REMARKS
Training and programs to address challenging behaviors and mental health support
1:08:17
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104 sec
Suzanne Sanchez, Chief of Special Education, outlines various training programs and initiatives implemented by the DOE to address challenging behaviors and provide mental health support for students with special needs. She emphasizes the importance of integrating mental health support with learning.
- Training for over 7,000 school staff, bus drivers, and NYPD cadets on handling intensive behaviors
- Implementation of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Schools program
- Expansion of the PATH program for young children with emotional disability classifications
- Introduction of 80 Century Gym sites providing sensory and social-emotional learning support
Suzanne Sanchez
1:08:17
I'm gonna jump right into that.
1:08:21
And I wanna say that as a parent of an 18 year old who recently graduated, I'm very focused and clear on the challenges around mental health and how important these supports are for all of our children and, appreciate raising that topic here.
1:08:36
Dial, our new division, focuses on training school staff on intensive behaviors.
1:08:41
We have also trained over 7,000, school staff, bus drivers, bus attendants, and as deputy chancellor Forte mentioned in her, testimony, NYPD cadets and NYPD recruits and our school safety officers as well.
1:08:56
We're also training school staff on therapeutic crisis intervention for schools, which is an evidence based research method on supporting challenging behaviors.
1:09:06
This year, our PATH program has grown.
1:09:10
The PATH program is a program specifically designed to support young children, typically boys of color who have an emotional disability classification, and paraprofessionals to your initial point are trained and integrated deeply into that program.
1:09:28
I wanna quickly share as well, our Century Gym program that DC Foti mentioned.
1:09:33
These are 80 Century Gym sites across New York City that provide families and students with sensory and social emotional learning behavioral supportive techniques, on-site, hands on, from a dedicated and gifted clinician.
1:09:48
These are all parts of our work towards supporting students around mental health, which is incredibly important.
1:09:55
And as we know, we can't separate out mental health from learning, and they have to go hand in hand, and we're very focused there.