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It's Colorado Law
Violation, Type
of Offense and
some Legal Sanctions
Any drug-related conviction, judgment, and sentence on a drug-related offense will result in the suspension of federal financial aid or assistance for educational or college purposes.
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Qwest Communications
Online Family Safety Classroom
Colorado PTA became a member of the Colorado Online Safety
Coalition. This coalitions' goal is to help Colorado Parents
and guardians become informed about online safety issues and
prevention tips through the Qwest Connected Family Online
Classroom.
For Safety Tip Card 
or for more information go to http://www.incredibleinternet.com/onlinesafety
School Care for
Kids with Diabetes
A growing number of children and
adolescents have diabetes and require care at school to ward
off serious short- and long-term complications. In an effort
to ensure that students with diabetes are safe and healthy at
school,
PTA
passed an important resolution at the 2006 National
PTA
Convention: Recognition
and Care of School-Age Children with Diabetes. The
resolution sets out a best practices model for school diabetes
care, urging that all school personnel receive general
training on diabetes and that every school have at least two
staff members trained to perform essential diabetes care.
Every November, during American
Diabetes Month, the American
Diabetes Association (
ADA
) works to increase public awareness about the seriousness of
diabetes and the risks associated with this disease. Health
chairs and other local
PTA
leaders are encouraged to make their members and school
administrators aware of the resources
ADA
has created to enable parents, school nurses, teachers, and
other school staff members to provide necessary care to
children with diabetes and effect needed policy changes.
10/18/06
Talking
Points on Violence in Schools
These
are brief, bulleted points that outline the PTA position and
responses to questions about violence in schools.
We
find ourselves once again grieving with the students,
teachers, families and community touched by this most recent
act of senseless violence that occurred at an Amish
schoolhouse in
Pennsylvania
(and last week in
Bailey
,
CO.
)
Sample
talking points on school violence:
Schools
should be safe and secure places for all students, teachers,
and staff members.
Without a safe learning environment, teachers cannot teach and
students cannot learn.
As
unfortunate as these incidents are, they should be an urgent call to parents to ask questions and take action for children.
•
These acts of violence are not simply family or school
problems – Communities must realize the shared
responsibility and work with parents and school
administrators to identify safety issues.
•
According to the National Crime Prevention Council, the
crime rate can decrease by as much as 30 percent when a
violence prevention initiative is a community-wide effort.
All parents, students, school staff, and members of the
community need to be a part of creating safe school
environments for our children. Many PTAs are working to
identify the problems and causes of school violence and
possible solutions for violence prevention.
• As
school safety policies and measures are reviewed or new ones
created at the local and state level, PTA believes parents
need to be informed and involved at all levels of this
decision-making process.
Help
Develop A School Violence Prevention and Response Plan
•
We must address the reasons for these recurring outbreaks of
unthinkable violence and take the necessary steps to prevent
them from happening again.
• School communities that have violence prevention plans and
crisis management teams in place are more prepared to identify
and avert potential problems and to know what to do when a
crisis happens. The most effective violence prevention and
response plans are developed in cooperation with school and
health officials, parents, and community members. These plans
include descriptions of school safety policies, early warning
signs, intervention strategies, emergency response plans, and
post-crisis procedures.
Questions
parents can ask to assess the safety of their school community
•
What is your child’s school procedure for getting
information to parents during a crisis (website, phone tree,
email, etc.)?
• Does every teacher have a copy of emergency procedure
clearly posted in the classroom? Is it reviewed with
children?
• Does your school practice emergency procedures with
children? (much like a fire drill)
• Does your
child’s school review safety policy year-to-year? Does this
review process involve parents?
• Workshops
on helping children deal with violence?
• Community-wide
violence prevention programs?
• Conflict
management and peer mediation programs offered in school?
• Substance
abuse prevention programs?
• Gang
prevention program for children?
• School
policy on guns and weapons?
Talk
with and listen to children.
As parents, teachers and caring adults we are in a position to
listen, explain and develop positive ideas about the world
around them.
•
Find out if your children are concerned or frightened about
going to school.
• Reassure your children that they are safe. Let them know
that you are doing everything you can to protect them. Talk to
them about crime prevention groups in your community that work
everyday to ensure that your home and school is safe and that
they are always there to help.
• Make sense of the information that children are exposed to
– Discuss what they’ve seen or heard, and what their
friends and teachers are saying.
• Give clear instructions to children about how to avoid
danger and how to respond to threatening situations.
• Remind children that if they see or hear the news stories
being repeated, it does not mean the incident happened again,
the story is just being told again.
10/07/06
Keeping Healthy in the Winter
At
back-to-school time, families are getting children ready to
learn, which means staying healthy and not missing any days at
school. As children return to class and also at peak times in
the winter, head lice can be one problem that keeps students
out of school. Back-to-school kits for PTA leaders contain
more information about treating and preventing lice outbreaks.
Q: What are the most common symptoms of head
lice?
A: Symptoms are:
- itching;
- small,
red bumps (lice bites); and
- infection,
accompanied by swollen glands (less common).
Q: How
do we find out about cases of lice?
