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

Schools can play a powerful role in the prevention and intervention of substance misuse with students. For students to succeed in school, substance use and other risk behaviors should be addressed as they can have a negative impact on future academic and career outcomes.

Per House Bill 23-1009, the Secondary School Student Substance Use Committee developed a report to support secondary schools in building systems that identify students who need substance use treatment and subsequently provide needed interventions, resources and referrals. Join us to learn more about the recommendations in the report and identify how your school can help address and support student needs.

Participants will be able to:
1. Describe the report recommendations to utilize Multi-Tiered Systems and Support (MTSS) and the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral (SBIRT) models to prevent, identify and address student needs for behavioral health supports.
2. Identify available resources and tools to appropriately address and support student substance misuse needs.
3. Relate the information to what is currently available in their setting to modify or enhance existing systems to meet student substance use needs.

Boulder Valley School District presents the structural framework to incorporate the skills and knowledge of the school nurse to provide comprehensive substance use prevention education, mental health education, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels of support and care to students experiencing substance use, and mental health needs. Through a cross collaborative team-based approach, nurses provide essential supports to students. We will look deeper into a school nurse day, their collaborative team structures and district frameworks to elevate the nurse role within the school and classroom.

Session Objectives:

• Understand the school nurse role in mental and behavioral health support
• Apply takeaways to advocate for more involvement from your school nurse to provide comprehensive care and support in the school building.
• Implement leadership strategies to provide the support to school nurses to provide substance use education, prevention and intervention, along with mental health and behavioral health support.

Utilizing a trauma-informed approach with highly mobile students is an important practice to avoid re-traumatizing youth. Rather than punishing students for things they can’t control, we want to give youth the support and resources they need to succeed. Learn from Colorado State University independent student presenters about some of the school policy challenges and how K-12 staff best supported them through their highly mobile experiences. Join us for this interactive session equipping participants with what we need to know for supporting youth in a trauma informed way through school systems.

Session Objectives
Conference attendees who engage in this session will be able to accomplish the following:
• Summarize what a trauma-informed approach looks like in a middle/high school setting
• Identify best practices for engaging with highly mobile students navigating school systems
• Discuss that college is a safe place with a middle school or high school student