** Want more renewal credits for the same workshops? Consider registering for the event for Winthrop University credit: coming soon
SOUTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS
2025 Spring Conference
School Psycs and Mental Health
March 27-28, 2024
Myrtle Beach Hilton
AND Virtual through Zoom
Reservation link: coming soon
SCASP is approved by the National Association of School Psychologists to offer continuing education for school psychologists. SCASP maintains responsibility for the program.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Full-day Workshop
Thursday, March 27, 2025
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM Snacks/Coffee and Registration
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM Full-day Workshop (1 1/2 hour break for lunch)
Promoting Students’ Complete Mental Health in a Multi-Tiered Framework
Research provides robust evidence that students’ mental health is closely tied to their school behavior and academic achievement, and suggests critical developmental periods for prevention and intervention efforts. In addition to preventing and reducing mental health problems, fostering students’ subjective well-being (i.e., happiness) is essential to ensuring optimal outcomes. This professional development will convey best practices in promotion of student complete mental health, through implementation of universal programs and practices that build social-emotional-behavioral competencies and prevent psychological problems, identification of students in need of supplemental services, and provision of evidence-based interventions to enhance the subjective well-being of all students and teachers in the classroom.
Morning session: Supporting Students’ Mental Health in a Multi-Tiered Framework
This workshop describes best practices in promotion of all students’ emotional and behavioral health, in part to eradicate barriers to learning that stem from mental health problems. Empirical links between students’ mental health and academic success will be summarized. This research-based rationale for school mental health services suggests priority needs, as well as critical developmental periods for prevention and intervention efforts. Participants will learn best practice models for promoting student mental health through a multi-tiered framework that includes universal (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2), and indicated/individual and crisis services (Tier 3). Addressing the Tier 1 level, participants will learn programs and practices to promote all children’s emotional well-being and reduce/prevent emotional and behavioral problems. In addition to preventing and reducing mental health problems, enhancing students’ subjective well-being is essential to ensure optimal outcomes. This presentation will put forth a model of complete mental health that directs attention to both positive and negative indicators of well-being and problems, respectively. This dual-factor model has been incorporated into statewide and district planning for fostering students complete mental health (e.g., https://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/313/Spotlight%201%20Fostering%20Mental%20Health%20Final.pdf and https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fostering-the-emotional-well-being-of-our-youth-9780190918873?cc=us&lang=en&). At the Tier 2 level, participants will become familiar with example evidence-based options for time-limited programs for common mental health challenges. Planning for the Tier 3 level, participants will consider district personnel and community resources likely to be the most appropriate partners for various mental health services.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this half-day training, attendees will have knowledge in each of the following areas:
- A. How Complete Mental Health Links to Students’ Academic Success
- a. Knowledge of traditional and current conceptualizations of mental health (e.g., disease/distress model vs. comprehensive models of “Complete Mental Health” from a positive psychology perspective that include indicators of wellness in addition to emotional distress)
- b. Knowledge of studies that demonstrate links between students’ mental health (including happiness) and their academic achievement and schooling experiences
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- B. Essential Features of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports to Promote Complete Mental Health
- a. Knowledge of evidence-based programs and practices recommended for inclusion in a multi-tiered framework for school mental health that includes universal (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2), and indicated/individual and crisis services (Tier 3).
- b. Knowledge of assessment options, such as universal screening of student mental health, to systematically identify students for supplemental support through Tiers 2 and 3.
- c. Knowledge of systems change considerations during implementation of a MTSS for complete mental health, including creating school teams and partnerships, securing buy-in from key stakeholders, and data-based decision making.
Afternoon Session: Positive Psychology in Education: Fostering Happiness and Relationships at School to Improve Student Outcomes
This workshop will convey best practices for promoting student complete mental health, through positive psychology programs and practices that generate positive emotions and build social-emotional-behavioral competencies. Positive psychology conceptualizes mental health as the presence of strengths, virtues, and happiness. This training will increase participants’ knowledge of how to assess and promote students’ happiness. Evidence-based positive psychology programs and practices across a range of psychological services will be reviewed, including universal (schoolwide and classwide), small-group, and individualized interventions. Participants will learn how to administer, score, and use tools to measure positive psychology constructs, such as life satisfaction and character strengths. Participants will learn specific programs and practices for promoting all children’s happiness through strategies that target improvements in the factors correlated with children’s subjective well-being, including positive teacher-student relationships evident in schools with a healthy climate, as well as students’ personal levels of gratitude, hope, and use of character strengths.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this half-day training, attendees will have knowledge in each of the following areas:
- A. Introduction to Positive Psychology: Understanding and Assessing Key Constructs Relevant to Students’ Happiness
- Knowledge of key constructs within the field of positive psychology, including subjective well-being (i.e., happiness), character strengths, strong relationships, and how these constructs relate to youth resilience
- Knowledge of how to assess positive psychology constructs (i.e., subjective well-being, character strengths) among youth and how to use data from such assessments in (a) universal screenings of student mental health, and (b) progress monitoring and evaluative efforts
- Knowledge of how positive psychology fits in with other services in a multi-tiered system of supports for student mental health
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Positive Psychology Programs and Practices to Increase Happiness
- Knowledge of a time-limited intervention to improve teachers’ happiness and reduce burnout
- Knowledge of universal (Tier 1) programs and practices for promoting students’ well-being through schoolwide and classwide prevention efforts that strengthen relationships, and cultivate positive emotions about the past, present, and future
- Knowledge of targeted (Tier 2 and Tier 3) positive psychology interventions for promoting students’ happiness.
Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.,is a Professor in the School Psychology Program at the University of South Florida. She received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of South Carolina in 2004. She is a Licensed Psychologist in the state of Florida and continues to provide school-based mental health services to youth in the Tampa area. She has extensive research and clinical experiences in school-based mental health services, including: establishing empirical links between student mental health and academic success; conceptualizing and measuring student mental health in a dual-factor model that considers psychopathology and well-being; evidence-based positive psychology interventions for promoting positive indicators of student well-being; schoolwide strategies to identify youth with mental health problems; and supporting teachers’ emotional well-being. She also studies the stress, coping strategies, and mental health of high school students in accelerated courses, and is Principal Investigator of two large federal grant to identify and build factors that predict success among students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. She is also Principal Investigator of a large federal grant to evaluate a selective positive psychology intervention to increase middle school students’ subjective well-being. She has published more than 75 studies that convey findings from her research on how to assess and promote complete mental health. She is the author of Promoting Student Happiness: Positive Psychology Interventions in Schools, a 2016 book within the Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series; co-editor of Fostering the Emotional Well-Being of our Youth: A School-Based Approach, a 2021 book published by Oxford; and co-editor of the Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools: Supporting Process and Practice (3rd edition), a 2022 book published by Routledge (see https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Positive-Psychology-in-Schools-Supporting-Process-and-Practice/Allen-Furlong-Vella-Brodrick-Suldo/p/book/9780367855864)
Friday, March 28, 2025
7:30 AM – 8:00 AM Snacks/Coffee and Registration
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM - Full day workshop
Integrating Mental Health Services within a Multi-tiered system of support
Integrating and Evaluating Mental Health Systems within Schools
Solution-focused Emotional and Behavioral Assessment (SEBA) Model
· Outline of Components of SEBA Model (i.e., serviceable base rate)
· Outline of SEBA model decisional tiers -Case Study with SEBA Model (i.e., universal screening data)
Essential Components to Tier I Services
· Prevention Science Frameworks and Research
· Implementation and Evaluation of Tier I Services
· Consultative Approaches and Case Study for Facilitate Tier I Services
Universal Screening
· Research and Impact on Student/System Outcomes
· Outline of Screening Measures and Components
Connecting Universal Screening to Intervention
· Revisit SEBA Model decisional tiers
Effective Components for Tier 2 intervention
· Implementation and Evaluation of Tier 2 Services
· Problem Analysis for Tier 2 Services
SEBA Model Group Activity Facilitation
· Small Group Activity for Screening to Intervening Using the SEBA model
Considerations for Sustainability
Logistical Considerations for Implementing and Sustaining Integrated Mental Health Systems within Schools
Learning Objectives
Conceptualize key components necessary to integrate mental health services within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support at Tiers 1 and 2
Understand and describe how the Solution-focused Emotional and Behavioral Assessment (SEBA) model processes can be utilized in integrating mental health services within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support at Tiers 1 and 2 levels
Identify relevant resources and best practices for sustainability and scalability for integration of mental health services within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support at Tiers 1 and 2 levels
Bio: Dr. Nate von der Embse is a Professor of School Psychology at the University of South Florida and Co-Executive Director of the School Mental Health Collaborative, a national research and technical assistance center. His research improves educational decision-making by identifying the influence of external policies and contextual drivers while developing novel solutions to improve the use of preventative school mental health services. He received the 2018 Lightner Witmer Award for early career scholarship from Division 16 of APA, is a co-developer of the SAEBRS screening tools that are used in all 50 states, and the author of the recent book, Conducting Behavioral and Social-Emotional Assessments in MTSS: Screen to Intervene.
