Student Support & SEAD

Overview

Gaining the skills, strategies, tools, and mindset to be successful at school often hinges on the relationship between emotions and academics. The SEAD (Social Emotional Academic Development) program at Chartwell provides students with explicit, systematic, and multimodal instruction to better understand the relationship between their emotions and behaviors. Learning more about this relationship gives students tangible methods to regulate themselves and better understand others, which leads to a learning environment where students can successfully attend to lessons and activities. Similarly, the SEAD program provides students with the skills, strategies, tools, and mindset needed to be successful in less structured environments such as lunch or recess. Each students’ emotional well-being is a priority at Chartwell.

In general, Chartwell School’s philosophy is that a structured, caring environment contributes most effectively to the growth of our students. Chartwell’s program strives to ensure student emotional, physical, and psychological well-being by establishing and maintaining a positive school environment.

In order to secure each student's Social Emotional Academic Development, we create opportunities to celebrate students’ strengths, efforts, achievements, and individuality. We adhere to PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) by creating, with the students a set of universal expectations.

At Chartwell, every student is viewed uniquely. Students vary developmentally and in unique ways regarding socialization and often must be taught how to understand and apply expectations in much the same way that they benefit from direct instruction in reading or listening.

These expectations are intended to serve as guidelines for responsible social and academic behavior. When the expectations are in conflict with the best interest of the individual or school community, they will be adjusted by school staff to achieve the most meaningful outcome. We call this approach “structured flexibility” and consider it to be a balanced and practical reflection of the real world promoting advocating allowing educators to maximize the value of any teaching moment and enhance students’ experience meeting students where they are developmentally while upholding expectations.

We explicitly teach how to meet these expectations and provide praise and immediate feedback when they exhibit behaviors that show the type of character needed to maintain a community and culture of acceptance, understanding, respect, and kindness. Discipline at Chartwell is a process that is educational by nature. It aims to help those involved understand why a behavior occurred and provide them with time to reflect on the behavior, resolve hurt feelings, restore trust, and gain an improved ability to act as a positive contributing member of our community. It is our belief that any student at Chartwell has the ability, regardless of their learning profile, learning style, strengths, or weaknesses, to meet the expectations. Therefore, the discipline procedure is individualized, taking into account each student’s social-emotional development, diagnosis, and personal situation.

Each member of the Chartwell community continually aims to provide students with a safe environment where they are able to build on their strengths, develop their stretches, make meaningful relationships, build their self-esteem and confidence, and be academically successful.

Billy Swift, Director of Student Support

Meet the Student Support Team

Related Services

Counseling

Counseling at Chartwell is multifaceted. Counselors provide emotional support and problem solving, so students become aware of and can manage their own sense of learning. This is done in the classroom, in individual sessions or in small groups. Counselors are there to support students and teachers to have students fully access their program at Chartwell. Also, students do experience unwanted emotions throughout the day, so counseling supports students to regulate their emotions, provide reflection, perspective, and learn various skills, strategies, tools, and mindset to manage their mind, emotions, and body to be successful academically and socially in the Chartwell community. Chartwell does not provide long term, targeted therapy. Chartwell will make recommendations to families if outside therapy might be beneficial and are willing and able to communicate with an outside therapist when provided with a release of information.

Types of students often seen for counseling:

History of anxiety, depression, other emotional or mental distress, trauma.
Difficulty attending to academics and/or socially
In the moment conflict (internal/external)
Students that require additional support in the class
Students that require additional time to develop relationships and make connections with others.

Immediate emotional crisis response:

Ensure student and community are safe
Provide safe, private environment to work with a counselor
Alert parents or other necessary people
Devise plan to move forward

Counseling Process (from referral to services):

Referral
- Parents, teachers, and/or students (self-referral)
Email family to let them know the process will start and communicate with student’s team (Director of Student Support, Division Head, and Advisor/Homeroom, other services providers as deemed necessary
Connecting with teachers
Looking at file/profile
Observation/assessments
Connect with parents about observations and assessments, acquire more information as needed
Determine and schedule services and/or recommend outside therapeutic services
- If internal services are recommended:
  1. Communicate with members of the student’s team about the plan.
  2. Place session schedule under the key
  3. Start services (1:1, push-in, group)
  4. Make notes/records
- If external services are recommended:
  1. Make referral for outside provider
  2. Communicate with student’s team about decision for outside referral
  3. Offer ability for Release of Information
  4. Support recommendations from outside therapist as possible
- IEP services
  1. Any student with a related service on their IEP will be seen according to their service agreement.

