Thursday, October 19, 2006
National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support
As you probably know, our Center is expanding the work of the “National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support” to include a Call to Action for student support staff to move in new directions through greater involvement in school improvement planning and decision making. Critical to this effort, of course, is for leaders concerned with enhancing student/learning supports to mobilize their constituencies.
That is why we hosted a Leadership Summit in July in D.C. on: Student Support Staff: Moving in New Directions through School Improvement. National leaders from the major student support associations attended and are already taking a number of steps to move the work forward. And, we sent out the report to our listservs.
We are pleased to relate that the response so far has been very positive. Also, several listservs are planning to reference the report. (Council of Chief State School Officers already has cited it in their electronic newsletter.)
As always, however, it is the local leaders who have the greatest contact with schools. So, now we are outreaching to state leaders to encourage efforts to mobilize colleagues. For example, if feasible, we are asking you to
(1) download the full report from http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/summit2002/calltoactionreport.pdf and
(2) also to mention the call to action in upcoming newsletters.
We also need your ideas. Along with the full report (in pdf format), we have included a response form to elicit your suggestions about how to move forward with this call to action. However, if you prefer, please feel free to contact us directly. (Howard’s email is: adelman@psych.ucla.edu or phone 310/825-1225 or ; Linda’s email is: ltaylor@ ucla.edu or phone 310/825-3634.)
We look forward to hearing from you and continuing to work together in the best interests of children.
Howard Adelman & Linda Taylor
School Mental Health Project/
Center for Mental Health in Schools
UCLA Dept. of Psychology
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563
(310) 825-3634 / Toll Free: (866) 846-4843 / Fax: (310) 206-8716
Email: smhp@ucla.edu
