S.-14 22-2270 Approval by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 2223-0007 - Authorizing Use of Sole Source Exception to Public Bidding for Contract by and between the District and Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), Milwaukee, WI, and approving Services Agreement 2022-2023 between the Parties, for the latter Party to provide - 500 Verbal Intervention licenses; - Five on-site, Nonviolent Crisis Response training sessions that each accommodate up to 40 people, led by CPI Instructors; and - Eight slots for OUSD staff to become trained as trainers in Nonviolent Crisis Response for the purpose of training newly-hired personnel, via the Special Education Department, for the period of October 6, 2022 through December 31, 2023, in an amount not to exceed $234,000.00
For YEARS OUSD has needed a coordinated system of behavioral support. CPI is one such system and training should be widely available to site staff including all special education staff, culture and climate staff, and at least one administrator per site. Every site. It is great to see that OUSD staff will be trained as trainers. This is essential to the work of reducing suspensions.
I am a veteran special education teacher who has deeply experienced the urgency of this item: when my certification for working with students requiring skilled hands-on crisis intervention expired, I had to travel a long and frustrating road to get the training I knew I needed and my students deserved for me to have, and I currently work in a site where I am the ONLY fully trained and certified individual, even though a TEAM response is needed. We MUST provide all school staff with the tools that are necessary to intervene in situations of behavioral crisis in ways that reduce rather than exacerbate trauma. At the same time, I urge the Board to continue partnering with personnel in special education and behavioral health--including ON THE GROUND PRACTITIONERS as well as project managers and high-level leadership--to help truly craft and distribute district-wide policies and resources that are trauma-informed as well as effective: this is one tool, but it is not the whole toolbox.
For YEARS OUSD has needed a coordinated system of behavioral support. CPI is one such system and training should be widely available to site staff including all special education staff, culture and climate staff, and at least one administrator per site. Every site. It is great to see that OUSD staff will be trained as trainers. This is essential to the work of reducing suspensions.
I am a veteran special education teacher who has deeply experienced the urgency of this item: when my certification for working with students requiring skilled hands-on crisis intervention expired, I had to travel a long and frustrating road to get the training I knew I needed and my students deserved for me to have, and I currently work in a site where I am the ONLY fully trained and certified individual, even though a TEAM response is needed. We MUST provide all school staff with the tools that are necessary to intervene in situations of behavioral crisis in ways that reduce rather than exacerbate trauma. At the same time, I urge the Board to continue partnering with personnel in special education and behavioral health--including ON THE GROUND PRACTITIONERS as well as project managers and high-level leadership--to help truly craft and distribute district-wide policies and resources that are trauma-informed as well as effective: this is one tool, but it is not the whole toolbox.