This month's issue of the BSE Bulletin for Educators contains valuable information from the BSE, timely notices on professional development opportunities, and tools and strategies used by schools in the commonwealth.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at any time at bsebulletin@pattankop.net

With appreciation for all you do,

The Pennsylvania BSE and PaTTAN Staff

This practice brief provides practical, research-based strategies educators can use to de-escalate challenging student behavior in the classroom. Despite the development of supportive, safe, and predictable school environments, students may, at times, become agitated, and their behavior may escalate to unsafe levels. With some advance planning, educators can reduce reliance on reactive strategies, such as punitive or exclusionary practices (e.g., restraint, seclusion, suspension, expulsion) in favor of safer, more instructive, and inclusive approaches.

Strategies include:

• Offer a choice
• Redirect their attention
• Co-regulate when they can't self-regulate
• Remind them of strategies they know

Click the photo below to read the entire article.

Over half of the students in our schools are from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, but still, 79 percent of our teachers are White, many of whom aren’t multilingual. To ensure that teachers are prepared to teach and support students whose cultural linguistic backgrounds are different from theirs, many states have added requirements on teacher licensure, such as the need to have sheltered English immersion endorsement and/or complete relevant coursework.

6 Strategies:

1. Take time to self-reflect
2. Create a student-centered classroom
3. Rethink your classroom library
4. Engage students' families and community
5. Advance your skills continuously
6. Reflect consistently

Click the photo below to read the entire article.

To effectively support students and respond to behavior, school and program personnel should have knowledge, skills, and experience in topics such as:

• Understanding the unique needs of each child with a disability and the rights afforded to children with disabilities under IDEA
• Being aware of potential signs of stress
• Being prepared to be the first contact and resource for children in need of support
• Implementing universal screening and understanding screening data to make informed decisions about child needs and appropriate instructional and behavioral strategies
• Implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention practices (such as positive behavioral interventions and supports, safe physical escort, conflict prevention, understanding antecedents, de-escalation, and conflict management) across all school or program settings to effectively support and respond to child behavior (e.g., classrooms, administrative office, hallways, playgrounds, cafeteria, school bus)
• Conducting Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs)
• Effectively designing, implementing, and evaluating IEPs and BIPs, in collaboration with families and with support from specialized support personnel
• Re-integrating children into the school or program after extended periods of virtual learning or other absences from school.

Are you a novice special education teacher, administrator, or school psychologist? Would you benefit from being able to have open dialogue around your new role and its many demands with someone who has travelled this career pathway before you? If so, consider joining the APR Mentoring Project.

The APR Mentoring Project continues to accept applications for any Pennsylvania special education teacher, special education administrator, or school psychologist with three or less years of experience in their current position. If you, or someone you know, could benefit from being paired with an experienced mentor for the 2022-2023 school year, you are encouraged to apply. Access the application by using this link: https://fs25.formsite.com/3fHiZQ/mentee22/index.html.

Receive support, ideas, and resources throughout the year from someone who knows special education and has a vested interest in helping you to navigate it all. Contact Christine Moon, APR statewide lead, at cmoon@pattanpgh.net with any questions that you may have about this project.

Please join us as Dr. Barbara Boone and Hadley Bachman, from the Family Engagement Center at The Ohio State University, present a training session on Tiered Family Engagement.

Learn how to:

• Apply the MTSS model to your family engagement planning.
• Ensure that all families have the opportunity to engage in their children’s education in multiple roles meaningfully.
• Determine decision indicators for increasing opportunities for support and engagement.
• Practice creating and evaluating a plan so that you can confidently apply this process to your own program setting.

Registration will soon be available on the PaTTAN website's Training Calendar!

You are invited to build connections with other special education personnel across Pennsylvania as you share ideas, engage in problem-solving, and learn from one another. The following sessions will be offered across the month of November:

• Speech and Language: Master Class Learning Community for SLPS – Using Data to Drive Practices – November 3, 2022 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

• Teachers of the Deaf: Meet and Greet – November 15, 2022 from 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM both in person and virtually at the HELIX Conference.

To register for the session(s), please visit the PaTTAN training calendar.

To learn more about these opportunities and others like them, visit the APR Repository.

Dr. Amy Pastorak, Assistant Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education, attended the ceremonial bill signing for the Disability Inclusive Curriculum Legislation (HB 1642) held on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. The revisions to the School Code were spearheaded by Disability Equality Education and Representative Hohenstein. It creates a pilot program related to instruction on the contributions by people with disabilities to be implemented for the 2023-2024 school year.

The Quality Indicators of Emotional Support Services and Programs (QIESSP) enables local education agencies (LEAs) to examine the programs and services offered to students with emotional support needs.

This revised, downloadable pdf is a fillable, calculable form. This publication is also available in hard copy.

The PaTTAN PASA page has been updated, and information previously posted there has been transitioned to the new PASA DLM Instruction and Assessment Resource Hub. PASA ACs, teachers, and families will find alternate assessment and instructional resources in a quick, easy-to-find format.

The Hub will continue to include PaTTAN announcements, the instruction and assessment calendar, PASA AC email communications and more. Click on the button below to check out the new Hub.

PASA DLM Office Hours are back! Join members of the PA Alternate Instruction and Assessment Team. Drop in and learn about a specific topic and get your questions answered.

NEW this year are office hours for teachers. The team will be available to support teachers on topics related to their role and answer questions.

Click on the button below or see the attached office hours flyer for dates, times and zoom links. No need to register in advance.

The PaTTAN Literacy Team invites you to check out the PaTTAN Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram page every Tuesday and Friday for new content that will be centered around a literacy topic.

• Every Tuesday will be Teacher Toolbox Tuesday, when tips, tricks, and tools will be shared that can be viewed, saved, rehearsed, implemented in your classroom, and/or shared with your colleagues.
• Every Friday will be Literacy Feature Friday, when content will be shared from experts in the field that can be viewed at your leisure, saved for later, and/or shared with colleagues.

This new initiative kicked off in October and focused on Dyslexia in recognition of Dyslexia Awareness month and will continue in November with a focus on Phonemic Awareness and Phonics.

As always, visit the PaTTAN Literacy Resource Hub for additional resources at the PaTTAN Literacy Resource Hub and reach out to any of the PaTTAN Literacy Consultants for more information on any of these topics, strategies, and/or resources. Happy Literacy Learning!

The resources contained in this newsletter do not necessarily represent endorsement by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.