Virtual Counseling

Access to mental health support for children can be extremely challenging. As we all know, mental health services are not cheap. And it tends to be the families with the least resources that struggle the most to find the money to pay for such services. Thankfully many school psychologists are trained and comfortable providing services like this. Sometimes there is a school social worker who would also be a good resource for these students, especially the younger ones.

As the students become older (6th grade and above) they tend to isolate themselves more. It becomes more challenging for them to reach out at all if they are in need. Sometimes just the real face-to-face part of it makes it completely aversive. Luckily, we are finally living in a time where mental health services can be accessible through a mobile phone or computer. It is a new way of practicing mental health so many are skeptical and options are limited, however, I have firsthand experience that it is absolutely perfect for people like myself.

I personally have significant issues with anxiety and I am currently a stay-at-home mother so my schedule is not my own. When I return to the workforce it would not be likely to change in that aspect. I am no longer in need of counseling, but I really love that this option is available to me now.

I was a skeptic. I wondered how someone could possibly provide therapeutic services without seeing and observing during a session. And in some respect, those things can be lost, making the therapeutic process a bit more challenging. Many of the services offer a video chat or messaging services, which can be extremely helpful in times where emotions are high and typing would be cumbersome. My skepticism faded very quickly. It can be extremely helpful to be able to message your counselor as things are happening. I didn't have to wait a whole week or so and try to remember everything I wanted to talk about. The somewhat immediate feedback also helped me implement strategies quickly and more effectively because that waiting period didn't exist. I could show my face or remain fairly anonymous. It honestly provided me with a sense of more control than the traditional set up for therapy.

I bring this up because our youth will only become more reliant on technology to provide services. And it is our job to try to meet them where they are comfortable enough to share. This might mean having an open door policy, providing therapeutic supports in the school setting, or (if parents are willing and able to pay) using virtual counseling.

TalkSpace was the one I went with. The prices for what you were able to get out of it were the most reasonable for me. I did a lot of research on these and this one also had the best reviews. At the time there were approximately three options. There are likely more now as this begins to catch on. But don't hesitate to do your research and find options that might work for your students. This could be a resource that changes their life.

It's been far too long

The title of this entry eludes to a number of things. The first of which is it has been a very long time since I have posted anything here. Trying to make a difference in the world can be very time consuming. Not to mention the fact that I don't always feel that it's safe to post every one of my qualms about my career out in public. You just never know who might be reading this.

But I am going to try to add a few points of discussion this year. The first is RtI. This is also the other reference to the title. In my three years as a practicing school psychologist I have not had the luxury of working in a school that has an established RtI process (or MTSS as it is referred to in the state of Kansas). This can be quite frustrating because I know how beneficial it can be to both the students and the teachers. Yet the resistance to establishing such a process is strong. I have found that most teachers hate change. They want to keep doing the same thing they have been doing for years regardless of its lack of effectiveness. Now not all teachers are this way, but a good majority. At least in my short experience.

Last year I worked in one school that was starting the process. It was imperfect, but fabulous to see them embracing it! They were able to see how useful it can be to both helping the students and defining a clearer path to identification. I was very proud of them and eager to help.

The other school I work in went through the MTSS training (the leadership team did anyway), but nothing really changed. In fact, it seemed to become much more convoluted. It also seemed to just make the process essentially disappear. Inconsistency in identifying students at-risk properly became the norm. And now it seems we are standing on the fence between the old ways and the new ways, neither of which are being implemented effectively to make appropriate changes.

So one of my goals this year is to shake it up. I want to see this school be as good as I know it can be. This means that some people are going to have to change their way of doing things whether they like it or not. In order for me to get this to happen I need administrative support. I'm hoping I can get that. I won't be here at this school forever and I want to leave it knowing that they are on the right track to helping kids.

So here we go! A new school year! Let's get to it!

504 Plans: What's the point?

I have not had the experience of developing 504 Plans. Generally, this is not something that is drawn up by the school psychologist...or so I'm told. I have a general idea what they are and their purpose, but very little understanding of the 'process behind the document'. For IEPs there is a very extensive process, which is legally defined for us by state and federal law. We have guidelines for each step and explicit expectations to meet. Schools (well, most schools, there are definitely exceptions to this out there) don't have a problem with meeting the needs of students who are eligible for Special Education Supports. (Now, is this solely because IEPs are backed by government funding? I don't know. I'm certain that has a lot to do with it, but we'll get to that later.)

