Upcoming Events
 

New Services
 

Announcing two new consulting services provided by Safe & Civil Schools' consultants—all skilled educators with years of experience in the field!

  • Working with Challenging Students in Self-Contained SPED Classrooms
  • Technical Assistance for Alternative Schools

Working with Challenging Students in Self-Contained SPED Classrooms

Safe & Civil Schools’ consultants are available to assist your staff with how to organize and manage a self-contained SEC, EBD, or SED classroom. To give you an idea of possible organization and content, see the sample training model below.

Day 1 Content

  • The key components of instructional discipline
  • What does an effective SEC teacher "look like"?
  • Four key variables of management backdrops
  • Developing classroom structure through rules, consequences, schedules, monitoring, and feedback

Day 2 Content

  • Teaching expectations for activities and transitions (CHAMPs Module 3)
  • Ratio of interactions (CHAMPs)
  • Managing angry students—how to work with students and de-escalate situations
  • Academic strategies for working with challenging (EBD) kids

Day 3 Content

  • Pulling it all together or, “What is up with your program?”
  • Participants review key components of an effective classroom for challenging kids and describe each component using a template developed by trainers. Sections include:
    • Level of structure
    • Classroom schedule
    • Procedures for teaching, monitoring, and providing feedback
    • Rules
    • Consequences
    • Behavior Monitoring/Feedback sheet
    • More on correction procedures
    • How to respond to misbehavior
    • Level/Phase Systems
  • Participants write a description of their SEC program—an important task.

Day 4 Content

  • CHAMPs—a review of the entire book/process (all participants have one—all levels)
  • Teaching social skills—developing and implementing an effective social skills lesson
  • Review of commercial programs and teacher made/generated social skill programs

We will provide handouts to support each session. Handouts include the SEC Classroom Checklist (can be used as walk-thru or self-evaluation instrument), and an EBD Position Paper, which outlines key components for an effective SEC-type self-contained classroom.

Technical Assistance for Alternative Schools

Starting a New Program

To ensure a quality start and ongoing support of an alternative program, it is important to provide strong technical assistance in the design and implementation of the program. Often school district personnel realize the need for an alternative, but have little expertise in this kind of program design. We can help!

Knowing that such a program is needed is a first step, but it is not enough. There are still many questions that must be explored and answered:

  • What is the purpose, who is to be served, what are the criteria for entering, remaining in good standing and exiting?

  • Will the program serve the needs of the feeder school/s or the needs of students?

  • How should a program be designed to preserve the integrity of both students and staff and prevent it from being a “dumping ground”?

  • How will feeder schools support the students and the work of the program personnel as students move back and forth?

  • What should the program design look like to best meet the needs of identified students and desired outcomes?

  • Should it be a school-within-a-school, on the campus but in a separate building, or its own campus?

  • Should students have access to the regular school's programs while enrolled in the alternative school?

These questions and many more must be discussed during the initial stages of program design. A highly trained Safe & Civil Schools consultant with experience in this process can be of great assistance in designing an alternative school or program and in training staff and school personnel.

Reviewing an Existing Program

How does an alternative school or program define success? If the enrollment is full, is that considered success? If students are earning credits, is that considered success? If students comment about enjoying the school, is that considered success? All of these and more are very important questions.

If a school really seeks to determine success, however, staff needs to go back to the original vision and purpose. They also need to define the standard of success for their program. In considering the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the standards must align with state and district goals. It is entirely possible that, prior to this legislation, an alternative school was left to design its own standard of success. This is no longer sufficient. Alternative school personnel need to review their purpose, who they serve, and collect data to verify progress. Data collection can include surveys, attendance patterns, enrollment patterns, state test scores, credit accumulation, and graduation rates. As student characteristics shift with a changing society, alternative schools need to regularly review whether they are truly meeting the needs of their students.

Safe & Civil Schools consultants will objectively design and facilitate the review process. The opportunity for an alternative school faculty to assess their progress, study the current condition of their program, and create necessary adjustment is invaluable for the students they serve as well as themselves.