Thursday, February 18, 2010

Christie's Announcement

I saw in the paper that Christie told school districts to expect a 15% decrease in state aid. That has a lot of folks running scared. I'm even concerned about my job. While many of my coworkers who have more years at the job than me say that I shouldn't be concerned and that we are needed, I've never seen myself as essential. With such an decrease in aid, that is a lot of money to shave out of a budget. Okay, it is actually more like an amputation than a shaving.

While some of my coworkers say that we are needed and the job can't be done with less, there are lots of districts where the caseload is much higher. Our caseload is fairly light in comparison. We range from 40 to 50 on average per case manager. I know of districts where there are 70, 80, even 90 per case manager. Now in those districts, case management is almost the entire job with very little in the way of doing your job title. I've heard that sort of position referred to as being an "IEP machine."

With that being the case, I don't consider my position secure at all. Getting rid of one or two positions would redistribute the caseload to those levels.

But I'm still hopeful that I will have a job come September.

Catching up again; The Great Snow of '10; and The Aftermath

Well since my last post was two days before the snow storm that turned a four day weekend into a three day weekend. So let me play some catch up.

Tuesday, February 9th
I get into work and start doing some prep stuff for the day. 9:30am rolls around and off I go to Piscataway Regional Day School which is an out of district placement that is part of the Middlesex County Educational Services Commission. I have a student interviewing there for a placement. The interview goes exceedingly well and I find out that my student is almost guaranteed a spot at the school. By the time the interview is done, its lunch. Since I'm in the area, I use my lunch hour to stop by my old job and visit my former coworkers. It was nice to see them again and we talk shop for a bit after the personal catching up. I also get to meet my replacement which turns out to have been a classmate of one of my current coworkers. It was funny to meet my replacement. She made the comment that she had moved the furniture around in "my office" to which I replied "its your office now."

After that, I race back to homebase and rush over to the high school for an eligibility conference. I go over my psychological evaluation and stay until the meeting is done. I then head back to my office, thinking to myself "how are we supposed to get all this snow when it is such a nice, sunny day." Once I'm back at my office, I have enough time to gather some stuff together and then it is off to a meeting at one of the elementary schools. One of my coworkers who is a bit new at the school district thing gets thrown a bit by some questions. I attempt to help out and answer the questions as best I can. I end up having to leave that meeting before it is over because of a middle school/high school special education teachers meeting that involves some training on our IEP software. I attend the meeting and assist with some technology issues, helping teachers log on and such. I also learn that school has already been closed for Wednesday in anticipation of the snow. Follow the training, it is quittin' time and I try to beat the snow home.

The Great Snow
The snow comes and closes school on Wednesday and Thursday. We already have Friday and Monday off dues to Presidents' Day. The plus side is the extra days off. The negative side is that I wreck myself with some shoveling and then come down with the worst cold/illness I've have in a year.

Tuesday, February 16th; Wednesday, February 17th
I'm grouping these two days together because there really isn't a lot of difference between them. While my fever has passed, I sound awful and can't say more than a few words without coughing. So I restrict myself from actually interacting with students and concentrate on paperwork. I manage to get my first round of March IEP meetings scheduled, the invitations written and mailed. I also get several IEPs finished. I get official word that my student was accepted for Piscataway Regional Day School and do the request for board approval, since the board meeting is on Wednesday.

I get assigned to determine whether a student is a danger to others for something that happened back in July of last year. The student is new in the district and this needs to be done before the administration is going to allow the student into the high school. Sigh.

Thursday, February 18th
I do some paperwork before going to visit another school district to see their life skills program. It is in a much larger district. Their high school has twice the population as my district. The program is interesting and seems really successful. The three of us that went dream what it would be like to have such a program in our district.

Back at homebase, I continue my paperwork blitz after speaking to our transition coordinator about the statements to use in the transition pages of the IEP for one of my students. I also call the parent of the student that I have to assess for danger to others. The father blows up at me because I am the first person to present this information to him. I incorrectly assumed that an administrator would have already informed the family of this requirement. Sigh.

