Suicide Prevention Month
September is Suicide Prevention Month. It’s a time to raise awareness about suicide as a serious public health problem and to highlight the role that everyone plays in preventing suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death in the United States and can be viewed as highly stigmatizing. We have the opportunity this month, and during all months of the year, to spread hope and vital information to people affected by suicide. One of the goals of Suicide Prevention Month is ensuring that individuals, friends, and families have access to the resources they need to discuss suicide prevention and to seek help. Part of making suicide prevention month a success is having the right resources to communicate and the right messages to raise awareness and increase prevention efforts. The National Alliance for Mental Health provides the following resources:
The Mental Health Technology Transfer Network is also offering several events including the following webinar event, Cultural Adaptation of a Suicide Prevention Trial for Indian County and Holistic Leadership Mindset Primer: Creating Professional Cultures of Wellness, Compassion, and Growth. You can find these offerings and other professional development and learning opportunities here.
Introducing the Inclusionary Practices Technical Assistance Network (IPTN)
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and partners at WestEd are excited to announce the kickoff of the statewide Inclusionary Practices Technical Assistance Network (IPTN). As Washington state educators and professional organizations continue to work together and consider new ways to measure impact, leverage data, and effectively use that information for implementation, the IPTN aims to develop inclusive leadership across all levels of the system within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) framework.
Over the past four years, the Inclusionary Practices Professional Development Project (IPP) has provided valuable information to support the development of a technical assistance network that accounts for the interdependence required to create a robust educational system that is equitable and inclusive. The IPP showed that building a network that utilizes diverse perspectives is crucial for creating sustainable and systemic inclusive change in education.
The IPTN will model the framework of providing tiered supports, including a process where IPTN providers experience tiered TA. This experience is intended to further the work of inclusion and help equip teams to provide tiered supports and/or organize supports and services for a full scale MTSS technical development system across local education agencies (LEAs) in Washington.
Technical Assistance Survey
OSPI's Special Education division is seeking your feedback about local needs and preferences for special education technical assistance (TA) and professional development (PD). This anonymous survey takes about 7 minutes to complete and will ask you to identify the topic areas for TA and PD that you and your district would find most valuable, as well as the method(s) of TA and PD that you would be interested in seeing from OSPI. Your feedback will help our team develop improved TA and PD resources that are responsive to the current needs of our community. We can’t do this without your input, so thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey!
Survey: Special Education TA and PD Needs
Join the OSPI Special Education Program Improvement Team!
This Program Supervisor Tiered Supports position is within the Special Education Program Improvement unit at OSPI. The position provides technical assistance to school and district partners through a tiered support framework for equitable outcomes for students with disabilities served through and Individualized Education Program (IEP).The duties and responsibilities of the position contribute to the overall mission, goals, and objectives of the agency by ensuring that school districts are maintaining the required elements of state and federal special education laws and regulations and making efforts to improve special education programs to address the diverse needs of students with disabilities. This position is part of a work unit that provides integrated special education monitoring and technical assistance services for local districts throughout the state and includes tiered supports informed by data and in coordination with OSPI, regional, and statewide professional development partners. This position is responsible for ensuring that students with disabilities, their families, and schools and districts are informed and provide input into special education policy and practices.
Learn more about the position and how to apply here: Program Supervisor, Special Education Tiered Supports | Job Details tab | Career Pages (governmentjobs.com)
Special Education State Design Team Meeting | November 6, 2023
Please join us for an OSPI Special Education State Design Team meeting on Monday, November 6, 2023, from 3:30–5 pm. We will provide updates on our state’s Systemic Equity Review of special education with our partners at the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), including information about the work of the Equity Team. We will also provide updates on our efforts to launch the Inclusionary Practices Technical Assistance Network (IPTN).
Please register in advance for the zoom meeting. We will offer closed captioning, American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, and Spanish language interpretation during the meeting. When registering, please try to let us know by October 13, 2023, if you need additional accommodations.
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