Hey, y'all.
Jan. 2014
Welcome, Amanda!
Amanda Heterbring, our new school psychologist, is from Buffalo, NY by way of Ohio so she may not know to use "y'all" instead of "yous guys" yet, but we'll break her in soon. Before you know it she'll be eating grits and sweltering in our August humidity. If you have interesting ideas for South Carolina day trips, send them her way. We want Amanda to feel like a southern belle by the time the magnolias are in bloom. But for now, she has jumped in feet-first at CES, which is a hoppin' place to be. She is also getting a crash-course in all things preschool from Lisa Richardson. She will continue to loan out test kits housed there and send us protocols she may have; just email or give her a call.
Amanda packed her car and drove from Ohio on Jan. 1, and was at work before 8:00 on Jan. 2. We've been keeping her a bit of a secret till she was approved by the board on Jan. 13. She is engaged to be married in July and her fiance, Daniel (tall guy on the left), is moving here, too. Amanda has a sister who is a field hockey coach at Newberry College.
Amanda had already made plans to attend NASP so look for her there, or better yet, stop by CES and say hello if you are in the vicinity!
Amanda packed her car and drove from Ohio on Jan. 1, and was at work before 8:00 on Jan. 2. We've been keeping her a bit of a secret till she was approved by the board on Jan. 13. She is engaged to be married in July and her fiance, Daniel (tall guy on the left), is moving here, too. Amanda has a sister who is a field hockey coach at Newberry College.
Amanda had already made plans to attend NASP so look for her there, or better yet, stop by CES and say hello if you are in the vicinity!
Don't Let it Sneak Up On You!
Who can believe it's already mid-January?! The end-of-year chores are coming sooner than we think; don't let them sneak up on you! Let's take a little time NOW to get our ducks in a row; it'll feel soooo good later.
EPMS reviews: What kind of progress are you making toward your goals? Are you keeping track of what you're doing? Are you collecting some kind of "evidence" of having met your goals? It's not too late...yet!
Eval and Re-Eval Logs: It's crazy to search back through files and calendars to recreate your logs at the end of the year (I've done it, so I know). Get them up-to-date now and keep them up-to-date. Plus, at any time we may need to ask for them to pull data, so keep 'em ready.
File purging: It's never too early to start purging unnecessary paperwork from psych files for students going to another school next year.
Medicaid filing: If you've gotten behind with your monthly Medicaid filing, this is a good time to get caught up. Pretty soon Rene will let me know who's behind and I'll have to start nagging. I hate nagging; it makes me such a...nag.
EPMS reviews: What kind of progress are you making toward your goals? Are you keeping track of what you're doing? Are you collecting some kind of "evidence" of having met your goals? It's not too late...yet!
Eval and Re-Eval Logs: It's crazy to search back through files and calendars to recreate your logs at the end of the year (I've done it, so I know). Get them up-to-date now and keep them up-to-date. Plus, at any time we may need to ask for them to pull data, so keep 'em ready.
File purging: It's never too early to start purging unnecessary paperwork from psych files for students going to another school next year.
Medicaid filing: If you've gotten behind with your monthly Medicaid filing, this is a good time to get caught up. Pretty soon Rene will let me know who's behind and I'll have to start nagging. I hate nagging; it makes me such a...nag.
Eval/Re-eval Data
So, with all these new test versions coming out I'm working on a cost comparison between Pearson's traditional kits and the Q-Interactive approach. In order to estimate the number of subtests we administer (really???) I gleaned some data from our 2012-2013 logs. We had looked at these numbers the year before but not for 12-13. So here it is (drum-roll):
Initial evals: 272
Full re-evals: 179
Partial re-evals: 116
So: 272 + 179 = 451 + 116 = 567
Now, this data is not perfect. For example, we need to separate when a re-eval is speech only and right now that's not a separate drop-down choice on the re-eval log; some of us note it but otherwise it's a guess.
But still, that's a lot of testing.
So, wanna take a stab at how many subtests we administer?!
Initial evals: 272
Full re-evals: 179
Partial re-evals: 116
So: 272 + 179 = 451 + 116 = 567
Now, this data is not perfect. For example, we need to separate when a re-eval is speech only and right now that's not a separate drop-down choice on the re-eval log; some of us note it but otherwise it's a guess.
But still, that's a lot of testing.
So, wanna take a stab at how many subtests we administer?!
Tidbits
- Evaluating ADHD for OHI? Remember that we always do an achievement assessment.
- Our 504 Child Find responsibilities for a private school student are to provide information and evaluation, just as we would with a child enrolled in public school. It would be the private school's responsibility to determine whether or not they must provide 504 protections for the student.
- There is no definition for an expedited evaluation timeline except "less than 60 days." Make sure the timeline the team chooses reflects the level of concern for getting the data quickly.
- Scott Heubner from USC sends his thanks for the observations we arranged back in the fall for his first year students. Scott wanted to drop by one of our meetings to thank us in person but our meeting times don't jive with his schedule. Know that he and his students appreciate it very much.
Don't know the word for that feeling?
Dave Matthews and Grover sing a song about finding the words to describe how they're feeling. Check it out.
Sesame Street: Dave Matthews and Grover Sing about Feelings
Prescription medical food for ADHD
Have recently begun hearing about this product. Just FYI.
Vayarin_Animation movie
HOLIDAY! YEA!
It's a long stretch till spring break, so really enjoy your day off this Monday, Jan. 20!