Follow lunch, I spend the rest of the day writing IEPs and head for home.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Special Post: Risk Assessments

Risk assessments. If you are a school psychologist in New Jersey, you are mostly likely going to be involved in a risk assessment at some point. If you have read my blog, you will have likely gotten the gist of what a risk assessment is. For newcomers, I'll give a brief overview of what a risk assessment is in a school.

In school, a risk assessment is an evaluation to determine if a student is an immediate danger to themselves or others and, if so, to have their parent/guardian take them to a private psychiatrist or psychologist, or mental health screeners at a local psychiatric emergency screening center to be evaluated further.

Most school psychology programs don't provide formal preparation for this sort of thing. I know that my program didn't and the programs that my coworkers attended didn't prepare them either. We've all had the training to conduct an interview and a psychological assessment. We've had classes in psychopathology. But this doesn't prepare you for the situation that you may encounter.

These situations may be extremely emotionally charged and involve subject matter that may be uncomfortable for both the examiner and the student. For the school psychologist dealing with a risk assessment for the first time, the responsibility may feel overwhelming. If you were fortunate, you may have had the opportunity to be present for risk assessments during your internship.

While I'm not a risk assessment guru or anything, I have had the benefit of a great deal of experience. So I'll give some advice that has been given to me:

  • Don't be afraid to ask the student if they had thought or planned to kill themselves. You aren't going to implant the thought in their head.
  • Take your time. You have all the time in the world to ask your questions or formulate your questions.
  • Don't be afraid of the silence between the questions. Don't feel like you have to fill the silence.
  • If you have the benefit of working with other school psychologist or school social workers in your district, don't be afraid to consult with them.
  • And finally, follow your gut. If you don't feel comfortable letting the student return to class and go about their day then don't. Now it may seem weird to talk about comfort in these situations but it is something that comes with time.
One day, my coworkers and I were talking about risk assessments and inter-rater reliability. I had said that if each of us had the opportunity to assess the same student in the same exact situation separately, we may all come up with different decisions.

Again, the reason behind this is that there isn't any consistent training between the eight of us that have the responsibility. We also talked about a way to provide training to new staff members: such as having the new staff member attend assessments as an observer; then as the main interview but still accompanied by another staff; and then finally on their own.

As I said at the start, this may be the most difficult responsibility for a new school psychologist but it is something that you can become proficient and confident. Most importantly, you should seek additional training in this area.

Monday, February 8th

I arrive at work and start work on the psych report from Friday. In the background, I'm hearing the sounds of my coworkers socializing, the whole how was your weekend thing. Stupidly, I begin to feel a little morose. A lot of the talk sounds much like "girl talk" so I don't try to include myself. So its another stupid instance of feeling status of the token male.

I go to the office of a coworker, one that I had worked with in a previous career, and hang out with her for a bit. I help with some IEP software issues. While I'm sitting with her, one of my supervisors comes in and I immediately sense a risk assessment coming, just by the look on her face. She tells me that she has one of the high school guidance counselors on the phone who has a student in her office. I speak to the counselor and grab my cheat sheet and head over to the high school.

The student reports that they had made two attempts to kill herself the day before. The end result is that the student needs to go out for an assessment at psychiatric emergency services. The two main things that lead me to this decision, aside from that the student reported making attempts, was that the student said that if they hadn't been interrupted they would have completed the acts; and that when the student was in the moment of the attempts, she wasn't afraid and that "it felt right."

Following the wait for the parent to come in and pick up the student and my explanation to the parent of the decision and the follow up, I return to the office and have lunch.

After lunch, I spend time beating my head against a report and speaking with my office mate about normal child development and how being in this line of work makes it hard to tell what is normal. I joke that I'm very good at telling what is abnormal and that if I were to encounter a "normal" student it would be so out of my experience, I would probably just classify it as a category of abnormal that I hadn't encountered before.

Follow this, I do a little paperwork and put some stuff in the mail and head for home.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Friday, February 5th

I get into work, grab the WAIS IV and head to the high school to test. I complete my psychological evaluation in record time. The whole thing in less than an hour, including the BASC, interview, and projectives. The student didn't even test out that quickly, he just responded quickly.

