By Margaret Kew Vice-Principal Care, Treatment, Custody and Correction Programs

1. A Practitioner’s Persective: Educating Youth with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Issues Involved with Youth Justice By Margaret Kew Vice-Principal Care, Treatment, Custody and Correction Programs Halton District School Board

2. Syl Apps School: Background • Located in a secure custody, detention and treatment facility in Ontario with 50 beds. • Other facilities/probation officers identify youth who seem to be exhibiting the need for treatment of mental health issues • An application is made • A treatment team assesses the youth. If the placement is appropriate, they transfer to Syl Apps.

3. Youth can be on detention awaiting court, custody, serving sentences and secure treatment through the Ontario Review Board—demonstrated a risk to themselves or others. We determine “fitness”, have “make fit” orders and also treat youth who are deemed “not criminally responsible”. Ages range from 12-25 years. Most youth stay for at least 3 months some staying for years.

4. Our students have a range of issues that impact their learning • Aspergers • Tourette’s • Psychosis • Hallucinations • Paranoia • Hypervigilance • Substance Abuse Issues • Abuse • Developmental delays • FASD • ADHD • ODD • CD • Explosive Personality Disorder • Schizophrenia • PTSD

5. “Change the View” Winner of the 2010 Ontario Children’s Mental Health Contest http://www.kinark.on.ca/news/ChangeTheView.aspx

6. Many are crown wards, have been in care since they were little, have suffered severe abuse and have various attachment disorders . . . • So, where do we begin to program educationally for these youth?

7. “Treatment Trumps Education” • Loraine Fedurco • Principal, CTCC Halton

8. Intake • Our Guidance teacher attends intake meetings with our partner agency to discuss new students who may be coming to the school. • This information includes background of the student, the reason for placement and key concerns. • This information is shared by the Guidance Teacher to the rest of our school staff at Student Learning Sessions.

9. Timetable for the school: an opportunity for teacher learning • Make time for teachers to work together to meet the needs of complex youth.

11. Benefits of this timetable: • Clinical • Allows for social workers to share information and problem-solve • Allows psychiatrist to inservice teachers about mental illness • Allows for Health and Safety Training • Educational • Prime teachers can share student profiles • Allows for teacher training about Special Education Needs • Allows for team planning in Literacy, Numeracy, Safety and Well-Being using the Teacher Learning Critical Pathway Teachers attend Plans of Care Teacher Development

12. Get the right people in the right seats! Hire Quality Teachers. • James H. Stronge and Jennifer L. Hindman have created a protocol for teacher selection in The Teacher Quality Index. • Few Principals have received training in how to interview and select excellent teachers. • They outline key components of a screening process and in-depth interview.

13. Why is it necessary to build in time for teacher development? • Douglas Reeves, in Transforming Professional Development into Student Results, explains that schools exhibit three to five times the achievement gains when 90% of the teachers on staff implement research-based initiatives compared to schools where only 10% of staff implemented the changes. P.37

14. In our school, we strive to hire the best teachers to work with the most at risk students: • “The most immediate results for student achievement happen when the most effective teachers are provided to the students with the greatest needs” • Reeves 46

15. Prerequisites of effective teaching including; • Verbal ability • Content knowledge • Education coursework • Teacher certification • Teaching experience • P 12, 13

16. The Teacher as a Person: • Caring • Motivated • Fair • Respectful • Reflecting • Dedicated • Sense of humour • Good relationship with students and colleagues. • They know the student!

17. Classroom Management and Organization • Overtly teach students their roles in class • Clear explanations • Respect • Fairness • P. 13 • Safe • Orderly • Productive • Routine • Procedures • Expectations • Positive climate

18. To Illustrate the Necessity for Clear Expectations:Student Quotation After Fighting • “It doesn’t matter miss, we are in a jail”. • What would your response be?

19. My response . . . • This is a school. • You cannot learn when you are looking over your shoulder waiting for someone to jump you. • You will be too anxious. • When you are anxious you cannot remember what you have been taught. • This must be a safe place so everyone can focus on learning.

20. What if there is a conflict in the school? • Student is removed from school • Meets with clinical team members as appropriate: nurse, social worker, child and youth worker, psychiatrist, psychologist • Engages in DBT skills • Makes repairs • Clinical team contacts school • Updated Management Plan • Student meets with administration of school

21. Planning for Instruction: Teachers know the provincial curriculum and standards They engage in long-range and short-range unit planning They have intended learning outcomes for each student in each class. They have a variety of instructional strategies and resources P. 14

23. Individual Education Plans • I have included a sample education plan. Teachers must meet the accommodation needs of students.

