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Learning and Teaching Support assists school district, family, and community partners in creating and sustaining quality learning environments that increase the opportunity for achievement and success of all children and youth.
Learning and Teaching Support accomplishes its work through the:
- Administration of federal grants and state funded programs.
- Provision of technical assistance to schools, educational service districts, and communities regarding a wide array of nonacademic barriers to learning.
- Collaboration with state agencies including the Department of Social and Health Services, the Department of Health, the Office of Community, Trade, and Economic Development, and the Department of Corrections to develop and maintain a community infrastructure that assists schools in ensuring a learning environment that supports the success of all students.
The following is an alphabetical listing of the programs and services offered by Learning and Teaching Support:
- A program to support the creation
and expansion of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for
children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low performing schools. The program:
helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading
and science, technology, engineering and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment
activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other
educational services to the families of participating children. For more information contact: Debra
Williams-Appleton, (360) 725-6049, debra.appleton@k12.wa.us; Rudi Bertschi, (360) 725-6368, rudi.bertschi@k12.wa.us
- Providing assistance to
school districts, schools, and educators to support the needs of the children of incarcerated
parents and their families and caregivers (as authorized by House Bill 1422, passed by the 2007
Legislature). Seeks to safely maintain familial connections, when appropriate, in order to decrease
adult recidivism, and to reduce the likelihood that students will go to prison later in life. For more
information contact: Kathleen Sande, (360) 725-6046, kathleen.sande@k12.wa.us
– The Learning and Teaching Support section of OSPI and the Woodring College of Education
at Western Washington University have co-written a 246 page handbook entitled The Heart of
Learning and Teaching: Compassion, Resilience, and Academic Success. The purpose of the
handbook is to inform, validate, and strengthen the collective work of educators and the community
working in partnerships to support students and their families whose learning is adversely affected
by trauma and adversity. The ultimate goal is to support student engagement and learning.
A free downloaded of the book can be found at the following website. http://www.k12.wa.us/CompassionateSchools/HeartofLearning.aspx. Several schools across the state have used the
book and other supporting resources to implement Compassionate School strategies. These
strategies involve extensive training on the effects of trauma and learning as well as creating a
professional learning community around compassionate school ideas. Compassionate strategies
address culture, climate, and attitudes of schools and their staff as a way to enhance learning
environments and improve the overall quality of the school experience and education for all
students. For more information contact Ron Hertel, (360) 725-4968, ron.hertel@k12.wa.us
– The Healthy Schools Successful Students
Coordinated School Health project is supported by a federal Centers for Disease Control grant.
There are eight interconnected components in the coordinated school health model including:
physical education; health services; nutrition services; counseling and psychological services
(including mental and behavioral health); healthy school environment; health promotion
for staff; family/community involvement; and health education. Each component makes an
important contribution to students’ well-being and readiness to learn. CSH includes a focus on
systems thinking and on addressing health and academic disparities. The CSH team provides
leadership, policy guidance, technical assistance, and training toward building governmental, nongovernmental,
local organization, and school district partnerships and capacity to address priority
health and safety needs of Pre-K through age 16 students. For more information contact: Sarah
Butzine, (360) 725-6039, sarah.butzine@k12.wa.us
- This program, funded with State apportionment
dollars, is designed to provide leadership, management and technical assistance to school districts
and educational service districts who provide education programs within county-operated juvenile
detention centers and group homes, and state operated Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration
(JRA) and Department of Corrections prison facilities for incarcerated juveniles under the age of 18
years. Quarterly administrator meetings are facilitated and an annual conference is held each year.
For more information contact: Kathleen Sande, (360) 725-6046, kathleen.sande@k12.wa.us
- Designed to increase the number of Washington State students who graduate from high school on time and re-engage students who have already dropped out of school. This program supports the creation of local school, workforce, and community partnerships to build comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention and retrieval systems to identify students “at risk” of dropping out of school, provide timely inventions/supports and re-engage students who have already dropped out of school. For more information contact: Annie Blackledge, (360) 725-6041, annie.blackledge@k12.wa.us
- is a resource for educators, students, and parents centered around your need for access to online courses, resources and digital tools for learning. The DLD's wealth of information and knowledgeable staff will help make your decisions about online learning much easier. For more information contact: Judy Margrath-Huge, Director, (800) 890-8592, Judy.Margrath-Huge@k12.wa.us
- An education program for
low-income families designed to improve the academic achievement of young children and their
parents, particularly in reading. Core components include: early childhood education, adult literacy,
parenting education, and interactive literacy activities between parents and their children. For more
information contact: Debra Williams-Appleton, (360) 725-6049, debra.appleton@k12.wa.us
- Educational stability and continuity for children in foster care is a priority
of the Washington State Legislature. OSPI and DSHS Children’s Administration are working closely
together to establish coordinated protocols, procedures, and legal interpretations that provide a
foundation for this work. For more information contact: Ron Hertel, (360) 725-4968, ron.hertel@k12.wa.us
- Provide consultation to school administrators, staff, school nurses, families,
and students regarding health, safety, and the provision of nursing care at school. Additionally,
the Health Services Program staff partner with the Department of Health and other agencies/
organizations to implement various school health related projects. For more information contact:
Gayle Thronson, (360) 725-6040, gayle.thronson@k12.wa.us
- A collaborative effort by the Offi ce of Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Department of Health, Department of Social and Health Services, and Department
of Community, Trade, and Economic Development to recognize the interdependencies of health
behaviors, alcohol and other drug use, violence and related risk factors impacting Washington
State’s youth. For more information contact: Dixie Grunenfelder, (360) 725-6045, dixie.grunenfelder@k12.wa.us
- Provides for instruction directly to students
temporarily unable to attend school for an estimated period of four weeks or more because of
illness or physical disability. Services are limited to a maximum of 18 weeks. Student eligibility is
determined by the local school district. For more information contact: Gayle Thronson, gayle.thronson@k12.wa.us
- The
Washington State Compact (SSB 5248) was developed in an effort to reduce the educational and
emotional issues encountered when the children of military personnel are required to transfer from
schools in one state to another. Originally drafted by educators, parents, state education agencies, and
military personnel under the sponsorship of the Council of State Governments, it addresses differences
in requirements among states involving the following: immunization requirements, entrance ages
for kindergarten and fi rst grade, exit exams, and graduation requirements. It also includes provision
pertaining to issues military children who transfer schools encounter in participating in extra-curricular
activities, course placement, and enrollments in highly capable programs, advanced placements, and
career and technical programs. For more information: Dixie Grunenfelder, (360) 725-6045, dixie.grunenfelder@k12.wa.us
- Ensures
children and youth in homeless situations have the same opportunity to enroll, attend, and succeed
in school as their non-homeless peers. The McKinney-Vento Act provides guidance to school districts
regarding the rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness, as well as the school district’s
responsibility to serve them. For more information contact: Melinda Dyer, (360) 725-6050,
melinda.dyer@k12.wa.us; Jess Lewis, (360) 725- 6031, jess.lewis@k12.wa.us
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Mental Health and Schools - Access to public mental health
services for students who are in need of them has been challenging for parents and educators.