I return to the office and spend the rest of my day scoring and writing. I also contact a parent about an appointment on Tuesday for an out of district placement.

I'm scheduled for an appointment at 11am but the family doesn't show until 11:30am. This is somewhat frustrating and there are times when this happens that I almost feel like saying that I don't have time to meet because of another appointment. But I actually need to get this meeting done so I suck it up and get it done. This is another student that needs an out of district placement, bringing my total to three. I need to arrange home instruction for this student until a placement is found.

I get through the rest of the day and nearly complete my report. Next week will involve appointments and creating meeting dates for February IEPs. It is also a short week. Busy, busy, busy.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Thursday, February 4th

Another day and time to get some work done. I get into work, grab a WAIS-IV and head off to the high school to test a student. I get over there and can't find a place to test so I find the student and bring him back to my office which is a block away.

The student has been classified as communication impaired but there isn't any recent speech information. I had been wrestling with the idea of using the Wechsler Non-Verbal but since I didn't know the results of any recent speech evaluation I figured I should stick with the WAIS. But the fates intervene and I run into the speech person assigned to do the eval. She informs me that the student still qualifies for communication impaired and tells me the preliminary results of her evaluation.

I decide to do the WNV since his impairment in the areas of speech and language would skew his verbal comprehension score and thus his overall full scale scores. The student is very interesting and artistic. I have to say that the student provided me with one of the best human figure drawings I have ever seen. This is the only student that has ever drawn a human figure drawing using formal sketching techniques.

After completing the evaluation, I meet with a student who recently lost a parent to a sudden illness. Very sudden and unexpected. There was really not much else to do other than offer the student an opportunity to talk and let 'em know that I was available if they wanted to talk.

I return to my office and begin to work on a the psychological evaluation I just completed. I amaze myself by finishing the report in a little over an hour. Just in time to go to an eligibility conference.

The eligibility conference takes a turn for the surreal. I was only supposed to interpret my psychological evaluation but the case manager gets called away for a sudden...something and I'm left running the meeting. I don't begrudge the case manager, it was just weird. In addition to this, the parent was 30 minutes late and the meeting had to be conducted in Spanish. I get through the meeting and return to the office for lunch.

Shortly after this, I find the psychiatrist that is visiting to do psychiatric evaluations today. He is seeing one of my students in the afternoon. This psychiatrist is really good. He is old school psychiatrist. He actually knows how to conduct projective testing. Several teachers that know the student come over and meet with the psychiatrist as well. It is almost time for me to leave so I head for home after I get the student and the doctor situated.

One more day before the weekend. Tomorrow, I have to test another student and meet with a new student that just moved into the district.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Wednesday, February 3rd

Snow this morning but not enough to delay an opening much less close the school. Oddly enough I'm happy about this because a closing would just screw up my time tables.

I get into work and meet makes some last minute preparation for my field trip to an out of district school for my two annual reviews. I also arrange for transportation for an interview at another out of district placement next week. Now I just have to contact the parent.

Following my preparations, I take a look at my list of evaluations, currently a total of 8 due within the next two months. Two re-evaluations and six initial referrals. Ugh. And it will only get worse before the end of the year. I gather and organize the protocols and make good intentions to test some folks tomorrow. And we all know where good intentions lead.

Now its 10am and time to go on my outing. I bringing a coworker with me. She is new to the whole child study team thing, so I brought her so she could see this particular school.

We get to the school right on time but the students aren't. An investigation leads us to discover that the town that the out of district school is in had a 2 hour delayed opening. So the contracted bus company follows some sort of personal guideline that if it isn't safe for the town's buses to drive in, it isn't safe for them. We do get word from the mother of my second appointment that she is on her way with the student. I also know for a fact that the guardian of my first meeting isn't going to come.

My first student has emotional problems and is cognitively limited. The guardian has just signed rights to DYFS and the student may be moving out of the district to a foster placement. This student hasn't been doing well this year because of the instability in the student's home life. It is a rather sad case.

