October is full of many events, happenings, and holidays that are woven into our schools' fabric. Homecomings, spirit days, and Halloween festivities take shape and create a sense of camaraderie, connection, and even fun for students and the community. One tricky aspect of navigating dress-up days and even Halloween festivities: being aware, sensitive, and mindful of cultural appropriation. As you consider your school's community and cultural context, what shifts can be made to ensure dress-up days become opportunities for fun and unity rather than opportunities for pain and harm?

October is National Principals Month, but you might not be feeling much love lately. This is not an easy time to be a principal. We've always said the job was incredibly challenging but the most rewarding job in the world. The work you've done just to open the doors this year for kids to be back is nothing short of inspirational. Your leadership matters now more than ever, and every...single...day. Thank you for everything you do for your students, staff, and communities. Each and every day, we celebrate you. This month especially, remember you are truly a super star.

This content is emailed weekly to leaders in special education and Section 504. Each newsletter contains tips and resources on a variety of topics that are meant to keep you informed and up to date. Please consult your district attorney if you are looking for legal advice.

Disability History and Awareness Month (RCW 28A.230.158) takes place during October to increase awareness, respect, and acceptance for people with disabilities, and to bring a greater sense of pride to people with disabilities. All Washington public schools are required to conduct or promote educational activities that provide instruction, awareness, and understanding of disability history and people with disabilities. The activities may include, but not be limited to, school assemblies or guest speaker presentations.

At the moment, it seems like “school safety” – one issue or another – is on top of everyone’s mind. Many of us have been hearing about ‘devious licks’ and ‘COVID assassins’ challenges, Twitch Hate Raids, an inordinate number of fights, more Threat Assessments than usual, serious mental health challenges for students and staff, lack of staffing for almost everything, and more. Knowing that you probably won’t have the time to read a long blog post, I will be as succinct as possible in sharing some school safety updates and resources.

It is no secret that although we are all excited to have students back in our schools, the consistent message coming from principals and assistant principals across the state is that this year is quickly proving to be even more challenging than last year. We want you to know that we hear you and that we are here for you. The layers of school leadership right now are massively complex and challenging.

Believe me, we understand. The last thing you need right now is to deal with a destructive and disappointing trend among students across the country. If you haven’t heard, one of the things trending on social media giant TikTok is essentially a string of school thefts and vandalisms. It is the last thing you need on top of your already heaping plates. I’m ticked just hearing about it, so I can only imagine your frustrations.

WEA’s Inclusionary Practices Project (IPP) and Special Education Support Center (SESC) are offering courses online for teachers in real-time via Zoom. These are lead by Katie Novak and Mirko Chardin and cover a variety of topics including UDL, Accommodations and Modifications, parent connections, and so much more.

Bumblebee Haven Garden is situated on Okanogan School District property in rural, North Central Washington. Started a few years ago by a now retired teacher, local native peoples, and local Conservation District, students K-12 have the access to learn about vermiculture (growing soil from compost from worms), tending to land, and most importantly, growing food next to native plants on native land. The land was once a meeting place for the peoples of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which encompasses several different tribes. Since starting the garden, teachers, students, and community members create soil to create windrows of tomatoes, potatoes, different types of squash, and others, along with native plants for pollinators. Each Tuesday during summer and harvest season, people of all ages meet to harvest and work in the windrows. Some get to take a bit of food home, but mostly, all harvested food is donated to the local Okanogan Food Bank.

With the return this school year to full Comprehensive evaluations with three Student Growth Goals, there is an opportunity to pilot Student Growth Goal rubrics for 3.1, 3.2, 6.1, 6.2, and 8.1.

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.

Our job jar is back up and running. We apologize for the inconvenience. It took much longer than anticipated to find the issue and make the fix. Thank you for your patience!

AWSP is heartbroken to announce the sudden and unexpected passing of AWSP Membership Coordinator, Annalee Braley. Annalee has been a part of our AWSP family for nearly 32 years. She started at AWSP at just 20 years old back in 1989. She's filled many roles over the years, but in each one she has been committed our members and school leaders across the state. Annalee's hearty laugh, sense of humor, and unmatched work ethic will never be forgotten.

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss AWSL's Reimagining Recess, Washington Principal article contributions, professional learning opportunities, our all-new “Level-Up Your Leadership” series, our new upcoming series: Becoming a Culturally-Competent School Leader NOW, WASA's new Aspiring Central Office Leadership Academy, the United States Senate Youth Program Scholarship opportunity for high school juniors and seniors, and sad news regarding our family here at AWSP.

Students in foster care often face academic and social/emotional/behavioral challenges beyond those experienced by their non-foster care peers. When students are connected with a caring adult, are attending school regularly, and have the supports they need, they are more likely to be successful in school and in life. Establishing a building point of contact will support coordination of resources and facilitate compliance with state and federal laws related to students in foster care.

As Washington State considers future funding for outdoor education, there is no better time to have your voice be heard!  The Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) is working on behalf of the Washington State Legislature to learn more about the outdoor education opportunities currently being offered to students (if any), as well as your desires for the future.

Remember HB 1216 (2019) which created requirements around an optional School Resource Officer (SRO) program? Well, 1216 has been replaced! ESHB 1214 (2021) expands and modifies that earlier legislation and impacts the work of not just SROs, but all K–12 public school safety and security classified staff or contractors.

Our job jar is currently down. We apologize for the inconvenience. Our IT support company is working with the job jar vendor to restore functionality as quickly as possible, but we don't have an ETA at the moment.

In our kickoff episode for the 2021-22 school year, we discuss the recent mandate from the Governor about required vaccinations for K12 employees, Superintendent Reykdal comparing the fight against the delta variant to a chess match, reaching out to us in case of conflicts, a survey to develop a plan to fund outdoor school programs, an OSPI grant to help ASB funding impacted by HB 1660, a great new resource to share from Chad’s Legacy Project and the SMART Center on mental health instruction, the 2021 Healthy Youth Survey, our amazing ProLearning offerings, networks, networks, networks, and the “Triple A” for school leaders.