ODE's CSCP Back to School Newsletter

Dear Colleagues,

We hope you were able to enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation this summer. Dr. Charlene Williams, Director of the Oregon Department of Education, said it best, "There’s something truly special about the energy and excitement that fills our schools at the start of the year—a feeling of hope, possibility, and a fresh start." 

We are grateful for your dedication and commitment to comprehensive school counseling programs and to the students and families you serve. Welcome back, and thank you for the difference you will make during this school year!

Attendance Awareness Month

September is Attendance Awareness Month! Check out the Starting Strong Attendance Practices resource recently added to support your work with students and families.

The Every Day Matters (EDM) Team at ODE focuses on addressing barriers to attendance and mitigating the root causes of chronic absenteeism. The EDM Team provides a wealth of resources for districts to create systems of support for your students all year-long. The newly implemented Community of Practice, meets every last Thursday of the month at 3:35 PM PST. During this Community of Practice the EDM Team will provide support and resources to personnel working directly with students. Please follow this link to register Every Day Matters Community of Practice Registration. You can browse other relevant resources from EDM on the Every Day Matters website.

Please send any questions you may have for the EDM team to ode.eii@ode.oregon.gov

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a month dedicated to honoring those lost to suicide, supporting those struggling with suicidal thoughts, and raising awareness about mental health. It's an opportunity to share resources and work together to prevent suicide. During September, and throughout the year, we can care about suicide prevention; connect to community, culture, data, and research; and collaborate with others.

For more information, visit the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC): Each year, the SPRC creates a resource full of ways to get involved in Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Here is the resource list for 2024!  

Call to Action for Schools - coming soon! 

Joint communication between Lines for Life, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Education and the University of Oregon will be sent out to districts in an effort to highlight resources to support administrators, mental health school staff, students and families. It will include Transformative SEL as a universal practice that helps foster belonging.

Check out ODE’s September Education Update newsletter which provides additional resources for identifying distress and chronic stress in students, as well as suicide prevention resources.

Youth SAVE Trainer

Youth SAVE (Suicide Assessment in Various Environments) is a virtual training designed to empower school staff and community-based professionals to effectively assess and intervene with youth experiencing thoughts of suicide. Youth SAVE supports the creation and implementation of anti-oppressive suicide prevention and intervention through the use of an equity framework, and prompts participants to reflect on identity, intersectionality, and bias.

Training of Trainer (ToT) details

• When? October 31-November 1, 2024, 8:30am-4:30pm both days (attendance for the full two days is required)
• Where? Virtual on Zoom 
• Cost? $50 (Training of Trainers has a $900 value). Scholarships are available on a limited basis. If you need financial assistance to attend, please complete the scholarship application.

Prerequisites for the Training of Trainers

1) Attendance at a Youth SAVE training within the last 4 years. 

2) Prior teaching, training, or facilitation experience

3) Previous experience with the topics of mental health, suicide prevention, grief and bereavement, crisis response, or a related field (attended trainings, work experience, volunteer work, peer support, lived experience, etc.)

4) Ability to discuss complex and sensitive topics with diverse audiences

If you have not attended a Youth SAVE training in the last 4 years, you can register for an upcoming training. Space is limited and available on a first-come basis:

• Register: September 18th-19th from 12:00-3:30pm both days
• Register: October 9th-10th from 8:30am-12:00pm both days
• Register: October 17th from 12:00-3:30pm and October 18th from 8:30am-12:00pm

To learn more about Youth SAVE, review trainer requirements, and apply to be a Youth SAVE trainer, review the links above and the registration form.

Career Connected Learning (CCL) Resources

This is a great time of year to review the CCL resources available, for free, to support Oregon’s learners. Two sites full of information and ideas are the Career Connected Learning Resources Hub and the Oregon Employability Skills website. 

Use these sites to help identify resources that you can use in your classroom to support CCL and then share your successes with us.  Together, we will collect stories of how CCL transforms the experiences of students and brings relevance, excitement and joy to their learning. 

Please share the subscription information with other educators in your community interested in building strong partnerships with other teachers, administrators, counselors, families and business partners to support kids.  The ODE CCL team is looking forward to hearing from you as we build more CCL opportunities around the state. 

