Kunsmiller Creative Arts Elementary
Safety and SEL programs to start next week
10/07/22, 3:18 PM
Dear KCAA Parent or Guardian:
As part of our effort to support the Whole Child, our school will be implementing a universal social and emotional screening for students grades 4-10, as well as providing suicide prevention programming for our fifth, sixth and ninth grade students starting next week.
Universal social and emotional screening can provide a fair and impartial way of looking at how students are progressing in their social and emotional development. Screenings can also help identify areas where school personnel can improve or adjust our supports.
Universal social and emotional screenings/suicide education programs are NOT an assessment or an evaluation. Instead, they are useful tools to help identify students who may need extra support.
Denver Public Schools currently uses a social and emotional screening questionnaire called the Behavior and Emotional Screening System (BESS) and our suicide prevention curriculums are Riding the Waves (5th grade) and Signs of Suicide (6th/9th).The BESS takes approximately ten minutes to complete and consists of 28 questions for the student to answer. We plan to utilize time during morning meetings for students to complete this questionnaire. The social and emotional screening may occur two or three times over the course of the school year. Repeated screening helps us determine if the supports we provide to students are effective in meeting their needs. SOS will be presented once during a class period, and Riding the Waves is a 12 week program.
You have the right, upon request, to review the questions on the screener. If you would like to review the questions on the social and emotional screener, please contact our school psychologist or school social worker, Shannon McKinney (psychologist) 720-424-0150 and/or Elisabeth White (social worker) at 720-424-0172 or by email shannon_mckinney@dpsk12.net and elisabeth_white@dpsk12.net
You also have the option to EXEMPT your child from participating. If you DO NOT want your child to participate in social and emotional screenings or suicide prevention, please indicate so by signing and returning the form and/or notifying Shannon McKinney or Elisabeth White directly.
If we do not receive an OPT-OUT form from you (attached), we will assume you are choosing to have your child participate in the social and emotional screening.
Thank you for your assistance as we work together to educate and support your student!
Attachment: 16651773440085_Passive_Permission_for_SOS_S2T_RTW_English.doc
