As I was thinking about what I should post, it dawned on me that I think this blog could really benefit me in that I can ask other colleagues who are in leadership positions for advice and tips to help build my leadership tool-kit.
As someone who works closely with the leadership team at my school, there are somethings that are very unclear to me. My main concern is, as an administration, what options do you have when you have exhausted all your options with a challenging student?
He is a primary grades student who was recently diagnosed with a mental illness. He is a master manipulator-- extremely smart, but exhibits extremely, extremely challenging behaviors. The teacher is to the point where she is ready to quit.
As the administration staff, we have exhausted all our options: RTI, SST, Referrals, Conferences (and what makes it worse, the parent KNOWS what goes on), Psychological Intake Referrals, BAPS, Behavior Analyst Observations etc. As the RTI/SST Specialist, everyone turns to me and I am like- I am not a behavior analyst.
At what point does enough become enough? What is one to do?
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ReplyDeleteMichael-I'll share something that I did three times as a principal. It is certainly the "nuclear option", and you would need to check with school policy before doing this. I'm certain that there are also some Georgia guidelines that are different from my experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhen working with some some extremely difficult students, our school team believed the students had some mental illness that needed some type of treatment. Unfortunately, the parents weren't supportive or willing to help in any way. We continually documented student words and actions. Once the tipping point had been reached, we took our documentation to county support services. We documented that we believed the students were a danger to themselves or others. At this point, things get pretty serious. Within a very short period (a couple hours), that documentation is taken in front of a judge. The judge must immediately look at the documentation and determine if the student could potentially be a harm to themselves or others. If so, the judge gives the order to have the student taken into custody and to be placed in a mental facility for an evaluation. The evaluations typically lasted from 3-7 days.
I have had mixed results with this approach, but it has never made things worse. Some students were able to receive a correct diagnosis and be put on appropriate medication. For other students, things unfortunately didn't change.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI, too, feel like this blog will be very beneficial to me as a leader. It's a great place to share what's going on, get input and feedback, and do so in a confidential way.
I wish I had some advice to share, but your post this week is a learning post for me. One of the things that I am taking from this is, as always, keep careful and thorough documentation. Thank you for posting!
What kind of behaviors is the student exhibiting? I can probably give you some help/tips to take back to your team (since this is pretty much what I do all day long...deal with these kinds of kids! :-). I just need to know the specifics. Let's talk in class next week. Or call/email me. What kind of "mental illness" was he diagnosed with? That matters in the treatment plan. I'm certainly not a doctor or a psychologist, but in my 13 years of doing this, almost inevitably, the kids with these types of behaviors in school have been abused in some significant way. So with the student being that young, if this is the case, the scope of treatment would definitely be beyond what the school can provide alone.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I definitely agree with Dr. Sauers in documenting the harm to self/others behaviors. But, in order to document the stuff the judge needs to see, you have to have pretty tight data to get that type of reaction from the courts.
Kristin, Schizophrenia. I mean it is scary how he can "turn it on and off" One moment he is totally fine, then the next he will say, I am going to act bad and all **** breaks lose. We have tried strategies, have documentation, as well as invited the BCBA's out to observe.
DeleteWhat kind of behaviors is the student exhibiting? I can probably give you some help/tips to take back to your team (since this is pretty much what I do all day long...deal with these kinds of kids! :-). I just need to know the specifics. Let's talk in class next week. Or call/email me. What kind of "mental illness" was he diagnosed with? That matters in the treatment plan. I'm certainly not a doctor or a psychologist, but in my 13 years of doing this, almost inevitably, the kids with these types of behaviors in school have been abused in some significant way. So with the student being that young, if this is the case, the scope of treatment would definitely be beyond what the school can provide alone.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I definitely agree with Dr. Sauers in documenting the harm to self/others behaviors. But, in order to document the stuff the judge needs to see, you have to have pretty tight data to get that type of reaction from the courts.