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Clinician’s Corner: An Update From Felicity’s Social Emotional Support Staff

Hello Felicity Families and Partners!
Our clinical staff has definitely been busy in our first month back at school. From assisting with in-person transitions of students to communicating with families about the new school year to checking in weekly with our remote students, our clinicians have been non-stop!

We have had a couple of changes to our clinical team this year. Felicity has our two full time school clinicians, Ms. Greenawalt and Ms. Swillum continuing with the team this year. Ms. Swillum and Ms. Greenawalt are responsible for our day to day clinical operations such as meeting with students individually, communicating with families and providers. Our full-time school clinicians also meet with our part-time clinical staff in order to determine who would benefit from additional therapeutic interventions such as expressive therapy from Ms. Freberg or group therapy from Mr. Gielow.

In addition, we have a part-time art therapist, Ms. Freberg, joining us this year. Ms. Freberg has previously been with Felicity and is looking to reconnect with students as well as build relationships with our new students. Our part-time substance abuse counselor, Mr. Gielow, is continuing with our Felicity clinical team as well. Mr. Gielow has been working with our Felicity clinical team since the school opened!

Our clinical team has also created some new processes this year to assist in providing resources to students, families and districts. Specifically, the clinical team developed a working spreadsheet detailing local mental health resources for students and families to utilize outside of school. Additionally, this year, our Felicity clinical team is working more often with creating data collection methods to provide to our districts for IEP’s. Our clinical team has created a number of surveys that addresses topics such as clinician feedback, general mental health, anger, impulse control, school avoidance and anxiety. We hope that we will be able to bring awareness to previous negative experiences at school and provide a bridge for students, families and our district partners for solid, measurable goals.

Last but not least, we have been also working on our professional development skills as a team. The Felicity mission reflects our desire to help students grow emotionally and academically and we continue to strive to improve our practices. To this end, our staff all completes professional development in Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI). This program is a cornerstone of the Felicity model which emphasizes de-escalation techniques and maintaining proper focus on the needs of our students. All staff have completed this training with David Carrillo, an LSCI expert and Felicity Advisory Board member, leading the training. In addition, all Felicity staff participate in yearly CPI training led by our own CPI trainer Andi Freberg. This in-service stress proper behavioral management techniques ensuring all Felicity staff shares the same approach and language across our school. Our full time clinical staff have also had great opportunities to complete online CEU’s and certifications involving specializations of Telementalhealth and anxiety interventions to help our students.

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Starting the 2020-2021 School Year

Felicity School has officially started off this unconventional school year with some big changes. We have been looking forward to reuniting with our students and providing necessary in person support, especially encouraging the social-emotional learning skills to be sharpened. Felicity staff has enjoyed seeing students get re-acquainted and has remained impressed by the students appropriately embracing the safety measures and policies put in place this year.

Additionally, our Felicity staff has been doing some behind the scenes improvements. In order to best smooth out these processes and IEP procedures, our Director of Student Services, Mr. Luskin, and lead teacher Ms. Wright, have started Teacher Mentor Meetings once a week after school. This will also further strengthen communication with our district and community partners.

Overall, Felicity is incorporating as much normalcy to our academic environment as possible. A dedicated 25’ X 18’ space was reconfigured to enable full classroom space. The ‘room’ has a new turf ground with lounge furniture and bleachers allowing for personal interaction combined with social distancing. With the fall and winter approaching, the addition of three outdoor space heaters will allow students to enjoy the outside for a few more months. The addition of a beautiful awning covering the space protects users from the sun and inclement weather while creating a cozy atmosphere conducive to learning, see a visual below!

Additionally, a dedicated area for several grills has provided outdoor cooking and eating opportunities for students and staff alike. Last but not least, no outdoor space is complete without opportunities to be active. A newly installed basketball hoop and court provides a physical outlet for the Felicity students. Cornhole/Baggo sets, a “life size” chess board (complete with all pieces), and other outdoor activities have highlighted the court usage throughout the early fall.

For some additional spaces to gather for meetings and encourage safety, a 20’ x 10’ portable tent is another outdoor space for students that is available. These areas have been great for clinicians, groups, and teachers to meet with students who need a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery.

Additionally, we have been working on creating some safe, “hands on” activities for academic and social emotional growth for students such as new types of groups, science experiments and new activities in P.E. We thank all Felicity students and families for taking this transition so smoothly and hope for a positive, safe school year!