24. Recommended Reading • Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom by Myles L. Cooley, PH. D.

26. Positives of book • Includes: • Anxiety Disorders • Mood Disorders • Communication Disorders • Learning Disabilities • ADHD • Disruptive Behaviour Disorders • Asperger’s Syndrome • Tic Disorders • Eating Disorders • Self-Injury

27. Background info • Behaviours and symptoms to look for • Classroom Strategies and Interventions • Personal reflections from a student • Professional treatments

28. Implementing Instruction We are using the Teacher Learning Critical Pathway: Students are assessed for learning They are assessed as they are learning The teachers assess the students of their learning. --Ann Davies

29. Assessment and Evaluation What do you want the student to learn? How will they learn it? What do you do when they do not learn it? How do you adjust your teaching and instructional strategies to meet the student’s needs?

30. Teacher Learning Critical Pathway • Tied to assessment, teachers do consensus marking during the Teacher Learning Session • As Reeves discusses, ”areas of ambiguity that lead to the uncomfortable experience of professionals with graduate degrees failing to understand a teacher’s intent on the assessment”. P 69 • This leads to a revision and clarity of instruction and an editing of assessment criteria.

31. Where do we begin to do educational planning for students? • Student Profiles—knowing our learners Rationale for Syl Apps School to prepare for a: • Focus in the management of behaviour in the school and safety • Questions for follow-up including what works in the classroom, teaching strategies • Timeline: • On Thursday and Friday, September 9th and 10th • Prime Teachers will prepare Student Profiles for their Prime Students using information that is available: • Safety Management Plans: • Green Files that include monthly reports of achievement, pre-admission summaries, plans of care • IEPs—Individual Education Plans • OSR—Ontario Student Records including reports from Juniour Kindergarten, assessments

32. Educational Components: • DRA Scores—Diagnostic Reading Assessments • Numeracy First Steps Diagnostics • Psych Ed Recommendations for Education • Credit Counselling Summaries • Report Cards

33. B. Prime Teachers will have about 8 minutes to present their students from September 13th-17th during Student Learning Sessions to the rest of staff.

35. An example from our Numeracy Group:

36. First Steps Math: Assessing our Learners and Measuring their improvement in Numeracy • Dinosaurs Diagnostic Task (Counting Only) Instructions • Purpose • To find out how students count and help identify a student's developmental level for number sense (see chart below for this continuum). • .

37. If a student is struggling you might say "is there another way you can figure out how many?" • Please look at the sheets I have included. • On a six week cycle, through Student Learning Sessions and Teacher Training, 6 of our students have moved up a full phase.

38. Administering the Diagnostic (Script) • Sit with a student individually and show them dinosaurs or sandwiches as per your preference. • 2) Ask: "How many dinosaurs are there on the page". Watch carefully how the student counts the dinosaurs (e.g., do they count by ones, count by 2's, by 5's or 7's, multiply 5x7 etc.) and record your observations and the student's thinking. Alternatively, students could record their thinking themselves. Do not teach, coach, make suggestions or confirm/deny what they say in any way. Feel free to draw out student thinking (for example if they simply say "35" or some other number) by asking: • - How did you do that? • - How do you know it's that many? • - Can you show me how you did that?

39. Diagnostic Reading Assessments • Students also receive diagnostic reading assessments then teachers work in the Student Learning Sessions to implement reading strategies in the classroom.

40. Pro-Social Skills • Learning Skills are reported on the report card

41. Learning Skills: Responsibility Rubric

42. Developmental Assets • I would also recommend materials such as The Best of Building Assets Together by Jolene L. Roehlkepartain and materials from • www.search-institute.org

43. How do we program for students who use alternative curriculum? • We have noticed two types of students who can benefit from Alternative Curriculum: • Students who are under the 2% who are identified as “Life Skills” • Students who have been so transient or neglected that they need overt teaching of learning skills.

44. How to begin assessing • We have found that many students have not received accurate educational assessments • They have been sitting in the wrong classes or skipping classes in the regular stream. • If we can understand their gaps, we can program appropriately for them and they will enjoy school more.

45. Teacher Training in Alternative Curriculum • Our teachers were trained in using: • The Carolina Curriculum—Developmentally Infant, Toddler and Pre-Schooler • A Functional Assessment and Curriculum • Teachers needed an assessment that was clear and a curriculum that was sequential and would move students forward in their education.

46. The Carolina Curriculum • Personal-Social e.g. interpersonal skills, self-help • Cognition e.g. matching and sorting • Cognition/Communication e.g. expressive language • Fine Motor e.g. tools • Gross Motor e.g. balance

47. Alternative Curriculum Website with Assessments and Lessons http://www.thea4ideaplace.com/

48. A Functional Assessment and Curriculum • Self-Care, Motor Skills, Household Management, and Living Skills • Functional Academics—Functional Literacy and Numeracy

49. How do make students willing partners? • We have noticed that our students are quite different that youth in regular alternative curriculum programming in the community schools. • They are “street-wise” and associate with peers who are more cognitively able. • Yet, they might be weaker that students who “traditionally” are in life skills programs. • They do not identify with students in those programs yet obviously need the alternative curriculum.

50. How Do We Get Them To Learn? • Our students are integrated. • In one English class there may be 6 students. • One may be taking Alternative Curriculum, another college bound programs and another university bound programs. • Students of all ages are together.