes to wrap up your week your week:
“First of all, I want to thank them for offering support. I want to thank the Seneca organization for sending me materials so that my daughter can learn. At this moment, the situation is difficult, and you give me help by giving her materials. Gift boxes arriving and these things last for weeks. My daughter loves this very much. She knows that Seneca sends them, she gets very excited for all the gifts and materials. There are angels in the sky looking out to support us.”
 
“They gave a lot of help, especially during the times of the pandemic. It was very difficult for us parents to have our children at home at all times, but Seneca gave a lot of support.”
 
“Despite it being all online, I see that everyone is trying really hard to see student progress. I am very happy with that and I see that they all work well as a team.”
 
“Our counselor is amazing and not only provides help with her but with me too!”
 
“I like Seneca, they are very organized, the staff are knowledgeable. I've worked with Seneca for several of my kids. It can't get any better than Seneca. You guys are #1.”
 
“I think it's been a great help. It's helped (my child) in a lot of areas academically and she's been more open to trying to do the schoolwork instead of not doing it at all or thinking she can't do it. She's more open to trying first rather than giving up.”
 
They are doing a great job. I appreciate them, especially the support they give moms that have kids with a disability. I really appreciate the support, we are grateful.”
 
"Despite the circumstances of being at home, the services they provide are helping my child a lot. Therapy every week is consistent. They are doing a great job, I am very grateful for their help.”
 
“I can't say enough good things about them. I loved the therapist and their services. They not only helped my grandson but my family as well.”
 
“This year has been hard with covid, but I do see that my child gets excited when they see the Speech & Language provider. I think they like their class, I can tell when I pass by that the class seems interesting.”
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Blog Post Written By: Jordan Ullman, Assistant Director of Assessment and Evaluation
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Schools Re-Opening: On the Brink

4/15/2021

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March 16th marked the 1-year anniversary of our Education for Change schools’ transition into distance learning.  Back then, the thought of returning to in-person school after Spring Break of 2020 was considered possible... However, it is now Spring Break 2021, where we find ourselves on the cusp of returning to schools partially re-opening.

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​The opportunity to reconnect with students, their families and our school colleagues in-person elicits excitement after a year of distance learning.  Finding ways to provide play and art therapies virtually; pushing into student’s Zoom classes to provide behavior interventions; striving to connect with students who go video off/mute and communicate through the Chat; parents working while having their children at home, experiencing Zoom fatigue; and redefining boundaries while working from home, are some of the many ways we’ve adapted to working completely different from what we’ve known.  Adapting to this setting has been an ongoing process and required much effort, creativity, flexibility, and persistence to support our students while also witnessing the impact of the pandemic on our communities.

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Within these adaptations we have also found silver linings such as: time saved not commuting; opportunities to take a walk during the workday; more autonomy over daily schedule; the ability to jump on a Zoom call when setting up an in-person meeting would be complicated and being able to work outside of the Bay Area if needed.  After a year, we have gotten used to some of these silver linings while also finding ways to connect “good enough” with our students, their families, and colleagues.  The excitement of returning to in-person may be counterbalanced by the loss of what we have gotten used to, along with additional questions regarding safety and uncertainty of what re-opening will look like.

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​With so many details getting figured out (which students return, what will the schedules look like, what space will I have, will students have the support they need, is it safe enough, etc.?), this can be overwhelming to hold all at once.  As I hear these questions, three thoughts come to mind: 
  • Adapting to change, even a change we want, takes energy.
  • Tolerating uncertainty is hard and takes energy. 
  • Staying grounded in our locus of control is helpful, but at times. is easier said than done. 
Holding this for yourself while additionally holding uncertainties of students and families is a lot.  Through it all, we hold the well-being of students and their families at the forefront.  As you do, I encourage you to give yourself some grace and kindness as we all go through this transition together.

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Blog Post Written By: Mark Thibedeau, Clinical Supervisor
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Community Day School Hybrid In-Person Learning Hubs

4/1/2021

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Community Day School (CDS), an alternative program in Oakland Unified School District is the proud home of the Wolverines and is dedicated to using a therapeutic and restorative justice-centered approach to give students a second opportunity to succeed in school. The campus empowers middle and high school students to build upon their strengths by supporting them academically, socially, and emotionally, through individual and small instruction, counseling, and career exploration.

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As our students face a broad array of challenges in life, we work to help them understand how change is inevitable and how resiliency is a must. Regardless of the change being negative or positive, the Unconditional Education motto is vibrant at Community Day School. District and Seneca staff are working together to re-open campus and provide students with academic/technical support, meals, and a reliable space for them to find success. OUSD has provided each classroom with two air purifiers and personal protective equipment, and requires all members to complete a daily healthy screening before entering the learning hub. Here are just a few images of how our gorgeous campus is gradually transitioning back after a year of disarray.  

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Blog Post Written By: Cedric Guillory, Mental Health Associate
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