Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Safe Act Workshop

Dear Colleagues,

In June, 2017, LISPAN hosted a workshop on the reporting requirements for the NYS SAfe Act.  This is a law that went into effect in 2013, but due to its being rolled out through the NYS Office of Mental Health and not by NYSED, school districts have received very little information re: implementation of the Safe Act.

The SAFE Act reporting requirement extends to "mental health professionals," defined in the law as four professions – physicians (including psychiatrists), psychologists, registered nurses, or licensed clinical social workers.  This includes those professionals employed in schools.

LISPAN will be hosting a second Safe Act workshop on Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at the Western Suffolk BOCES Conference Center. Registration in now open online in MLP.  Anyone who wishes to attend but does not utilize MLP may contact Susan Kessler at skessler@wsboces.org for assistance with registration.

It is anticipated that this workshop will fill to capacity, so please have your crisis teams register soon.

The two best web resouces for understading the Safe Act are as follows:

In light of the recent school shooting in Florida, I have received a number of inquiries about a Threat Assessment Training known nationally as the Virginia Model, developed by Dr. Dewey Cornell.  Here is a detailed description of this model: 

http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourceLibrary/Virginia_Model_for_Student_Threat_Assessment_overview_paper_7-16-10.pdf

LISPAN is in the process of working with Sandy Hook Promise to bring this training to Long Island in the fall at no cost to LISPAN districts.  More information to follow.  This event will be open to LISPAN member districts only.

Sincerely,
Anthony Pantaleno, Ph.D.
Coordinator, LISPAN
P. O. Box 589
Lynbrook, NY 11563
(631) 543-8336
www.lispan.org