Supporting administrators, teachers, and other staff allows educators to show up for and enable student success. Ensuring staff feel equipped to identify and meet the needs of their students will support staff and student wellness and build a positive school culture that allows every member of the school community to thrive.
Trainings
Mandatory Youth Behavioral Health Training for Administrators and Educators
OSSE collaborates with the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) to monitor DC public and public charter school staff completion of the Support DC Youth Behavioral Health Training. DBH provides this youth behavioral health training at www.supportdcyouth.com. District law mandates that all public and public charter school teachers and principals complete a behavioral health training once every two years (DC Law 14-56; DC Official Code § 7-1131.17(b)(1)).
Professional development for Administrators, Educators, School Behavioral Health Providers, and Other Staff
- Responding to Grief and Sudden Loss in School Communities Training
- Darkness To Light - Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Training (meets SSOAA requirements)
- Provision of School-Based Behavioral Health Services
- School Behavioral Health Services Universal Support Planning Webinar (Password: Expansion20)
- SBH Community of Practice | CoP Meeting Archive
- Keep up to date with our training offerings and schedule by following our Eventbrite page.
School leaders and behavioral health providers may email [email protected] for additional questions and support.
Curriculum
- Signs of Suicide
- Signs of Suicide (SOS) is an evidence-based youth prevention program designed to teach students in grades 6–12 how to identify signs of depression and suicide in themselves and their peers, equipping them with tools to understand and express their behavioral health concerns with trusted adults. SOS also trains school professionals, parents, and other adults to recognize at-risk students and take appropriate supportive action.
- Access to the online SOS curriculum has been made available to all DC public and public charter middle and high schools.
- Yellow Ribbon Be a Link and Ask 4 Help Program
- OSSE has partnered with the Light for Life Foundation to deliver suicide prevention staff training and student curriculum for elementary school. The “Be A Link! Community Gate Keeper Training” trains participants how to deliver intervention to school-based staff, parents/guardians and other adults on recognizing warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors in youth, as well as how to initiate conversations about suicide and take appropriate supportive action.
- The Ask 4 Help prevention program teaches students in kindergarten to fifth grade how to identify signs of depression and suicide ideation in themselves and their peers, and ingrain help-seeking behaviors in youth in the face of these concerns.
- Yellow Ribbon Curriculum kits are available to all DC public and public charter elementary schools.
- Too Good for Violence
- Too Good for Violence (TGFV) uses interactive games, role-play, visual aids, and fun activities to teach and reinforce the social-emotional skills students need to build positive relationships and make healthy choices that aid in violence and bullying prevention. TGFV builds protective factors within student by providing opportunities for pro-social involvement; establishing positive norms including healthy beliefs and clear standards; promoting bonding to pro-social peers; and increasing self-efficacy and interpersonal skills.
- TGFV kits are available for all DC public and public charter schools at the third grade, seventh grade, and high school levels. Additional fifth grade kits are available for loan.
School leaders and behavioral health providers may email [email protected] for additional questions and support.
Educator Wellness
Educator Wellness honors educators as whole people whose state of social, emotional, physical, mental, and professional well-being is impacted by the school’s organizational and individual systems. These systems create positive or negative working conditions that impact the teaching and learning environment for students and educators.
A Whole School Approach to Educator Wellness (Approach) names the intersecting systems factors that impact educator well-being. Grounded in existing research, wellness models and the experience of DC public and public charter schools, this Approach shifts educator well-being from the sole responsibility of the individual to include the influence of interpersonal, organizational, and community impacts.
Learn more about OSSE’s work and investments in educator wellness at the sites below:
- Whole School Educator Wellness Grant
- A Whole School Approach to Educator Wellness
- Blueprint for a Whole School Approach to Educator Wellness
- School Climate and Culture
Advancing the Recruitment and Retention of Our Workforce (ARROW)
Funded through a grant from the US Department of Education (USED), ARROW is an opportunity for the District of Columbia to launch recruitment and retention activities that build knowledge, skills, professional opportunities, and job satisfaction for school behavioral health professionals to enter and remain in the workforce through collaboration with LEAs, District colleges and universities, and school behavioral health organizations and partners. Learn more at our ARROW website.
