Welcome to module 8, a piece of the Synegetic Education Institute’s Behavioral Health Program. This module meets the requirment of increasing awareness of laws and practices pertaining to educating students with disabilities in the classroom, including but not limited to Child Find and inclusive learning environments.
It is time to integrate the valuable insights and trauma-informed, community responsive approaches we’ve learned with the laws and mandates governing behavioral health. First, we will clarify the alphabet soup of educational acronyms as we examine the hierarchy of laws and rights that guide our work in implementing behavioral health in education while ensuring compliance with special education regulations. Next, we will discuss the importance of federal rights and how they are applied specifically in the state of Colorado, including a comparison of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Section 504 plans to highlight educators’ responsibilities in each case. We will also explore pathways to support and success by learning about the Child Find process, with a focus on the obligations of educators. Additionally, we will explore the intersection of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and special education identification, as well as some criteria that determine a student’s eligibility for special education services.
Happy Learning,
Judy Norman and the SEI Team
Navigating the Learning Platform:
Click here to watch a 4-minute video that will walk you through the learning platform and show you where to find everything you need to be successful in this program. While watching this video, and all videos, the images you see below will be in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, to turn on closed-captioning, simply click on the cc icon (it is circled in red below), you will have the option of choosing English auto-generated captions, or customizing the captions.
Meet Your Instructor:
Judith Norman, MA, MS, LPC-S, LSC, RPT-S is a co-founder and the lead trainer at the Synergetic Education® Institute. Licensed as both a School and Professional Counselor, she has spent 25 years working at the intersection of education and mental health. As a teacher, mental health professional, consultant, and the creator of the Learning Tools™ and Braindrops™ frameworks and the Developmental Mindsets Paradigm™, Judith collaborates internationally with school communities.
Judith has been a School Counselor at Title One schools and two-way bilingual immersion schools, has worked at the district level as a Social Emotional Learning Coach in the United States, and as a School Counselor and Director of Guidance at an international school overseas. Judith trains and supervises both school-based and clinical mental health professionals. Judith speaks nationally, and consults, and teaches internationally, has developed SEL and trauma-informed programming across various levels of school functioning, and has supported Department of Education state-wide initiatives with district and state-wide training for educators, school-based mental professionals, and educational leaders. Judith led her school district in implementing a Kaiser Permanente “Thriving Schools Grant,” aimed at advancing social-emotional wellness and behavioral health in school districts. Judith co-authored a chapter with Lisa Dion in “Play-Therapy Treatment Planning with Children and Families.”
To get started and begin accessing the program lessons, you will first need to complete and agree to the Program Agreements. Please click on “Behavioral Health Program – Program Agreements” under “Course Content” below to begin!