2024 CDE Fall Conference: Creating a Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging

Mental health screening can serve as a powerful tool for schools in determining school-wide, classroom, and individual student needs. This presentation will begin with a brief discussion of what mental health screening is and isn’t as well as why it’s important in schools. Resources to support mental health screening will be presented, with the goal of providing participants with a clear understanding of the steps necessary for planning and implementing screening as well as the access to a curated set of tools needed to do so.

Session Objectives:

Participants will be able to:
(1) define mental health screening and its importance in schools
(2) describe the steps necessary to plan for and implement mental health screening
(3) navigate a curated set of resources and tools designed to support schools in carrying out these steps

Attendees will gain an understanding of the overarching need for comprehensive sex education (CHSE), and youth disparities as it relates to their sexual health outcomes particularly for LGBTIQA+, BIPOC, disabled youth, youth survivors of sexual violence, and those traditionally left out of sex education. They will also learn the need for anti-racist and anti-oppressive CHSE and strategies for implementing it in the classroom. Lastly, folx will walk away with recognizing CHSE as a multi-prong approach to addressing suicide prevention, substance use, mental health, and sexual violence among other critical factors that impact young people and hence their health outcomes.

Session Objectives:

1. Promote and encourage conversation around the value in promoting work around anti-racist and anti-oppressive sex education in schools and districts in Colorado
2. Speak to and discuss the value in leveraging data collection opportunities and efforts to speak to diverse and critical issues in sex education
3. Discuss CHSE as an approach for addressing suicide prevention, substance use, mental health promotion, sexual violence, etc.

Explore the transformative power of the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) in enhancing student mental health and academic success. This session delves into the integration of mental health supports across MTSS's three tiers, emphasizing strategic use of interconnected systems frameworks.
Participants will discover how to build a culture of care through Tier 1 supports, apply advanced interventions in Tiers 2 and 3, and harness collaboration for holistic student wellbeing.

Session Objectives:

1-Comprehensive Understanding of MTSS: Master the structure and application of the three-tier support system in MTSS, focusing on specific mental health interventions to enhance student outcomes.
2-Strategic Implementation Skills: Learn to implement foundational mental health supports at Tier 1 and effectively apply targeted interventions at Tiers 2 and 3 to address more complex student needs, including crisis management.
3-Collaboration and Systems Integration: Develop the ability to enhance mental health support through the use of an interconnected systems framework, improving collaboration across educational stakeholders and boosting the efficacy of mental health initiatives.