The second meeting is a much happier affair. A year ago, this student was having aggressive outbursts in another out of district school. This year, the student hasn't had many of these outbursts and is much happier and doing school work. This meeting also involves transition since the student will turn 14 within the time of this IEP. I meet the student and discuss education and work goals for after graduation. Overall the meeting goes quite well and is somewhat inspiring.

It is now 12:30pm and time for lunch. Following lunch, I get back to the office and find out the whole world has been looking for me, if the world consisted of the two supervisors and the AT coordinator. I manage to catch up with two of the three and it isn't anything earth shattering.

I finish out the day with a conversation with my office mate, who, sadly, will be leaving in March for what is hoped to be greener pastures. After that, I head for home.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Uhm, it was a hiatus...yeah, yeah

Ok, it was more like exhaustion and laziness. The past few weeks have been very busy. Without trying to cover all of the things that I have done, I'll try to just give the highlights:

  • Arguing over the price of a neuropsychological evaluation after the agency doing the evaluation gave me one price at the beginning of January and then getting a call a week before the evaluation that the price is now even more.
  • Testing and report writing.
  • Arranging psychiatric evaluation for a student that made a threatening/intimidating statement regarding a teacher.
  • Attending eligibility conferences.
  • Testing and report writing (yes, I know I put this here twice).
  • Risk assessments, ye gads, the risk assessments.
  • Counseling.
  • Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.
Nothing too exciting, aside from the argument with the vendor and arranging the psychiatric evaluation.

I'm very sorry for my absence but I've been emotionally and intellectually drained by the end of the day.

Now for today: Tuesday, February 2nd (Groundhog's Day)
Well the groundhog came out and saw his shadow, so 5 more months of school.

Anyway, I get in this morning after being out sick on Monday (yes, I really was sick). Surprisingly, there was only one phone message...but 16 freakin' emails. Fortunately, about 6 or 7 of those were immediately deletable. Following a review of the emails and a few responses, I get ready for a meeting with an LD and the teachers of a particularly sensitive case to get the information about what exactly the student has been able to do. While waiting for the meeting, I call an out of district school to arrange an interview for another student of mine in need of a placement. I get a date, now I just need to arrange transportation and call the parent.

Just before the meeting is about to start, one of my supervisors comes to me and starts off with those fateful words, "There's a kid in the middle school..." A risk assessment. When asked, I express the importance of my being in the meeting with the teachers. My supervisor accepts this and tries to find another person for the assessment. My meeting begins and we start getting information from the teachers.

About 10 minutes after the meeting starts, my supervisor comes in again and has been unable to find anyone else. So off I go to the middle school. The student supposedly threatened to do bodily harm to another student using a weapon. I do my thing and determine that the student didn't say that he wanted to use a weapon. He just wanted to fight the other student. Apparently, another student started the weapon rumor. This other student has a reputation of trying to stir up trouble between other students.

So I get back to my meeting which is now in full swing. My only issue about missing out on a good portion of the meeting is that I received this student toward the end of last year and everyone else (by which I mean the LD assigned to the case with me, my supervisors, and the transition/assistive technology coordinator) has years of experience with this student and the family. They've all known the case forever. I'm the newcomer and I feel like I have to play catch-up all the time. Fortunately, I'm a quick study.

Anyway after the morning meeting, I prepare paperwork for my two out of district annual reviews on the 3rd.

I also learn that I was assigned a new student who just moved into district. The student has been in out-of-district (OOD) placements in the past and will need to go to one again. I contact the place the student went to before moving from NJ to NY. They tell me they have a placement but the director really didn't feel the student fit into their program. This is a heavy duty psychiatrically based program. For them to say that...oh boy.

A little bit before this, I get a call from another OOD school that I sent an application packet to for my third student that may be in need of an OOD placement. They tell me that they don't think this student is the type that would work well in their program. I agree, it was a long shot anyway but I was looking for an OOD placement that would benefit someone of unusually high intellectual abilities and thought of them. But the acting out behaviors would be too much for them.

Before the end of the day, I make several phone calls confirming appointments and trying to speak to DYFS caseworkers before heading home for the day.