SCASP

News from your CASP Region I Representative – August 2009

Rose velasquez, Sonoma county SELPA

 

Hello to all new and returning CASP members.  I am the newly elected Region I Representative, Rose Velásquez.  Michelle Fourré sends her regards.  I am very excited to be serving the group and can be reached at (707) 524-2929 or rvelasquez@sonomaselpa.org.  I attended the first board meeting this August and I was very pleased to see so many people gathered together who are highly interested in putting forth their skills and talents for membership and ultimately for the children and communities we serve.  I feel quite honored to stand among them.  This first blast of the school year discusses some the issues presented at the board.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this information or have any other issues you would like addressed by the board.

We began the meeting recognizing the many new board members and board members with new positions, including our new President John Brady. He opened with a discussion of his goals for the year, which prudently reflected our current state budget woes and school psychologists’ continued need for increased prominence and visibility within our districts and counties.

ü   Jeff Frost and Jim Russell gave a very frank legislative update which mostly highlighted budget issues and current legislation which might impact School Psychologist.

·         Hot off the press: Our Governor is asking for a special session to see if California is eligible for “race to the top” funding. Specific language that prohibits us is that we current prohibit tracking progress by teacher. We track by student but not by teacher. At this point the CTA has a primary concern with drawing these correlations. The Governor is calling a special session to discuss this prohibition, data collection, charter school cap and more choice for parents and students (i.e. school districts of choice).

·         Budget: 25% less revenue than what we had a year ago. There have been very hard decisions about how to make cuts. There was a decision that $11.2 million will be maintained through Prop. 98. This money will start flowing back into school districts in the next few years. There will be disagreements about how to allocate these monies, but the money will be coming back in. As many of you know, Math and ELA textbooks are not being required to be replaced at this time at a huge saving for schools and the state.  

·         What happens now? Further cuts are likely, but will not go below 2005/2006 maintenance of effort level required. What are the opportunities after the hemorrhage stops…flexibility!

·         Assembly Bills and Senate Bills to keep your eye on: While Jeff summarized 15 Assembly Bills and seven Senate Bills that could have an impact on our work and education, he highlighted five.

1.      The first was AB 661 which will provide increased funding to all local education agencies to comply with the BIP mandate.

2.      The second was AB 826 which would treat the federal special education dollars as a federal grant for purposes of allocation and distribution to school districts and SELPAs. CASP believes that by removing the federal special education dollars from the state statutory funding formula, school agencies will clearly be able to track the federal increases in special education as they are passed directly to the SELPA or school agency.

3.      The third is AB 1124 which would make a significant change to the current special education requirements for local school districts when a student transition into the public education system at the age of three. AB 1124 would apply to a child with exceptional needs who currently has an IFSP in place, the bill would require that the IFSP placement would be the student’s “stay put” placement during the pendency of stay put proceedings. This bill would exceed minimum requirements under federal law and therefore impose new state mandates on local school districts for which the state must pay.

4.      The fourth is AB 1517 which would expand the existing pilot program for the Special Education Alternative Dispute statewide. SELPA’s have reported that ADR programs have successfully resolved disputes at the local level, thus reducing the cost of litigation and complaint investigation at the state level.

5.      The fifth is AB 1538 which prohibits an educational provider from using physical restraint on a pupil who is an individual with special needs for the purpose beyond immediate emergency, unless otherwise stated in a pupil’s IEP.

ü      APA-MLA Update  from  NASP Representative- Margaret Sedor: There was the public input period which we know about (ended in June), 19,000 responses were calculated from the education realm,  including administrators, SLP’s, etc. The input is being analyzed which will be completed in the Fall. By February, they will vote, apparently it looks favorable to school psychologists. 

ü      CSP Journal Update – Michael Hass from Chapman University will take over the publication of the journal. The focus of the journal will be linking theory to practice. Michael is also looking to expand the articles for practitioners, readership, student involvement, etc.. It will be in electronic format.

ü      From your CASP Treasurer (Barbara Lewis Mill): Barbara started the fiscal discussion, related to CASP budget, with a wonderful roller coaster analogy associated with her recent trip to Disney World. Barbara discussed the budget and final numbers for the year including the losses for the year which were much lower than initially expected. This was in large part due to free venues and speakers who charged reduced and low cost fees. This was also due to the large rally right before convention last March of participants at the associate and student level! YEAH!  CASP is committed to finding ways to cut costs and allocate spending to ensure maximum support for the members.

ü      WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU!!! Send us your funny stories for CASP Today publication. Deadline is September 15^th.  Send other articles you’re working on, as well. Please send submissions to Heidi at communications@casponline.org.

