Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Celebrating School Psychologists: Vital Support for Student Success and Well-Being
National School Psychology Week and National School Psychologist Appreciation Week is an annual event that takes place during the second week of November. This week celebrates the contributions of school psychologists and the important role they play in schools and communities. It is an opportunity to recognize school psychologists who work to help children thrive in school, home, and in life.
In the most recent episode of Connect Canyons, we're honoring Canyons District’s school psychologists by exploring the role they play in supporting students’ mental wellness, and academic success. Joining us today are school psychologists, Riann Lutz and Rachel Rohmer.
Episode Chapters
01:06 Meet the School Psychologists: Ryan and Rachel
We meet our guests and learn about the roles and responsibilities of school psychologists.
02:35 Addressing Student Mental Health and Crises
Our psychologists explain how they work to create individual plans for each student and address the impact social media has on students.
07:37 Referral Process and Support Systems
We learn about how students are referred to their school’s psychologists and the levels of support offered to them depending on their individual need.
13:47 Advice for Parents
From advocating for their children, to providing a safe space for them to talk, psychologists share their advice for parents.
17:21 The Rewarding Moments
Ryan and Rachel share their most rewarding moments working with students and what keeps them coming to work every day.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us experts too.
Speaker 2:Learning is about making connections, so connect with us. National School Psychology Week and National School Psychologist Appreciation Week is an annual event that takes place during the second week of November. This week celebrates the contributions of school psychologists and the important role they play in schools and communities. It is an important opportunity to recognize school psychologists' work to help children thrive in school, at home and in life. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, stephanie Christensen. In this episode, we're honoring National School Psychologists Week by exploring the incredible role that school psychologists play in supporting students' mental health, emotional well-being and academic success. Joining us today is some of our dedicated school psychologists Ryan Lutz and Rachel Romer. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, yeah, excited to be here. I think some of our listeners might be surprised that we have school psychologists in each of our schools. Now, they're at each school at this point, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, we've always had school psychs at every school. I think that our department has really worked to increase the number of full-time Yep and that each school has a dedicated school psych, or they split one or two schools, but that we really work to have that support in every school, which has been like a fantastic change.
Speaker 2:So Ryan you're at Sunrise Elementary Correct, and Rachel you're at Corner Canyon High School. Yes, there is a big difference between the needs of an elementary school and a high school. Can you kind of tell me a little bit about what's in your day to day?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can start so in the elementary setting. I find myself spending the first like 30 minutes just checking in with students, kind of setting goals for the day, seeing how they're doing. Sometimes students might need a little break, or maybe they need just a check-in or a snack, so we'll start the day off that way and then I provide supports to students through group sessions where we're working on specific IEP goals. I also will spend time doing testing, but I do have a lot of time in my schedule to respond to crises, and a crisis can be a student is really struggling in a classroom and being disruptive, or maybe needs a check-in, a reset room and being disruptive, or maybe needs a check-in, a reset. Or sometimes there are situations where we have to have all team members involved if a student is experiencing some type of suicidal ideation or some like significant behavioral dysregulation.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to just put out there that an IEP is an individual education plan, because a lot of times people don't realize what that is. But it's a scary thought to think that in elementary school we're already having to worry about suicidal ideation.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely, and we definitely see different levels of risk. But our district protocols to respond to those with doing a screener and making sure that we're notifying parents and identifying any risk that might be present. Absolutely, it's surprising that we're seeing that at an elementary school level.
Speaker 3:Now high school. High school it's like a different ballgame, right, Like spending time in elementary and going to high school has been like a different experience. I think we still serve a lot of the same job functions, right Like we're servicing individual education plans. We're providing those counseling services just the wellness, the well-being of our students and stuff. I think we service a little bit more gen ed and special education students as far as that well-being, and so day to day it can look a little different.