A: Parents can look closely at the child's
scalp at home. Head check programs in schools help detect head
lice on children and thus prevent the spread of head lice to
more children. PTAs can work with school nurses and community
health experts to organize these head check programs.
Q: After getting rid of head lice, how do we
prevent re-infestation?
A: Sources of possible infestation (bedding,
furniture, hats, clothing, combs and brushes) must be
disinfected by laundering/dry cleaning, or sometimes
discarding entirely. Items that cannot be run through the
dryer (i.e., stuffed animals and toys) can be placed in a
sealed plastic bag for 10-14 days, and hair care items should
be soaked in hot water for 15 minutes. A thorough vacuuming
will get rid of lice or egg shells that are left behind.
Teach your child to avoid sharing combs, hair accessories and
hats. If your child has been infested with head lice, report
it to their school immediately so other children attending
will be less likely to have an infestation themselves.
As a proud sponsor of PTA, Licefreee! and Tec Labs are pleased
to offer financial and educational support to PTA leaders
nationwide. The goal of this partnership is to provide the
necessary materials and training to PTA members who are
helping their schools identify and treat head lice outbreaks.
Visit www.licefreee.com
for information. 9/11/06
Safe Routes to School
Safe Routes to School is an international movement to create safe, convenient, and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to school. In August 2005, federal money was made available to establish Safe Routes to School programs in all 50 states. Funds are available for infrastructure projects (bike lanes, sidewalks, traffic calming, etc), and for activities, such as public awareness campaigns, outreach to community leaders, educational programs, and volunteer training. Successful Safe Routes to School programs involve the whole community and encompass the "Five Es": evaluation, engineering, education, encouragement, and enforcement.
Many PTAs already participate in these programs at their schools, and the availability of these funds means that even more programs and activities can be started. Established Safe Routes to School programs have strong participation by dads and grandfathers, and all children benefit from safer neighborhoods and the increase in physical activity that these programs make possible. Safe Routes to School programs also are one possible element to include in the school wellness policies currently being developed by all local education agencies that receive federal funding for their school lunch programs. For more information about school wellness policies, consult the School Wellness section of the Healthy Lifestyles at Home and School notebook.
National PTA is a member of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Visit Bikes Belong for more information from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, including information on how to get started.
Helmets
work—so helmet up!
Additional
resources:
CDOT
Safe Routes to School • National
Clearing House
FHWA
• Bicycle
Colorado
3/8/06
American Red Cross Education
On behalf of the Mile High Chapter of the American Red Cross, I am
one of several people conducting presentations on issues surrounding
disaster preparedness education. This program is part of a new campaign
that was created in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and
the American Red Cross, called "Together We Prepare." We at the Mile High
Chapter have created a localized version called "Prepare Colorado." The
lessons in this program are geared toward disaster preparedness, public
awareness, and community education.
I am writing you today because I have taken it as my mandate, along
with Lauren Bateman another VISTA, to bring this program into the Denver
Public School System, as well as other programs working with youth and their
families. Our services can be tailored to fit the specific needs of your
individual school or program. We have several curriculums that can be
taught together or separately, by American Red Cross instructors or by your
own staff. Attached please find information on exactly what we can offer.
Preparedness education is a valuable tool to teach children and
families. It can be used in conjunction with many different existing
curriculum topics, as well as giving them tools to help them and their
families become better prepared in case a disaster affects them. I would like to create a partnership between the American Red Cross
and the Colorado PTA to help educate families on preparedness education.
For more information, please visit the links below. If you have any
questions, or would like to arrange an informational presentation, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
Reema Karadsheh
AmeriCorps*VISTA,
American Red Cross
444 Sherman Street •
303.607.4724
www.denver-redcross.org •
www.preparecolorado.org
Red Cross List of Services
4/06/05
Raise
awareness about meningococcal disease
The
National Meningitis Association (NMA), a non-profit
organization committed to raising awareness about
meningococcal meningitis and prevention methods, including
immunization. NMA was founded by parents whose
adolescent and young adult children either died or suffer
permanent disabilities after contracting meningococcal
meningitis, a devastating bacterial infection that can result
in death or disability within hours of the first symptoms.
Immunization can protect against many cases of the disease,
which is a fact many NMA board members didn’t know until it
was too late.
Today, these
parents are working to raise awareness about meningococcal
disease, so that other families do not have to share in their
tragedy.
Visit NMA’s
Web site, www.nmaus.org • Heather Carman
On behalf of the National Meningitis Association
Ph: 212/886-2239 • Fx:
212/886-2288
1/6/05
Greetings from
NICHCY!
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, are pleased to announce the release of Opening Doors: Technology and Communications Options for Children With Hearing Loss.
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
(OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education has developed this publication for the benefit of children with hearing loss (including deafness), their families, and all those who work on their behalf. It is intended to highlight the importance of connecting children and their families with sources of assistance as early in the child’s life as possible and outlines potential sources of help. Current technologies and communication options for these children also are discussed, because there are often critical elements in addressing a child’s hearing and communication needs.
This publication is not copyrighted, so please feel free to copy and distribute it as widely as possible. It is available online at NICHCY’s Web site www.nichcy.org in PDF and text-only formats.
6/6/05
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