September 2021

Social Emotional Learning
and Equity

Resource Shared From: The National Equity Project

You may have read that there are concerns that Social Emotional Learning does not meet the needs of all of our students, especially those historically marginalized by educational systems.  The National Equity Project provides guidance and resources for schools to ensure SEL is infused within an equity framework.  

The National Equity Project states that “…to build equity consciousness and capacity, we need to create significant time for professional learning, reflection, and collaboration so that educators have regular opportunities to:

• increase their own self-awareness of how their various social identities in terms of race, class, gender, language, etc. shaped their own educational experiences and shape their definitions of success and their interpretations of student behavior
• build their knowledge of and reflect on the history of race, racism, and exclusion in the United States and build their skill for discussing this history with students in the context of lessons and class discussions
• deconstruct, reflect on, and design lessons that support the active valuing, engagement, and development of the whole child
• learn about the neuroscience of learning; those signals that trigger a “threat” response especially for students of color as well as strategies explicitly designed to decrease stress and generate a sense of calm and well-being
• develop a repertoire of approaches for building trust, especially across race, class, and culture.”

You can also find a resource guide that highlights pitfalls and recommendations for educators seeking to implement SEL to make progress on equity and inclusion here. Learn more about SEL and Equity on the National Equity Project website https://www.nationalequityproject.org/frameworks/social-emotional-learning-and-equity.

Excerpt from “Protecting Pupil Rights”

Resource Shared From: Carolyn Stone, writing for ASCA Magazine

This month we are highlighting an excerpt from a very important article that Carolyn Stone wrote for the March/April 2021 ASCA Magazine, Protecting Pupil Rights.  This article walks through all the laws and legal guidelines that need to be taken into consideration by schools and counselors in supporting students’ emotional well being, including the use of screeners. You can find the article in it’s entirety at https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/March-April-2021/Protecting-Pupil-Rights.  

Scenario: An increasing number of your students appear to have more mental health concerns since the start of the pandemic. You want to require all students to complete a survey about any mental health problems, suicidal ideation, counseling needs, psychological problems and family mental health issues they may have. Are there any legal and ethical considerations in conducting this survey?

In 1978, Sen. Orrin Hatch sponsored the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), commonly referred to as the parental consent amendment. If a school district wants to require students to reveal personal information about themselves or their family, the school must first obtain written parental consent. PPRA expressly requires schools receiving federal funding to obtain written consent from parents/guardians and non-federally funded schools to give notice before requiring minor students to participate in any “survey, analysis or evaluation that reveals information concerning the following areas:

• Political affiliations;

• Mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student and the student’s family;

• Sex behavior and attitudes;

• Illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;

• Critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships;

• Legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians and ministers;

• Religious practices, affiliations or beliefs of the student or student’s parent;
• Income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program” (United States Department of Education, 2020).

PPRA applies to all educators, not just school counselors, and applies to instructional materials regardless of the format of the material: printed, audio-visual, electronic or digital. The exception is academic tests, which was tried in court when parents insisted on viewing state tests in advance. In Triplett v. Livingston County Board of Education, KY Court of Appeals, 1997, the court stated, “Parents do not have the right to opt out of state tests, since none of the questions of those tests would trigger the protections of the PPRA.” 

To reiterate, compliance differs based on funding streams. If the survey involves information from any of the eight protected categories and is from a school receiving federal funds, then written parental consent of the survey is required. If the school doesn’t receive federal funds but the survey still deals with highly sensitive information, the parents must still be notified in advance and given the opportunity to opt their child out of participating.

A New School Year, New Resources for Students

By: Wisconsin Technical College System

If you haven’t visited the Wisconsin Technical College System’s website for a while, you may be surprised when you get there. Earlier this year the System combined two websites into one, providing one-stop shopping for everything from program information, to System initiatives, to graduate outcomes.

Combining these sites into one, www.wtcsystem.edu, provides a comprehensive place for information to help you better serve your students. Now you can visit one site to find which colleges offer which programs and what the outcomes are for students in various pathways or apprenticeships. You can see the median salary for apprenticeships, for example, is over $81,000/year, based on real-world outcomes from the 2019-2020 apprenticeship completers. Additionally, you can find information on how to attend a WTCS Board meeting, find contact information for the technical college of your choice, and learn more about the System’s most recent initiatives.

While we have been busy revising the website and available content, we are also keeping with tradition and preparing to send out the annual guidebook and career posters. These materials have been updated to include the latest information on the technical colleges, including the name change of a college in Northwest Wisconsin to Northwood Technical College. We are also printing career posters in English, Spanish and Hmong to display in your offices or classrooms.

We mailed postcards this summer to the schools on our most recent mailing list requesting advance orders for these materials. If for some reason you did not receive this request or you didn’t have a chance to place an order, it’s not too late. You can still place an order online at www.wtcsystem.edu/order and receive your materials shortly after school starts. Even though many things have changed in the past year, we will continue to print the guidebook and posters and will accept orders throughout the year.

We wish you well as you launch into the 2021-22 school year. Be sure to check the website this fall to view the new interactive version of the guidebook – www.wtcsystem.edu/guidebook