ü      CASP Convention 2010: Helping Schools Invest in All Students: Please plan on attending March 4-6 in Santa Clara. Also presentation proposals are being accepted until next week!

ü      Final wrap-up: All Region I members are invited to join the Sonoma County Association of School Psychologists in the their Kick-Off Event.  Jennifer Shannon, MFT, and Litsa Tanner, MFT, will be presenting on Anxiety and Its Relationship to School Phobia and Refusal Behaviors.  It is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23 and will begin with lunch at Osake in Santa Rosa.  Please visit the SCASP website at www.scap.org for more information.  If anyone out of town would like to attend, please contact me and we can find a psychologist willing to put you up for the night.

ü      Important Dates to Remember:

·         Affiliate Leadership Day- October 22-24 

·         December 9, 2009 Outstanding School Psychologist, Sandra Goff Memorial Award, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Scholarship and Paul Henkin Convention Scholarship nominations are due.

·         CASP Convention- March 4-6 Hyatt Regency Santa Clara

Rose Velásquez, Region I Representative   ü    rvelasquez@sonomoaselpa.org  ü    707-524-2929

MLA Update: The CASP Board of Directors met prior to the Convention and again, as in the January teleconference, placed renewed emphasis on our due diligence regarding APA‚s proposed action to eliminate the exemption to use "psychologist" in our title and any reference to all things psychological, or related to psychology, if the Model Licensure Act goes forward. As a profession, we know our Master‚s level training as School Psychologists is not only based in the "intra-child" model of school based psychoeducational assessment, but is also ecologically based in its consideration of the contexts of home and community which inform our ability to consult, collaborate, and perform program evaluation. Our experience and training is based in schools. We are well situated to support teachers and administrators in the understanding and implementation of Response to Intervention beyond the school psychologists‚ typically thought of role in assessment for Special Education eligibility. We are able to analyze data to make program recommendations, devise local norms and track the success of evidenced based interventions. With all due respect, I challenge Clinical Psychologists to do what we do with the expertise with which we do it.  

Proposed Title 5 Changes: Of equal importance for students is the attempt to limit related Pupil Services Coalition (PSC) members (PPS, MFT and LCSW) from providing service to Non-Public School students. See the CASP website for sample letters and continue to talk with your administrators, teachers, parents and colleagues about these important issues. Especially with the current shortage of school psychologists, the extra costs of finding and employing Doctoral level Clinical Psychologists to districts and NPS‚s would just be an added burden.

Money, Money, Money: CASP currently reports good reserves, indicating we are fiscally sound, but we will have to dip into them to weather the current budget challenges. Convention attendance was down, but the Political Action Committee (PAC) fundraiser was lively and successful. I hope you were able to sample the wonderful hors d‚oevres, hear the jazz band, bid on, (and win!), some of the wonderful auction items. Don‚t forget about Summer Institute (in San Jose June 15-17) as one means of continuing your own professional development, but also contributing to CASP‚s coffers. An upbeat note has been the fiscal benefits of the Assoc. of CA School Administrator‚s (ACSA) partnership with CASP and their collaborative RtI presentations around the state. CASP‚s share of these earnings was $30,000!  Finally, if the budget woes have you receiving a layoff notice see the CASP website for support and next steps.
 
Board Actions: The Executive Board voted on and approved the adoption of the NASP Position Paper on SLD. The Board also approved amended changes to the Procedure Manual regarding the CSP Journal. The Journal will move forward with a primary online access but continued hardcopy publication in limited availability.
 
NCSP hours:  The CASP office (Thanks Heidi!) has begun the extensive paperwork process required to become an approved provider for Nationally Certified School Psychologist mandated professional development hours. Stay tuned for developments.
 
News Around the Regions:  Long Beach Affiliate reported a presentation on "A Framework for Understanding Poverty."  They also have an Affiliate Board Member dedicated to community outreach and fundraising. Orange Co. invited Dr. Naglieri to present. Region X Affiliates in Lodi/Stockton had a workshop on the DAS-II while Placer Co. organized one on the WRAML-2.
 
Our own Sonoma Co. Affiliate will be hosting Dr. Emily Rubin for a return visit (April 21-22) with emphasis on the Emotional Regulation component in the SCERTS model (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, Transactional Supports) for ASD. We will also be hosting Dr. Jessup, a lead researcher on the UNIT, for a presentation on Tuesday morning May 13. Contact 707/524-2750 for details.

Michelle Fourré
Previous Region I Representative