Latest news with #AmyHall
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How one school district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall, left, special education director, and Samantha Lapointe, elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Troy Bennett/Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Maine school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Maine Morning Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: info@
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
How one Maine district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall (left), special education director, and Samantha Lapointe (right), elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Photo by Troy Bennett / Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Topsham-area school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. May 21: Restraint and seclusion are only supposed to be used on students in emergency situations. Accounts from families and educators show how districts' interpretation of state law vary widely and how traumatic the experiences can be. May 22: State data reveals only a fraction of Maine's schools and districts are consistently reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion in violation of state law. Even with the underreporting, Maine schools are relying on these practices thousands of times per year. May 23: How one district worked with researchers to change its approach to student behavior and significantly reduced the use of restraint and seclusion 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Barber Shop Marketing Wins National Recognition for Creative Excellence and Strategic Campaigns
Leading North Texas Advertising Agency Represented City of Richardson and Town of Addison DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 7, 2025 / The Barber Shop Marketing, a full-service agency based in Addison, Texas, continues to earn national acclaim for its standout creative and strategic work, securing multiple awards for its recent campaigns with the City of Richardson and Town of Addison . The agency received a prestigious Gold Hermes Creative Award for its marketing campaign for the 2025 Cottonwood Art Festival, celebrating the long-running arts tradition with bold, engaging design and multi-platform storytelling that captured the spirit of the event and expanded its reach to new audiences. The campaign stood out in a competitive field for its artistic flair and community resonance. In addition, The Barber Shop Marketing earned Honorable Mention distinctions from the Hermes Creative Awards for two other initiatives: the Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival and the Addison Performing Arts Centre rebrand. Both campaigns showcased the agency's commitment to elevating the town's cultural offerings through dynamic branding, creative execution, and results-driven strategy. Further cementing its reputation, The Barber Shop Marketing was also named a Best of Clutch 2025 winner for Digital Marketing Campaigns, specifically for its continued partnership with the Town of Addison. This recognition highlights the agency's exceptional performance in digital strategy, client collaboration, and measurable impact within the public sector. "We are incredibly proud of the work we've done with the Town of Addison and City of Richardson and honored to be recognized by both the Hermes Creative Awards and Clutch," said Amy Hall, President of The Barber Shop Marketing. "These awards reflect our team's dedication to creativity, innovation, and meaningful community engagement." For more information about The Barber Shop Marketing and its award-winning work, visit About The Barber Shop Marketing: The Barber Shop Marketing is an award-winning, full-service marketing and advertising agency based in Dallas, Texas. Known for its strategic excellence and creative techniques, The Barber Shop partners with industry-leading clients, including Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical, Bill Dickason Chevrolet, City of Richardson, CXE, Inc., Guardian Roofing, Gutters & Insulation, Microlife USA Inc., Town of Addison, Wade College, and WindowCraft Windows & Doors. The Barber Shop Marketing delivers a comprehensive suite of services including brand strategy, creative development, media planning and buying, digital marketing, social media management, public relations, and search engine optimization. For more information about The Barber Shop Marketing, visit or phone (214) 217-7177. Follow The Barber Shop Marketing on Facebook at or on LinkedIn at