Speaker 3:We respond to crisis as students come in, but then we also are just providing those services and letting them have somebody to connect with. I think a lot of our high schoolers just feel that they need someone to connect with and just to hear and listen. High school is very intense in the fact that it counts, right Like it's graduation credits, when we're working towards that goal and their future, and I think it's really scary for a lot of our students to think about future outside of this. Every day of I have to go to school and so helping them with that transition plan, working as a team with the counselors, the social worker and all the teachers to ensure that they're having that future, is a big part of our role.
Speaker 2:Do you find kids are disconnected a little bit more? Because I find with my kids that they're spending so much time and I know they connect in the way that they're talking online, but they're not face-to-face connecting as much. Are you seeing that in schools?
Speaker 3:a lot we do and I think that was like a big push. That was part of a reason that they really pushed for, like, a phone policy in schools. We haven't had that previously or it hasn't been as strict, and this, like it, stirs a lot of drama, right, and the kids are just feeling that impact and they're not focusing, and it is that they do struggle, I think, sometimes with that like face-to-face conversations, like they're like used to, like let me just send them a text, and that we get face-to-face and we don't know how to like feel the uncomfortableness of things, and so we do work on like hey, like how do we do that communication and how do we have a solved conflict when we can't do it via text and hide behind a phone? So it is a huge impact and I think Canyon's push to have cell phone policies in our high schools and middle schools and elementary has been a really good benefit for them so far.
Speaker 2:What would you guys like more people to understand about the role of school psychologists?
Speaker 4:That's a good question.
Speaker 3:I think our role is so broad, we have a very broad training and a very specialized training too, and I think that we often get confused with counselors or social workers, and not that they don't have a lot of the same job functions, but that our specialty does come in handy and we do support a lot of that problem solving and let's get down to the bottom of what's going on. I think that's where our skill set comes really in handy, of being able to assess and interpret and be able to provide those supports for students. Is that like it's like hey, let's get into what's going on for your student and being able to problem solve that, and that we love all the kids and we really want to find their supports and we want to find their best supports, and I think that's something that gets misinterpreted sometimes.
Speaker 4:For sure. And I think to add to that, something I think is really helpful to kind of conceptualize our role is that we are part of a team. So we may have these expertise and expertise and behavior and evaluation and supporting students with disabilities, but we're working within a team, so it's not just us, we can't come in and just wave a magic wand. It really takes consulting and brainstorming and building relationships with the parents, the teachers, the student to have that shared goal. I think that's when our job we can be most successful, is when we're able to come together as a team and see that change with students.
Speaker 2:I think we should probably rewind a little bit in that. How do you get to the point that your student is at a school psychologist? Because I think for some parents it might be a little intimidating to find out Not something that they should be afraid of, but there is a certain amount of stigma that probably comes with your job title. So how does it get to a point that your kid is in the school psychologist's office? Is it a referral or is it?
Speaker 3:It's generally a referral. Sometimes it can be that like we're the one that responded to something and responded to a crisis or a situation. I think in the high school setting, though, they just we have kids that just come in, they self-refer, a parent refers they. I do think there can be a stigma with our title, but then also there's this like relief of like, oh my gosh, there's somebody there that does have that support and training and so, and they just like come directly to us. Sometimes it's a counselor referral, sometimes it's a parent admin, situational, it depends on the things.
Speaker 4:But yeah, so I can talk a little bit about what that looks like in an elementary setting.
Speaker 4:I think it can differ from school to school, but something that I've noticed our district does is we have a push or an encouragement for student support teams.
Speaker 4:So we'll call that a SST, and that's that team that I'm talking about, where we are reviewing the data of a student. So maybe a student's behavior is reaching a certain level, maybe their behaviors are no longer teacher managed and we're having support staff that need to come in. We'll look at that data and determine okay, does this student need support from our school counselor or are their needs reaching a certain level where they need more intensive support? We also have kind of a multi-tier support system where we're looking at tier one support, so universal supports for students. Tier two, which would be more like our school counselor or targeted supports our school counselor or targeted supports and then the tier three is where our school psychologists often lie, where it's that specialized, individualized support specific to individual students. So I think working through that framework is really helpful to make sure that we're not jumping to a significant level of support when maybe a student just needs some general behavior support in the classroom that their teacher can provide.
