An Insider’s Guide to

Working with School Boards in

OntarioSandy PalinskiManager, Special Education Policy and Programs BranchOntario Ministry of Education

Kathy ShortDirector, School Mental Health ASSISTHamilton-Wentworth District School Board

Objectives

• To welcome you as a partner in the Ontario Mental Health and Addictions Strategy

• To provide context about the education sector & our commitments to the Strategy

• To help you to successfully navigate the complex world of school boards

WELCOME!The Ontario Mental Health and Addictions Strategy is an exciting initiative and we

all have an important role to play in ensuring success…for the children and

youth in our province.

Overview

• Brief Tour of the Education Sector

• EDU Commitments to the MHA Strategy

• About School Mental Health ASSIST

• Understanding School Board Culture

• Practical Considerations and Suggestions

THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN ONTARIO

A Brief Tour of

Federal Responsibilities

Federal government responsibilities with regard to education: education of Aboriginal students (especially on

Reserves) funding of instruction of and in the official language of

the minority (English in Québec, French in other provinces and territories)

funding of programs to welcome newcomers to schools education of inmates in federal prisons funding of adult training for the labour market funding of university research scholarship and loan programs for students in

postsecondary education of members of the armed forces

Because Canada has no federal Department of Education, a coordinating organization was needed

The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) was established in 1967 as a forum in which Ministers of Education deal with issues of mutual interest and concern

All 13 provinces and territories are members, but not the federal government

Through the Council, Ministers consult and act on matters of mutual interest, and they consult and cooperate with national education organizations and the federal government

http://www.cmec.ca

Council of Ministers of Education

Government & Education in OntarioOntario follows the British parliamentary system:

Government departments are headed by Ministers , elected MPPs who have been appointed by the Premier to Cabinet

The Minister of Education is responsible for child care, elementary and secondary education. The Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities is responsible for employment /training programs and postsecondary education.

Deputy Ministers are civil servants responsible for operation

Through the Education Act, the Ministry of Education provides leadership and develops education policy

Ministry of Education PrioritiesThe Ministry of Education seeks to promote a strong, vibrant, publicly funded education system that is focused on three goals:

1. High levels of student achievement

2. Reduced gaps in student achievement

3. Increasing levels of public confidence in publicly funded education

District School Boards

The Education Act delegates responsibility for governance of schools to four sets of district school boards, all of which are fully funded by the provincial government

Ontario’s 5,000 publicly funded schools are grouped in 72 district school boards: 31 English Public (secular or non-religious: open to all

students) 29 English Catholic 4 French Public 8 French Catholic

DID YOU KNOW??

Our context, our challenge

Trustees-------------Director ofEducation

Superintendents

Principals and Managers

Teachers and Support Staff

TrusteesElected every 4 yearsReceive honoraria (are not salaried)----------------------------------------------Staff Are employees of the school boards

Key Responsibilities of School BoardsOpening and closing of schoolsAdministration /enforcement of policyImplementation of programs Delivery of curriculum

Structure of District School Boards

Publicly Funded Schools

Elementary schools usually offer Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 8 (ages 3

or 4 to 13 or 14)

Secondary schools Grade 9 to Grade 12 (ages 13 or 14 to 17 or 18)

Provincial schools The ministry directly administers eight Provincial and

Demonstration Schools for deaf, blind, deaf/blind, and severely disabled students; About 800 students are enrolled in the Provincial and Demonstration Schools

Education in Ontario: Quick Facts Publicly funded schools in Ontario = 4,923

4026 elementary 897 secondary

Number of students = almost 2 million 1,355,440 elementary 715,296 secondary

Number of teachers in publicly funded schools = 116,179 72,207 elementary 43,972 secondary

Number of principals /vice-principals in publicly funded schools = 7,368 5,375 elementary 1,993 secondary

COMMITMENTS TO THE MENTAL HEALTH & ADDICTIONS STRATEGY

Ontario Ministry of Education

15

Provide fast access to high quality service

Kids and families will know where to go to get what they need and services will be available to respond

in a timely way.

Identify and intervene in kids’ mental health needs early

Professionals in community-based child and youth mental health agencies and teachers will learn how to

identify and respond to the mental health needs of kids.

