The Bear Necessities for PAT
September 26, 2015
Information Sharing
I want to take this opportunity to update you on several things. Our October staff mtg will be very different, it is PD only. I will be in Jeff City that day working with DESE. Our training on this day will be brought to you by Truman Medical Center, regarding depression screenings for parents. This is a tool I am thrilled you will get to add to your tool belt. Referring folks on using this tool will be no different than referring using any other screening tools we use. We know that mental health is a problem many won't discuss, we want to empower your families to seek help when they need it. The issue is that we often don't really know and the parent does not really know if they need help, this tool will give guidance on this issue.
Do your families know about our Facebook page? We post our upcoming events, we post articles and will begin posting articles/websites that we would like parents to access. PLEASE remind them to like us while you are scheduling the next visit, they are placing that visit date in their phone, ask them right then to go look for us on Facebook!! Lee's Summit R7 Parents as Teachers
Teens
Group Connections for teens do count for DESE reimbursement, but they do not count for a "visit" as an affiliate family. To count as an affiliate family visit, a teen must be seen in the home.
Enrollment Date
Per PATNC, we must change our ENROLLMENT DATE to the date of the first visit. PLEASE make sure you change this, it really does matter regarding compliance on "Affiliate Status", especially in the areas of LSP and Screening.
High Needs Visits...YES they can be a 3-5 family
Please refer to the DESE guidance provided you last month. If you need families, please make sure you are visiting your high needs families. Our DESE quota did NOT give a percentage of 3-5 families we can see. It only gave us a percentage for High Needs=75% and Non High Needs=25%. Please do not let those high needs 3-5 families go without visits, you can make a huge difference.
HIGH NEEDS - Look at the family...not just the children
When you put a picture of that family into a photo frame, are there high needs? Please remember that the children do not have to be high needs for a family to be high needs.
3-5 Kiddos NON HIGH NEEDS
Please keep your 3-5 kids at this point. This topic is on our PAT PLC agenda for discussion. We will continue to gather info from other district regarding what they do with their 3-5 kids who are not high needs. Please make sure to send any feedback to the PAT PLC Team for discussion.
LSP Guidance
DESE does not require scores to be entered.
You will complete a new LSP on each affiliate family each year. Each LSP will have a new date.
The LSP should guide you in writing your goals.
If you do not have answers to LSP questions as you come close to that "First 90 Days" timeline, please indicate that you do not have the information and complete the assessment. Mark it as complete within VTW by 90 from first visit (which as it states above, is now your enrollment date).
Family Agreements
These should be completed with families on your first home visit.
Tracy is editing to include a sentence under "screening" to include the LSP. It currently says we screen children, it does not indicate that we screen families.
Please watch for a new copy on the shelves soon.
First Steps
Please remember to refer to First Steps, it is not your job to determine if they will meet eligibility, it is simply your job to let parents know the program is out there and that there child might benefit from services.