The school I work in now does an amazing job at providing supports for students in need. When I refer to students in need, I'm not just talking students with an IEP. I'm also talking about students in the tier two intervention process (ours intervention team is referred to as the Student Intervention Team (SIT), but everyone has their own special term for them.) These are teams that consist of several school staff professionals gathering to problem solve ways to help students who are struggling, but not struggling to a significant degree.

When considering my own education teams and the excellent support resources our school provides for all students I have to ask myself...what is the point of a 504 Plan?  I've asked this of some colleagues as well who work in school that actually do 504 plans. The typical answer is "They are mandated by law." But what good is a law if it's not enforced? I don't see anyone checking into schools to see why there are no 504 plans done. If fact even the "auditing" done through special education might be considered kind of a joke. I mean, all they do is check the paperwork (at least from what I've seen so far in my experience). So essentially schools can do as much or as little as they want for kids as long as the paperwork says all the right things, is up to date, has signatures, and parents aren't making a fuss about any of it. But I digress... Another reason I've heard is that some schools will use 504 plans to decrease their special education ratio. In some cases it does seem appropriate to do a 504 Plan. Let me give you a scenario. You have a student whose expense and liability is great due to the severity of their disability. Their disability doesn't impact their ability to learn or put them significantly behind their peers academically. However, their disability forces the need for ramps to be put in, a staff member trained to work with the medical conditions the student has to deal with on a daily basis such as toileting, and maybe the school has to put in new doors too. These necessary supports will likely be very costly. The student generally gets by throughout the day without the need for an intense amount of help. There are times when they may have some kind of emergency situation that needs tended to and they might need help with toileting. So the student has a disability, but they don't show a need for intensive support services beyond what be provided through general education. This would be one case where a 504 Plan might be more appropriate. Another situation would be if you have a student with a vision or hearing disability, but the disability itself does not significantly impact their ability to learn. Or perhaps you have a student with a vision disorder that makes some activities difficult to do such as transfer information from the board to paper or see things on a computer screen. Academically they do fine and with a little bit of intervention could probably do a little better. The parents are also wanting a document such as an IEP or 504 Plan that can follow them after high school. Seems reasonable since the disability is one the child will have to deal with for the rest of their life. Technically, both of these situations warrant 504 Plans, but when the school psych mentions that dirty dirty word administrators about have a stroke.

There are good reasons for administration to be fearful of 504 Plans though. Now that I've done the research I completely understand why it freaks them out! It's not just that there's no federally funded monies that the school can access to support them (i.e. purchasing specialized curriculum/supplies, etc, which contrasts from special education since the school is allotted financial aid to help fund supplies needed for identified students). I used to think this was the only reason. I wasn't entirely wrong, but there's much more to it than I realized before. 504 plans can also be super scary because if your school were to be audited by the government to check on the fidelity and implementation of your plans and they had not been updated (similar to an IEP), and/or were not being followed to the extent of the plan that was devised, the government can essentially remove ALL of your school's funding (i.e. any state aided funds for ANY/ALL programs that are being supported within your school system...not just special education funds)! This would be a HUGE loss to the school system and community! Parental litigation is also a concern – it's not like IEPs/MDTs aren't prone to legal litigation – it's the concern that if the parent has a legitimate argument and the school is found "guilty" of not providing the identified services, the school is vulnerable to more "loss" than the average special education legal case. This makes principals and superintendents uncomfortable (to say the least) and rightly so!

So, what's the right thing to do? Personally, I feel that we should do whatever we can that is in the best interest of the child. Then again when the government gets involved it can get quite sticky. So, I'm not sure I can say with any conviction (yet) what I think the right thing to do is. I'm still working on that. In the meantime, I hope to find minimal reasons to have 504 Plans drawn up. They seem great and may have been initially developed with good intentions, but seem to be more trouble than they're worth. If you have the staff to support them and ensure that they are followed through and managed then go for it, but if you don't you might just be asking for trouble.