Close critical service gaps for vulnerable kids, kids in key transitions, and those in

remote communitiesKids will receive the type of specialized service they need

and it will be culturally appropriate

TH

EM

ES

IND

ICA

TO

RS • Reduced child and youth suicides/suicide

attempts

• Educational progress (EQAO)

• Fewer school suspensions and/or expulsions

• Decrease in severity of mental health issues through treatment

• Decrease in inpatient admission rates for child and youth mental health

• Higher graduation rates

• More professionals trained to identify kids’ mental health needs

• Higher parent satisfaction in services received

• Fewer hospital (ER) admissions and readmissions for child and youth mental health

• Reduced Wait Times

OVERVIEW OF THE MENTAL HEALTH & ADDICTIONS STRATEGY - FIRST 3 YEARS

INIT

IAT

IVE

S

Provide designated mental health workers

in schools

Implement Working Together for Kids’ Mental

Health

Hire Nurse Practitioners for eating disorders program

Improve service coordination for high needs

kids, youth and families

Implement standardized tools for outcomes and needs

assessment

Amend education curriculum to cover

mental health promotion and address stigma

Develop K-12 resource guide for educators

Implement school mental health ASSIST program &mental health literacy

provincially

Enhance and expand Telepsychiatry model and

services

Provide support at key transition points

Hire new Aboriginal workers Implement

Aboriginal Mental Health Worker Training Program

Create 18 service collaboratives

Expand inpatient/outpatient services for child and youth

eating disorders

Reduce wait times for service, revise service contracting, standards, and reporting

Funding to increase supply of child and youth mental

health professionals

Improve public access to service information

Pilot Family Support Navigator model

Y1 pilot

Increase Youth Mental Health Court Workers

Provide nurses in schools to support mental health

services

Implement Mental Health Leaders in selected

School Boards

Outcomes, indicators and development of

scorecard

Strategy Evaluation

Interconnected Initiatives

School Boards

Health care settings

Community settings

MOHLTCNurse LeadersMHA Nurses in DSB programService CollaborativesSSLI

MCYSMH Workers with SchoolsWorking Together Student Support Leadership Initiative (SSLI)

EDUSMH ASSIST SSLI

Schools are an optimal setting in which to:Reduce stigmaPromote positive mental health Build social-emotional learning skillsPrevent mental health problems in

high risk groups Identify students in needCreate bridges to needed services

The MHA Strategy Recognizes that Schools

Have a Unique Opportunity

EDU Strategy Commitments

• Amend the education curriculum• Develop a K-12 Resource Guide/Website• Provide support for professional learning in

mental health and addictions for all Ontario educators

• Fund and support Mental Health Leaders• Implement School Mental Health ASSIST

LNS SS_Lto18

LNS SS_Lto18 Positive

School Climate

Positive School

Climate

Learning for All

Learning for All

Leadership Strategy

Leadership Strategy

Growing Success

Growing Success

Student Voice Student Voice

Parent Engagement

Parent Engagement

Accepting and Safe Schools

Strategy

Accepting and Safe Schools

Strategy

Aboriginal Education

Strategy

Aboriginal Education

Strategy

Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy

Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy

BIP for Student Achievement

BIP for Student Achievement

K-12 School Effectiveness

Framework

K-12 School Effectiveness

Framework

Healthy Schools

Healthy Schools

Mental Health& Addictions

Strategy Connections

Amend the education curriculum

Implement School Mental Health ASSIST

Develop a K-12 Resource

Guide /Website

Fund and support

Mental Health Leaders in

school boards

Provide support for professional

learning in mental health and addictions for educators

Related EDU Initiatives

School Mental Health is Not New

• Schools and communities in Ontario and elsewhere have been dealing with these issues for decades

• Inconsistent, fragmented approaches, with pockets of excellence…

• What’s new is the galvanizing of research, policy and practice to reach an integrated solution to a complex problem

OUT OF THE SHADOWS AT LAST 

The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology

The Honourable Michael J. L. Kirby, Chair

May 2006

Making the school a site for the effective delivery of mental health services involves several key steps.  First, its potential must be recognized.

National School Mental Health• School-Based Mental Health & Substance Abuse

Consortium

• Canada’s Mental Health Strategy (MHCC)• Evergreen• National Infant Child & Youth Mental Health Consortium• Opening Minds

• Joint Consortium for School Health• Public Health Agency of Canada• Canadian Association for School Health• Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse

Release of SBMHSA Findings

MH Promotion Prevention Intervention/Ongoing Care

School/Class-wide Social Emotional Learning is associated with enhanced prosocial ability and academic achievement

Internalizing

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy / Behavior Therapy that is skill-based and builds protective factors can reduce symptoms

CBT/BT focused on core elements like social problem solving, cognitive restructuring, relaxation

Externalizing

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy / Behavior Therapy that builds conflict resolution and anger management skills can reduce symptoms

CBT/BT focused on core elements like identifying cues for aggression, resisting automatic aggressive impulses, alternative behaviors

Substance Use

Mixed results – best strategies are interactive and build refusal and life skills