Speaker 3:And I think it's important to note. Elementary is like kids are not self-referring generally or their behavior is speaking for their needs, whereas in high school they are more aware and they are self-referring on. I think every there is the encouragement and every school is working to have a student support team. Our school has a really great one. It looks different at a high school level when you have eight teachers versus one teacher that manages a behavior all day, and so I think the difference in the levels is there, but I think the systems and supports are the same, right Like across schools, and I think that's the best thing about Kenyans.
Speaker 3:We all work at the multi-tiered support systems. We all work at having a student support team and finding the best support to meet their needs. I think often in elementaries, by the time we get to school psychs, it's tier three and we help with that. Tier two to tier three, and in high school it can be we're servicing tier one to tier three, just in a different way. Just we have different populations and needs and those are some of the supports that we have.
Speaker 2:What are some of the biggest challenges that you're seeing kids have?
Speaker 4:I think in an elementary setting, a lot of emotion, regulation. I think there's so much and I don't mean to hypothesize, but I just feel like there's so much and I don't I don't mean to hypothesize, but I just feel like there's so much information coming at our students all day. We talked about screen time, we talked about, you know, access to just information that is overwhelming them and I think that impacts their ability to regulate. That's the biggest thing I see, you know.
Speaker 2:I agree, I think. I think adults are having the same problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we see that across like. I think we see that across settings too, like, right, emotional regulation, being able to handle a lot of it is executive functioning too. I think executive functioning covers a broad it's a broad term, but that ability to transition tasks, initiate, organize and follow through, and I think that follow through and we get behind and we feel overwhelmed and that like we just don't know what to do and for a lot of our students, and so that's where we are like servicing a lot of let's take a deep breath, let's do what can we problem solve? And I think we're doing a lot of problem solving.
Speaker 3:I do think we are still seeing the outcomes and effects of the COVID pandemic, covid-19 pandemic and what that is. I think in the three year this is my fourth year in high school and over the time, right, we went from coming out of the pandemic of little, lots of restrictions to like now we're putting more boundaries and things back in place for work and like handing things in because we had to be flexible during those times, and for good reason, right, and I think as we put more of that work demand back on kids and deadlines and things, that's where we're like starting to see like a huge impact on our kids too, is that they just lost their executive functioning skills or they didn't have to practice them. They didn't lose them, they just didn't have to practice them, and when we don't practice something, it goes down.
Speaker 4:And I often hear that from teachers too. You know, I think in previous years there were a couple of students that struggled with executive functioning, but what I'm hearing now is that a large majority of our classes, a lot of our students, are struggling with those executive functioning skills, which is hard to teach, hard to be a student.
Speaker 2:So I agree with you that executive functioning piece teach hard to be a student. So I agree with you that executive functioning piece. As a parent, I've noticed that in my own children and I don't quite know how to manage that. How do you course correct? Because that was a big bump. I had students that were doing really well. 2020 came and now teaching them the importance of first attendance and then the turning in homework, and the executive functioning has changed so dramatically. To relearn that and to help navigate that as a parent has been such a struggle. Yeah, so what would you recommend to parents?
Speaker 3:I think there's some course correction that we're taking in general, right, like we're getting attendance policies back in place. We're finding things to help support that. I think we find, you know, we learn best when we're in a classroom and we have that instruction. Like we said before, like for good reason, we had to do what we had to do, right, and I think we all did the best we could. But it is hard to relearn of like the simple task it seems like a simple task, it's not, but that simple task of like I need to turn this in by this time on this day, on Canvas, or I need to turn it in hard copy.
