District Partnership Spotlight: Glades County Schools
District Partnership Spotlight: Glades County Schools
Erin Raphel
Glades County is a small and tight-knit community. Home to 1,250 students in the district and located on the western shores of Lake Okeechobee, Glades County Schools is unique in that a charter school on an Indian reservation is also part of their district. With approximately 100 students in Exceptional Education, Glades looks to build communication with their parents and educate them on how best to support Exceptional Education services.
The rise of entrepreneurship in the speech-language pathology (SLP) community has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. While there’s much to be attributed to how easy it is to set up an e-commerce or social marketing platform, it certainly goes beyond that. SLPs are disrupting industry giants in the creativity, first-hand experience and heart they bring to the marketplace.
State of Colorado leverages MIYO Health as technology partner for Youth Rapid Mental Health Response
With rapidly growing demand for mental and behavioral health services since the pandemic started, the State of Colorado swiftly responded with the passing of HB21-1258. This Rapid Mental Health Response for Colorado Youth facilitates access to mental health services, including substance use disorder services, for youth to respond to identified mental health needs, including those needs that may have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. The program reimburses providers for up to 3 mental health sessions with a youth.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: The Learning Must be Ongoing
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: The Learning Must be Ongoing
Erin Raphel
MIYO Health recently held a webinar entitled A Path to Equity, in which we spoke with two school leaders on the very pertinent topics of equity, diversity and inclusion. Our goal in holding this webinar was to not only explore what these ideas mean to real school leaders, but also to try and shed light on how they introduced equitable practices into school communities that previously lacked such practices. Take a walk down this path to equity with us.
I am a school social worker at MIYO Health. One of my favorite aspects of my job is that it allows me to work in schools across the nation. For example, I work in Illinois and Florida every week, and sometimes in the same day! For me, it is the most exciting and fulfilling work. So when my team members presented the idea to do a school visit to get a first-hand account from our school partners, I thought this was perfect for my school Somerset Wellington. I have worked at Somerset since March, and I work 2 days a week with several students. I have learned that the students love to talk over the computer. They open up very easily to me virtually, and they teach me things too! They showed me how to use emojis on Zoom and put virtual makeup on. I was excited to pay an in-person visit to one of my schools that I previously only worked with virtually.
After spending ten years in-person in school districts in and around the suburbs of Chicago, I was ready to try a new challenge: teletherapy. I needed a change in setting, but I also wanted to have a better work-life balance and more flexibility. I am a parent of two little kids, and both my husband and I work full-time. It’s difficult to stay on top of household tasks like meal prep, washing the dishes, and grocery shopping! When I left the in-person setting for teletherapy from home, I left behind a commute of 35 minutes each way. Now, I know, it may not seem like a terrible commute, but gaining that extra hour made a huge impact on my ability to attend to my family. I could pick my kids up from school, stay on top of laundry and dishes, and get dinner ready at a reasonable hour. The changes I’ve experienced in my quality of life make me confident that teletherapy is a great choice for busy educators who still want to stay in the field, but require a schedule that is accommodating.
In a previous life, before becoming a speech-language pathologist, I worked for Kraft Foods for four years following college. My job was in supply chain and operations, making connections between sales and the buyers to fill orders, satisfy promotions, and run interference between all parties. My phone would light up only when there was a problem, which of course meant I was on the phone almost all day long. Typical problems were issues with deliveries, like a lost truck of Capri Sun and the huge risk of a missed promotion due to lack of product, or the usual shortages and overages that made it difficult to make the customer happy on a consistent basis. I learned how to finesse challenging relationships, and consider the four years I spent there as getting another bachelor’s degree in the inner workings of a major corporation. However, I began to feel that my work was generally unimportant to the larger world. I started to search for a new career in which I could make a difference in others’ lives, beyond filling orders for major grocery chains. That’s when I discovered the profession of speech-language pathology. I left my work at Kraft and took on the daunting task of going back to school.
It’s well known that the COVID-19 pandemic made a profound impact on districts in the presence of virtual service offerings, decreased grouping sizes for therapy, socially distanced classroom setups, and alternative access to education during times of illness. Despite the need for new processes, many things remained the same. One of those things is a district’s responsibility to participate in Child Find.
It’s Not Too Early, So Let’s Talk About the Elephant in the Classroom: Compensatory Services
It’s Not Too Early, So Let’s Talk About the Elephant in the Classroom: Compensatory Services
Erin Raphel
Compensatory services have always been a huge undertaking for school districts. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have struggled with getting special education students all the service minutes on their IEPs. But now it seems as though educators are facing the Mt. Everest of tasks - making up for services lost due to school closures ON TOP OF the regular compensatory minutes already due to students. From a best practice standpoint (let us be clear, we aren’t lawyers!), let’s get some things straight so there’s a clear path to achieving this massive goal.
If mental & behavioral health was a challenge for schools before, the going’s about to get tougher. Here’s what you can do.
If mental & behavioral health was a challenge for schools before, the going’s about to get tougher. Here’s what you can do.
MIYO Health
Everyone’s talking about how to reopen schools, and what it’s going to take to get students learning again. But even if we can get kids back into classrooms, or plugged into school from home, are students and teachers expected to be in the right headspace to learn and teach?
