Behaviour support specialists join Safe and Caring Schools teams

Education Minister John Ottenheimer today announced that six behaviour support specialists have been hired to assist Safe and Caring Schools teams in school districts across the province.

"We are making an additional investment in this area because teachers have told us they need training to effectively deal with the small number of students who, because of behaviour issues, demand so much of their time," the minister said. "The behaviour support specialists will provide this training and support through a model that ensures positive school-wide supports for all children, and intensive individual supports for children with challenging behaviours."

Minister Ottenheimer said this initiative reinforces government�s commitment to providing ongoing support to teachers and principals in reducing disruptive classroom behaviours.

"It is critical that our teachers - and our students - receive every support possible in creating and maintaining respectful, positive learning environments," the minister said. "The behaviour support specialists will be part of a provincial network designed to enhance expertise and quality programming for students with severe emotional behaviour disorders."

Building on a province-wide strategy to provide resources and professional development in promoting safe and caring schools, the focus of the behaviour support specialists in the first year will be to reinforce school-wide and individual supports in specific schools where students with severe emotional-behavioural disorders have been identified.

"This work will concentrate on capacity building and prevention, rather than reaction and crisis response," Minister Ottenheimer said. "Through this and other ongoing initiatives of the Safe and Caring Schools Action Plan, members of the school community are developing the knowledge, skills and supports needed to ensure that all schools are secure, healthy places to learn."

Additional information about the Safe and Caring School Initiative can be accessed at www.gov.nl.ca/edu/dept/safesch.htm.

BACKGROUNDER

As a partner in the Violence Prevention Initiative, (www.gov.nl.ca/vpi), the Department of Education is committed to being proactive in addressing issues of violence in our schools, and to the development of safe and caring learning environments.

To assist in achieving this goal, the department has engaged in a series of initiatives designed to strengthen the school environment:

• To address the issue of bullying in schools, the department sponsored a Provincial Forum on School Bullying in May 2002.
  
  
• Forum consultations and follow-up consultations with school district personnel in October 2002 resulted in a province-wide commitment to the provincial Safe and Caring Schools Action Plan.
  
  
• A Safe and Caring Schools Web site has been developed.
  
  
• The department�s resource Policy, Guidelines and Resource Guide on Discipline, Violence and Safe Schools Teams has been redistributed to all school districts.
  
  
• New resources have been provided to schools to assist in programming for safe schools. Last year, a comprehensive bullying prevention program entitled Focus on Bullying: A Prevention Program for Elementary School Communities and Focus on Harassment and Intimidation: Responding to Bullying in Secondary School Communities was purchased for every school.
  
  
• The department has developed and delivered a two-day teacher in-service Meeting Behavioural Challenges: Creating Safe and Caring Learning Environments.
  
  
• Recent research indicates that effective interventions for students with severe emotional behaviour disorders must take place within the context of effective school-wide and classroom-wide initiatives. In that light, training for those schools with children with severe emotional behaviours will incorporate both the school-wide interventions, as well as strategies to work with those children with challenging behaviours.
  
  
• The behaviour support specialists will be part of a provincial network designed to enhance expertise and quality programming for students with severe emotional behaviour disorders. Inter/intra-agency collaboration and problem-solving will be an essential component of this position.

Media contact: Lynn Salter, Communications, (709) 729-0048

2004 09 14                      10:20 a.m.