Speaker 3:And I think, though, the use of technology sometimes has hindered and benefited. Some students do really well with turning in paperwork and some students do really well with doing it via campus, right, but I think the hard part is not every teacher is the same, and so then they're like do I turn this in for this one or do I turn it in for that one? And so sometimes it's just that remembering. And so I think we often recommend sit down with your student and learn some of their classes, reach out for support if you need, and then just kind of know their systems and to help support them in that and just. I think, though, like giving everyone a little bit of grace of just like it's okay if we miss a deadline and let's. I think the biggest thing is just advocating for that and just saying we messed up, owning it, taking accountability, owning it, and like moving forward.
Speaker 2:Your jobs can be pretty heavy. You have a lot of things that come into your office that can weigh on you. What led you guys to pursue psychology?
Speaker 4:I think for me, I just always knew that I wanted to be someone that could help people when they're having a hard time. That always felt really natural to me and once I learned that I could be in a school setting and I could be working with individuals that have those mental health needs or behavioral needs, it just kind of clicked for me. I have siblings that have struggled and I've seen the people that can come into their life and advocate for them and I just I really admired that and it felt really special to be able to be that person and that's like the best part of the job. If you see something click for a student, it is like magic and you're like, ah yes, finally, like we're building this skill, we're making habits, and that often takes time but it's so rewarding.
Speaker 3:I think very similar to Ryan is that I have always enjoyed helping and I think there was a lot of times when I was in school that they were like you should be a teacher and I appreciate everything the teachers do and it just wasn't quite my career path.
Speaker 3:But that mental health part and I think on the opposite end is that like I had a sibling struggling in school and I watched my parents not receive support and not know what to do and watched how that played out and to know that there are people that could support that, like I wanted to be one of those people that could go in and it is a great joy. And there is no better feeling than when you feel that that parent's been heard and that they feel like they have that support and that their kid has a team behind them. And that's really what we strive is like for parents to feel like their child has a team and that they have somebody to support them. And so that's. I love what I do and it is challenging, but those are the best parts.
Speaker 4:For sure. It makes it easier to come back after the hard days when you're able to see the progress that you've made with a student and a family and it's really special. Like the end of the school year is one of my favorites because I really feel like I've been able to build relationships with families where we're able to, like have a good summer break, give each other hugs and celebrate the progress that everyone on that team has made, particularly the student, and it's really special.
Speaker 3:I think a really special thing like it's great, like at the end of elementary and you know they're going up, and a special thing about high school is watching them walk right. Watching them walk right To watch a student that you know struggled and you saw them from ninth grade to senior year, or watch them even struggle on senior year and like to watch them be able to walk across that stage and know that they accomplished something so huge is like such a like great feeling and that you got to be a part of their journey. Because, like you're just a part of that journey and stuff.
Speaker 4:I would be a mess.
Speaker 3:I would just be crying, I cry every year, I cry every year and I hand them a diploma, I help the counselors hand out their diplomas and I'm like, you're just, you're a disaster. Like I'm just like, but you're so. It's just like such an overwhelmingly heartwarming feeling to watch them and to watch their parents like see that, because there are times that their parents will say like I just we didn't think this was going to be possible and it was possible. And to watch them do that is like a huge moment for their parents, for them and so and. But it takes every level right, like it takes elementary, working with them and getting them to middle, middle, getting them to high school and high school, getting them to that finish line. And we across the district have to work as a team and team them.
Speaker 2:That's been one of the greatest blessings of working at the district for me as a district employee and then to separate as a parent of students in the district. It's so difficult to let your students go out into the world, your children go out into the world, but to be able to see the love and care that is given and to know that your kids are safe and taken care of. I'm getting choked up because I have worked within the system and have had so much help given to my children and, okay, my child is graduating this year and congratulations, and it wouldn't have happened if without help. So I'm so grateful to have these tiers in place for us and that we have the support that's needed for every child to be college and career ready. So thank you, ladies, for what you do and the support that you give our children and for being here today to talk about it. Thank you for joining us and if you have any topics that you'd like discussed on future podcasts, email us at communications at canyonsdistrictorg.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at Canyons District or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.
