Care Team Collaborative Update:

• Educational Reform: Here are a few highlights regarding educational reform passed in July 2009.
  Most of Governor Strickland’s educational reform plans were included in the state biennial budget. Significant changes are in the pipeline regarding: academic content standards, graduation requirements, teacher licensure, early childhood education and funding. To learn more about these new requirements, go to http://www.ohiocareteam.com/whatsnew.htm and click on the link for “Ed Reform Documents”.

• Family & Civic Engagement: School districts and their community’s are now mandated to work collaboratively to address non academic barriers to learning for all children. Soon, all districts (except those that are Excellent with Distinction) will be required to appoint a Family and Civic Engagement (FCE) Team. These FCE Teams must have parents, district staff, social service agency personnel, businesses and community members. FCE Teams will work together to create 5 year plans to address the non academic barriers faced by children in their district. All FCE Plans will have to be approved by county Family and Children First Councils. Districts will also have to report progress annually to their community and Family and Children First Council. A specific timeline has not yet been created for this process. More information will be provided as this process is rolled out by Ohio Department of Education.

• Family Community Liaisons(Linkage Coordinators): This year, all traditional Ohio public school districts received funding in a new category called “Family Community Liaisons”. While this is NOT new money, districts have been told that they will soon have fiscal reporting requirements to show how they are utilizing Family Community Liaisons (or Linkage Coordinators) to address non academic barriers. Districts will be required to work with their county Family and Children First Councils to design job descriptions for Family Community Liaisons and then begin to ensure they provide these services. The timeline has not been created. More information will be provided soon by Ohio Department of Education.

• Ohio Supreme Court Ruling Affects Biennial Budget: This week Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to add video slot machines at Ohio's horse-racing tracks is subject to a referendum, potentially creating a nearly $1 billion hole in the state budget. To view the Columbus Dispatch article go to: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/09/21/aslots.html

• Other important news:
  HR 6893: Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (enacted October 2008): This law provides for significant reforms to the child welfare system and will require many changes in the way schools, communities and child welfare service providers care for children in foster care and/or eligible for adoption. While few are familiar with this legislation, it is slowly bringing to bear new requirements. One of the key changes involves educational stability. Every state is required to develop plans to ensure educational stability of children in foster care. Case plans will be required to include assurances that a) placement takes into account appropriateness of current educational setting and proximity to the school which the child is enrolled at the time of placement; b) coordination with school district to ensure that the child remains in that school (if appropriate); c) if remaining at the school is not appropriate then agency and school district must provide immediate and appropriate enrollment in a new school with all educational records provided. While this requirement is not currently widely known, state child welfare agencies and courts are in the process of designing implementation strategies. School and community leaders should begin preparing strategies to implement this requirement in the near future. To learn more about these new requirements, go to http://www.ohiocareteam.com/whatsnew.htm and click on the link for “Fostering Connections to Adoption Act”.

• Highlighted Grant:
  SPCA Supporting Funds for Know!, a program empowering parents to raise their children to be substance-free. These supporting funds will assist in the implementation of the Know! program within at least eight school communities. Any middle school (individual school or school district) within Ohio is eligible to receive these supporting funds. Please see the attached documents for further details and how to apply today! The deadline for submission is October 30th, 2009. For questions, please contact Know! Project Director Michelle Morse at mmorse@DrugFreeActionAlliance.org or at the Know! Fact Line at 1-866-999-KNOW.

• REGISTER Now for Search Institute’s Healthy Communities*Healthy Youth Conference November 5-7 in Cincinnati OH. Go to www.searchconference.org for more information.
  

Care Team Collaborative In the News:

• Care Team Collaborative was chosen as SFY09 Exemplary Prevention Program by ODADAS (Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services). This award was made official during a presentation at the Ohio Prevention Education Conference in Columbus Thursday, November 20. Congratulations to the hundreds of teachers, parents, students, community agencies and faith based partners who have made Care Team Collaborative such a success in Muskingum, Coshocton, Morgan and Franklin Counties!

• Care Team Collaborative accepted the award from Ohio School Board Association Southeast Region as a New/Innovative Program Award recipient! Thank you to the hundreds of people in Muskingum, Coshocton, Morgan and Franklin Counties who work so hard every day to make great things happen for Ohio’s children!

• Registry of Effective Practices is Now Online: Earlier this spring we had the pleasure of announcing that Care Team Collaborative was chosen by the Ohio Department of Mental Health’s Network for School Success to be one of the first Effective Practices listed on their new web based tool “Effective Practice Registry”.  This link is now live!  You can learn more about Care Teams and the data behind our work as well as several other high quality mental health in schools collaborations in the state by visiting: http://www.units.muohio.edu/csbmhp/network/careteam_mvesc.html

• Ohio Summit on Children Video Series is Online: The Ohio Summit on Children featured 3 videos focusing on different aspects related to understanding youth needs and effectively supporting youth.  Care Team Collaborative was featured in the “Promising and Proven Practices” video.  All three videos are excellent and can be viewed by visiting: http://www.summitonchildren.ohio.gov/resources/videos/default.html