David Urion, M.D.
January 12^th, 2011

Registration 8:00 am – 8:30 am
Program 8:30 am- 2:00 pm
1 Cranberry Hill
Lexington, MA 
One piece of commonly held wisdom in schools and the legislature has been the idea that the rising costs of special education, and the rising number of students enrolled in special education, is primarily an issue of definition. That is, districts might be able to control these numbers if they were stricter in defining who had a learning disability. Implied in this was the idea that parent and advocacy groups were “pushing” for diagnoses of learning disabilities. Cost containment, therefore, would be achieved by more effective regulation, the essential approach of the last two decades.In 2001, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents published a study showing that the rising costs of special education in the Commonwealth were driven by factors other than definitional ones. A wide variety of factors, including rising childhood poverty rates, the increase in survival of former premature infants with significant educational needs by school age, the closing of the bureau of special schools without returning dollars along with students to districts, were demonstrated to be more accurate predictors of rising special education costs. The report was delivered both to the legislature as well as a national meeting on reforming special education. Ten years later, where are we now? How did this report influence policy and practice, as we examine the evidence?  We will review the 2001 report, and Dr. Urion, one of its authors, will discuss his recent work examining the last ten years of these same trends.

October 1st, 2010

8:30 am - 2:00 pm

1 Cranberry Hill, Lexington, MA

Free for members; $50 for non-members

Many children entering mental health treatment are, or have been, victims of abuse and neglect. Often their diagnoses include Bipolar disorder and they are placed on multiple psychotropic medications.  Data from one residential program in Massachusetts shows children leave the program on 65% less medication than on admission.  If children are able to come off significant amounts of psychiatric medications during a residential stay, what does it tell us about their underlying psychiatric condition and future treatment needs? Are we missing trauma in our formulations of children’s behavioral difficulties?   Using a multi-disciplinary and trauma-informed assessment and treatment protocol not only are children being prescribed less medication but they are leaving with completely different diagnoses and understandings of their behavioral disorders. Practice trends in children’s mental health are increasingly viewing behavior as the product of biological conditions and this is fueling an exponential increase in the dependence on psychiatric medications as the primary treatment for behavioral conditions.  This presentation will challenge the assumptions fueling these trends and provide participants with a knowledgebase to advocate for youth to receive comprehensive mental health assessments from multi-disciplinary teams with experience in trauma.

8:30 am - 2:00 pm

Middlesex Community College, Lowell, MA

Free for members; $50 for non-members

Truancy and tardiness are concerns for many school districts. Attendance issues correlate with lack of school achievement, juvenile delinquency and dropping out of school. This summit will bring together representatives from schools, the law enforcement community, Department for Children and Families and the court system to explore root causes of attendance problems and to make positive recommendations to combat truancy and tardiness. This very informative summit was presented last spring and is being repeated due to high demand.

Rosalind Wiseman returns as our guest speaker! Rosalind is an internationally recognized expert on teens, bullying, social justice and ethical leadership, who will deliver a keynote address about anti-bullying and violence prevention. Although Rosalind has written several books highlighting the dynamic of teenage female meanness, including bullying, gossip and exclusion, Rosalind’s message relates to both genders. She promotes a safe and supportive school climate where every individual acts responsibly for their own behavior. Her presentation will explore the legal, criminal, and ethical implications of bullying, along with addressing the following questions: When does bullying become a crime? What can be done to protect children, both at school and in the community? How does the juvenile justice system deal with bullying, cyber bullying, and sexting? What can schools do to protect themselves from liability claims? These are the questions that will be discussed by a panel of educational and legal experts.

Matthew MacAvoy will explain the pitfalls that public school educators face when dealing with student records regulations, especially when a student has been identified as having disability and has an IEP. How to foster student safety and appropriate services/placements while abiding by laws concerning privacy is a key topic that educators frequently grapple with.

D.A. District Attorney Gerry Leone points to his White Ribbon in support of the Movement against Women’s Violence while speaking to the Students of Somerville High School commencing a day of workshops against dating violence sponsored by his office. The Program is part of a pilot program D.A. Leone hopes to implement throughout Middlesex County. 

The Students of Somerville High listen to the Mayor speak of the importance of their programs.

SOMERVILLE - Somerville officials teamed up with Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone last week to launch an awareness campaign on teen dating violence campaign at Somerville High School.

Leone, who appeared with Mayor Joe Curtatone and Police Chief Anthony Holloway, called upon the people in attendance to engage in the ‘ethical health’ of their peers.

“You are important because you’re our future,” Leone said. “[Teen dating violence] is a real problem, a huge problem, and people see it and don’t do anything about it.”

The program, the brainchild of Leone, saw students go through a day of workshops and seminars designed to help students understand and identify dating abuse among their peers, and work towards stopping it.

Somerville High was chosen as the first school to test this program by Leone, who was impressed with a video public service announcement created by a group of students last year.
 

Before the workshop, Leone spoke to the students about their own personal stake in the community and their power to change things for the better.
Speaking from his personal experience, Leone lamented violence in youth, and spoke passionately about stemming it.

“We can put ‘em in jail, but it shouldn’t take that, because it’s wrong,” he said. “It shouldn’t take penalties and crimes to get someone to treat people the way they would wish to be treated.”

Somerville police were on hand to help with instruction, and Chief Holloway reiterated his desire to see the community take the issue to heart.

“I don’t want to arrest people,” he said. “I want more prevention done.”

The program was well received by the students, who agreed that dating violence needs to be addressed.

“I notice that a lot of people, even from my close friends, are in relationships that have abuse in them,” junior Taylor Copelan said. “Not necessarily physical abuse, but verbal abuse definitely.”

The student workshop included educational videos and role-playing scenarios staffed by social workers and police officers. The curriculum was designed to help identify key emotional factors in abusive relationships, and then find ways to confront people and help them.

“Some students are not educated about being in a healthy relationship should be so they don’t really know what domestic violence is really about,” junior Rylene Louis said. “I didn’t realize how serious it was before the program, but now after it’s much easier to approach people about it, and know more about it.”

Leone is optimistic about the method of influencing students, and hopes to implement similar programs in other schools across his district. He said a PSA contest for another hot-button topic — drunk driving — will be announced soon.

As you know, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, MPY, Inc., and REACH Beyond Domestic Violence launched a project in which we asked high school students from throughout Middlesex County to create and produce their own Public Service Announcements in an effort to speak out against teen dating violence.

After receiving 35 outstanding entries from more than 200 students, we are pleased to announce the winning PSA which was submitted by a group of students from Somerville High School. The video, entitled “A Cry For Help,” was created and filmed by the following students: Mitch Freitas, Jason Corey, Aakash Sharma, Jerry Alphonse, Anthony Bohan, and Stefanie Vivian. To view the winning video, please click-here.

We announced the winner live on the Fox Morning News. To view a clip of the Fox interview of the students and District Attorney Leone, please click-here.

Their PSA was selected as the winner by a vote of more than 1,000 high school students across Middlesex County and it will now be submitted to local television stations for possible airing across the state.

We are so proud of the great work and leadership shown by so many high school students on this important issue. We also want to thank all of the teachers and advisors who were so actively involved.

In fact, the project was so well received that we hope to make this an annual project that can touch on a number of different issues that confront our teens.

Thanks again for your participation & support!