Insufficient evidence

Meta-Synthesis of Reviews

Report of 150 nominated programs and strategies, from every province

Across the Evergreen continuum Development and adaptation driven by need, resulting in

islands of innovation Inconsistent alignment with evidence, inconsistent use of

local evaluation

Actionable messages Build tools to support coherence and decision-making

NATIONAL SCAN DATABASE Support evaluation and scale up of research-consistent programs

Release of SBMHSA Findings

Scan of Nominated Best Practices

Release of SBMHSA Findings

National Survey of Schools and Boards

Broad Findings85% of board-level respondents, and 65% of school-level participants, indicated they were

concerned or very concerned about student mental health and/or substance use

Over 80% of respondents indicated that there are unmet student mental health and/or substance use needs in their board or school

Most Common – Problems With: attention & learning, anxiety, substance use, social relationships & bullying, oppositional behavior & aggression, depressed mood

Identified need for organizational conditions at the school and board level (board policy, clear service pathways, infrastructure, role clarity, systematic PD)

Inconsistent coverage of the continuum of care in boards and schools. Primary focus on identification and referral, individual intervention and crisis intervention

Implementation Barriers include: insufficient resources in schools/communities, insufficient qualified staff in school boards, need for parent engagement/collaboration, need for

promotion/prevention programming, need for systematic PD for educators

• International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Schools http://www.intercamhs.net/

• US – Canada Alliance for School Mental Health

• Advances in School Mental Health Promotion

• Key conferences featuring School Mental Health 7th Annual World Conference on Mental Health Promotion and Treatment of

Behavioral Disorders, October 17-19, Perth, Australia 17th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health, October 25-27, Salt

Lake City, Utah 26th Annual Children’s Mental Health Research and Policy Conference, March 3-6,

Tampa, Florida

International School Mental Health

Taking Mental Health to School Ontario• Different models of mental health service delivery

across boards (Taking Mental Health to School, 2009)

Variable leadership structures, variable levels and types of professional support, variable relationship with community, variable range of services

• Educators are very concerned about student mental health, but feel ill-prepared to provide support

• Acknowledgement of promising supports (e.g., Student Support Leadership Initiative)

Need for leadership, coordination, access to evidence-based approaches,

implementation support, evaluation

School Mental Health ASSIST is a provincial implementation support team designed to help Ontario school boards to promote student mental health and well-being, through leadership, practical resources and systematic research-based approaches to school mental health.

Ontario Ministry of Education Lead Special Education Policy & Programs Branch

School Board Lead Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board

SMH ASSIST Core Team Director, and 4+ P/T Implementation Coaches (3 Senior School Mental Health

Professionals, 1 Superintendent),.5 Research Associate (new!)

Cross-Sector Partners Interministerial Staff Team Hospital for Sick Children, Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child & Youth MH Provincial Stakeholder Organizations

Evaluation and Implementation Consultation Team Drs. Michael Boyle, Bruce Ferguson, Tom Kratochwill, Robert Lucio, Ian

Manion, Doris McWhorter, Karen Milligan, Caroline Parkin, Joyce Sebian, Mark Weist

Leadership Structure

Priorities

1. Organizational Conditions for Effective School Mental Health

2. Mental Health Capacity-Building for Educators

3. Implementation of Evidence-Based Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Programming

Organizational Conditions

1. Commitment

2. School Mental Health

Leadership Team

3. Clear & Focused Vision

4. Shared Language

5. Assessment of Initial

Capacity

6. Standard Processes

7. PD Protocols

8. School Mental Health

Strategy / Action Plan

9. Broad Collaboration

10. Ongoing Quality

Improvement

Top 10 List

Capacity-Building

Mental Health Awareness Mental Health Literacy

Mental Health Expertise

Basic mental health information, tailored for different school board

audiences

Deeper working knowledge for those who have a direct role in supporting student mental health (creating

mentally healthy schools & classrooms, recognizing early

signs of difficulty)

Skills and knowledge for SMH professionals to

effectively provide evidence-based

promotion, prevention, and intervention

ALL SOME FEW

Capacity Building is not an event! It is an iterative deepening of knowledge embedded in school board life. It takes time.

Resources should be tailored for different education audiences

• Not all programming in school mental health is helpful for all students. Some programming, though well-intentioned, is benign or harmful for certain populations.