Monthly Career Connected Learning Lunch & Learn gatherings:

Click here to register and learn more about the meetings.

Join the Career Awareness & Exploration sessions to learn about the many resources and what’s available to support your work. Embedding CCL into your established curriculum, programs and services doesn’t have to be hard. Come learn some easy ways to infuse CCL. Join the Work-Based Learning sessions to hear about offerings, resources and engage with other colleagues.

Updating Oregon’s CSCP Framework and Standards

It’s time to update Oregon’s Comprehensive School Counseling Programs Framework and Student Standards. This school year, ODE will be seeking applicants to form a content panel to work on the updates. Look for communication coming this fall with more details on how to apply, as well as a statewide survey to collect feedback on your implementation of the framework and student standards. Your feedback is valuable and an important part of this process.

2024 OSCA Annual Conference

Registration is open for the Oregon School Counselor Association’s 2024 Annual Conference held at the University of Oregon on Friday, October 25, 2024. 

Every year, the Oregon School Counselor Association brings together school counselors, counselor educators, graduate students, Oregon state educational leaders, guest speakers and others in related fields for a day dedicated to furthering and enriching our profession. The conference includes a variety of activities: professional development, new ideas, knowledge- and resource-sharing, opportunities to meet and learn from other counselors, inspiration, and recognition. 

2024 ASPIRE Conferences

Registration is open for the ASPIRE Fall Conference, an annual event organized by the HECC Office of Student Access and Completion (OSAC) that brings together educators committed to learning and advancing career preparation and college access for students.

The 2024 ASPIRE conference events will be held in Eugene and Bend. This conference is a great professional development opportunity for educators teaching Higher Education and Career Path Skills courses (SB3), AVID teachers, and Career and College Readiness staff and counselors. Exciting sessions will focus on providing information on post-secondary trades and apprenticeship options, understanding the financial aid process and how to best support students with FAFSA/ORSAA applications and scholarships, college admissions and scholarship essay writing, a session that explores the role of artificial intelligence in career and college readiness, and more

• October 16th, University of Oregon, Eugene: Register 
• October 18th, Oregon State University - Cascades, Bend: Register

Crisis/Flight Team Response Leader Statewide Community of Practice (CoP)

ODE and Willamette ESD have partnered to provide a Crisis/Flight Team Response Leader Statewide Community of Practice (CoP). The main goal of the CoP is to Facilitate open communication, discussion, collaboration, community care, and resource sharing among K-12 school districts and education service districts leading and coordinating crisis response/flight teams. The CoP also hopes to standardize/align and highlight the best and emerging crisis response/flight team practices across the state. To learn more and apply, check out the official invitation.

Webinar: Making Sense of HIPPA and FERPA for School-based Health Professionals

To assist mental health professionals working in K-12 schools in understanding how the federal health privacy laws apply to student mental health information, the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) Network and the Center of Excellence for Protected Health Information (CoE-PHI) are hosting a free 90-minute virtual training.

• September 19th, 2024 - Registration

Online Course: How to develop and implement your CSCP

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) partnered with Oregon State University and Willamette ESD to launch Oregon’s Comprehensive School Counseling course to help district, school teams and individuals to develop and improve their programs based on OAR 581-022-2060 and Oregon’s Framework for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. The course modules include rubrics, reflection sheets, and a guide that walks teams and individuals step-by-step through the process, while providing a wealth of examples and resources to support implementation. The course takes about 30 hours to complete and can be returned to at any time for further program development. 

Come drop into the CSCP Course Office Hours to learn more about how other districts and schools develop and implement their programs, and receive information and guidance to support implementing yours. 

Online Course: ClassroomWISE - Oregon

Classroom WISE - Oregon is a minimum 1-hour, maximum 6-hour, self-paced, Oregon State mental health literacy course, developed by the MHTTC Network, in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health, the Northwest MHTTC, and the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). It introduces ODE's approach to mental health and the model, Integrated Model of Mental Health. This course includes a high-impact video series and resource collection. The module Mental Health Literacy for Oregon is the only required module.  However, we encourage you to complete the Classroom WISE modules relevant to your role. You will also find ODE's recommended learning pathways based on roles within the course.