Efforts are underway across the state to improve and enhance school and mental health treatment
coordination. Strategies are being explored to identify evidence based and promising practices
across the state that help promote student stability. View report at http://www.k12.wa.us/MentalHealthandSchools/pubdocs/MHResourceManual-2008.pdf. For more information contact:
Ron Hertel, (360) 725-4968, ron.hertel@k12.wa.us
- A partnership between OSPI, Washington State University Extension
4-H Programs, and the Washington State National Guard and Army Reserve. Provides training
programs and resources for community and school professionals to create sustainable and replicable
support networks for geographically dispersed military youth in schools and communities before, during,
and after the deployment of a parent or loved one. For more information contact: Dixie Grunenfelder,
(360) 725-6045, dixie.grunenfelder@k12.wa.us
- The Readiness to Learn program was enacted as a part of Washington
State’s Education Reform in 1993. The intent of the program is to reduce barriers to learning through
the formation of school, community, family partnerships to ensure students and their families have
access to resources and services necessary to help them achieve at their highest learning potential.
The goal is that all children and youth are able to attend school ready to learn. To that end, the RTL
program serves as a catalyst to improve academic performance and reduce the achievement gap. For
more information contact: Ron Hertel, (360) 725-4968, ron.hertel@k12.wa.us
- This program provides a “corps” of registered
nurses to the neediest school districts to provide direct care to students, health education, training,
and supervision. In addition, it provides a School Nurse Corps Nurse Administrator at each educational
service district to administer the program, provide consultation and training to school districts, and
provide direct services as time permits. For more information contact: Gayle Thronson, (360) 725-
6040, gayle.thronson@k12.wa.us
- This
program provides funding and technical assistance to educational service districts and school
districts through the placement of specialists in schools responsible for the implementation of
comprehensive student assistance programs. Program services include early alcohol, tobacco,
other drug prevention and intervention services, assistance with referrals to treatment and
other community resources, and recovery support services. For more information contact:
Dixie Grunenfelder, (360) 725-6045, dixie.grunenfelder@k12.wa.us
- Federal US Department
of Education allocations, based upon annual counts of delinquent youth incarcerated in juvenile
detention centers and Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) facilities, provide management,
supervision, and monitoring of grants. School districts and educational service districts are the
sub-grantees, providing education services within county-operated juvenile detention centers
and group homes, and state operated Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration and Department of
Corrections prison facilities. The purpose of the grant funding is to improve academic achievement
of incarcerated juveniles and at-risk youth and/or to provide transition services and educational
advocacy services, assisting youth to get back to school, to stay in school and/or to go to work. For
more information contact: Kathleen Sande, (360) 725-6046, kathleen.sande@k12.wa.us
- The Safety Center is a resource for schools,
communities, and families on the broad scope of school safety related issues. This resource
includes Web-based information as well as training and technical assistance including policies and
procedures around threat notifi cation pursuant to RCW 28A.320.128. For more information contact:
Jeff Soder, (360) 725-6044, jeff.soder@k12.wa.us; Gangs Task Force: Mike Donlin, (360) 725-
6041, mike.donlin@k12.wa.us
- Disaster Preparedness/Emergency Response Planning - As a part of the
Comprehensive Safe Schools Planning effort, this includes technical assistance on development
of essential guidelines for school plans dealing with disaster preparedness and emergencies.
For more information contact: Jeff Soder, (360) 725-6044, jeff.soder@k12.wa.us
- Harassment, Intimidation, or Bullying (HIB) - Washington State School Safety Center
– the Center provides resources to schools and families on a broad spectrum of safety related
topics such as school climate, bullying, internet safety, suicide prevention, sexual minority youth,
gangs in schools, discipline, truancy and comprehensive safe school planning. Through policy
development, data collection and analysis, technical assistance, presentations and a resource
rich website, the center supports keeping all students safe at school each and every day. For
additional information contact: Jeff Sőder, Ph.D., (360) 725-6044, jeff.soder@k12.wa.us; Mike
Donlin, (360) 725-6041, mike.donlin@k12.wa.us
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