• Program implementation standards are critical (training, coaching, fidelity to protocols, evaluation)

• SMH ASSIST can help boards to select and sustain appropriate mental health promotion and prevention programs and strategies

Mental Health Promotion & Prevention

Resources• Webinar series, other staff development materials

• Decision support tools• Templates• School Administrators’ Toolkit

Consultation

Workshops

Representation on provincial reference groups & committees

Support to ALL Ontario boards

• 15 boards were Focus Boards in 2011-2012, another 15 announced for 2012-2013

• Boards receive 1 FTE Mental Health Leader and SMH ASSIST support

• Reciprocal relationship with SMH ASSISTASSIST provides leadership &

implementation supportFocus Boards help with piloting resources

that will be rolled out to all boards in time

Focus Boards

Focus Boards

Algoma DSBAlgonquin and Lakeshore Catholic DSBCSD Catholiques Centre-SudCSD des écoles catholiques du Sud-OuestCSD du Nord-Est de l'OntarioDistrict School Board of NiagaraHamilton-Wentworth DSBHastings and Prince Edward DSBHuron-Superior Catholic DSBKeewatin-Patricia DSBKenora Catholic District School BoardPeel DSBSimcoe-Muskoka Catholic DSBToronto Catholic DSBTrillium Lakelands DSB

Selected for geographic, language, Catholic/Public representation, along a

continuum of School Mental Health capacity

CSD catholique des Grandes RivièresCSD du Grand Nord de l'OntarioGrand Erie DSBHalton DSBLakehead DSBLambton Kent DSBLondon District Catholic DSBNortheastern Catholic DSBOntario North East DSBOttawa Catholic DSBSimcoe County DSBThunder Bay Catholic DSBToronto DSBUpper Grand DSBYork Catholic DSB

Mental Health Leaders• Mental Health Leaders are senior mental health

professionals hired by District School Boards to: Provide leadership & coordination in school mental health, conduct/update a mental health needs assessment, co-create a Board Mental Health Strategy, oversee the implementation of the Board MH Strategy, support community collaboration

• Mental Health Leaders work closely with Superintendents with responsibility for mental health, and existing school mental health professionals to tailor the role for the board

Work within a community of practice, participate in SMH ASSIST leadership modules, receive ongoing coaching

Visit SMH ASSIST

http://smh-assist.ca/

Understanding School

Board Culture

What Life in School Boards is Really Like…

A day in the life of a school• We teach students, age 3 through 18+,

literacy, numeracy, content, character, coping, career…

• We get them to school safely on buses, feed them, clean up cut knees and wipe away tears, watch them play, learn, make mistakes, and help one another

• We provide extra support to vulnerable students

• We assess progress, maintain records, aggregate data

• We reach out to parents • We collaborate with our community partners

We support one another, and our students , every day…

Education Priorities

• Academic learning is our primary responsibility

• Important to make the connections between mental health and academic achievement

• Boards create an annual achievement plan (BIPSA)

• Schools create an annual achievement plan (SIP)

• Boards and schools follow a planning / monitoring process called the School Effectiveness Framework

Getting Started…

• Learn about the board(s) – they are each unique

• Make contact with the Superintendent responsible for student mental health

• Connect with the Mental Health Leader, if present & the Chief Social Worker / Psychologist

• Confirm expectations for the role (scope, focus)

Some Good Questions…• Who has lead responsibility for student

mental health in the board?• Is there a board mental health

leadership team? May I join?• Who provides mental health services in

the board currently? Who does what?• Does the board have a mental health

strategy? What are the key priorities?

Resource Mapping

• If your board has a Mental Health Leader, then a resource mapping will have been completed

• This mapping is meant to illuminate system strengths and gaps, for use in the development of the board mental health strategy

• In many boards, the mapping extends to school level resource/program information, to assist with school programming decisions

Professional Learning

• Movement towards working together in a climate of collective inquiry towards a clear focused educational goal

• Cross-classroom, cross-division, cross-school, cross-department, cross-board

• Aligns with research on adult learning and teacher preferences

Tiers of Intervention• Key initiatives that are foundational to

mental health ascribe to a tiered model of intervention (e.g., Student Success, Learning for All)

• This aligns with the national Evergreen framework, and the public health model Mental health promotion, prevention, intervention and

ongoing care

• Boards deliver promotion & prevention routinely, and many have mental health professionals who provide intervention services

But there is much to do and we rely on our partners for help!

Tiered Support in Systems of Care

Universal Evidence-BasedMental Health Promotion, Social-

Emotional Learning

Targeted Evidence-Based Prevention

E-B ClinicalIntervention

Evidence-Based Clinical Intervention

Targeted Evidence-Based Prevention

Universal E-B Mental Health Promotion

Community

School BoardsIm

plementation Focus

Questions for Reflection…

Contact Information

Sandy PalinskiManager, Special Education Policy & Programs Branch

Ontario Ministry of EducationSandy.Palinski@ontario.ca

Kathy ShortDirector, School Mental Health ASSIST

Hamilton-Wentworth District School BoardKathy.Short@hwdsb.on.ca