Counseling at Chartwell occurs in the following formats:

1:1
Class push-in
Small group

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy (OT) at Chartwell serves students who are having difficulty meeting the academic and social demands of school or struggling to access the school curriculum or environment. The goal of OT is always to reduce barriers and increase participation which is done through activity and environmental analysis and modification of tasks. The therapist will address the physical, cognitive, sensory, and psychosocial needs of the students and their impact on a student's school day. The OT practitioner uses meaningful activities to help the child fulfill their role as a student and intervention will focus on academics, play, social participation, self-care, and transition skills. Services are provided in the classroom, through consultation with classroom teachers, in individual sessions, or small groups. Individual and small group sessions are 45 minutes in duration. If additional services outside the role of the occupational therapist are needed, a recommendation will be made to families.

All students enrolled at Chartwell are screened for possible occupational therapy needs. In addition to an on-site or virtual screening using standardized and non-standardized assessment and screening tools, the OT practitioner may also complete a records review, occupational performance analysis, and a caregiver and teacher interview.

Occupational Therapy Process (from referral to services):

Referral for screening
- Parents, teachers, and/or students (self-referral)
- All new students are screened when they start Chartwell
- Recent or previous history of occupational therapy services
Email family to let them know the process will start and communicate with student’s team (Director of Student Support, Division Head, and Advisor/Homeroom, other services providers as deemed necessary)
Connecting with teachers
Looking at file/profile
Observation/assessments
Connect with parents about observations and assessments, acquire more information as needed
Determine and schedule services and/or recommend outside therapeutic services
- If internal services are recommended:
  1. Communicate with members of the student’s team about the plan.
  2. Schedule service minutes
  3. Start services (1:1, push-in, group)
  4. Make notes/records
- If external services are recommended:
  1. Make referral for outside provider
  2. Communicate with student’s team about decision for outside referral
  3. Offer ability for Release of Information
  4. Support recommendations from outside therapist as possible
- IEP services
  1. Any student with a related service on their IEP will be seen according to their service agreement.

Speech and Language

Speech and Language Therapy at Chartwell is provided by the Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) to students who are having communication difficulties that are impacting their success in classroom activities, social interaction, literacy, and learning. Types of communication disorders include: articulation (speech sound production), receptive/expressive language (understanding what is heard/expressing thoughts and ideas with words), fluency/stuttering (hesitations, repetitions, prolongations in speech), pragmatics (social language skills), voice, and hearing impairment. All students enrolled at Chartwell are screened for possible speech and language therapy needs. In addition to an on-site or virtual screening using standardized and non-standardized assessment and screening tools, the SLP may also complete a records review, and a caregiver and teacher interview. The results of the screening determine if a formalized speech and language assessment is needed. From the formal speech and language assessment goals are created for the student’s Chartwell Education Plan (CEP). Once goals are created services are provided in the classroom (push-in), through consultation with classroom teachers/staff, in individual sessions, or small groups. Individual and small group sessions are 45 minutes in duration. If additional services outside the role of the SLP are needed, a recommendation will be made to families.

Speech and Language Therapy Process (from referral to services):

Referral for screening
1. Parents, teachers, and/or students (self-referral)
2. All new Chartwell students are screened when they start at Chartwell
3. Recent or previous history of speech and language therapy services
Email family to let them know the process will start and communicate with student’s team (Director of Student Support, Division Head, and Advisor/Homeroom, other services providers as deemed necessary)
Connecting with teachers
Looking at file/profile
Observation/assessments
Connect with parents about observations and assessments, acquire more information as needed
Determine and schedule services and/or recommend outside therapeutic services
1. If internal services are recommended:
  1. Communicate with members of the student’s team about the plan.
  2. Schedule service minutes
  3. Start services (1:1, push-in, group)
  4. Make notes/records
2. If external services are recommended:
  1. Make referral for outside provider
  2. Communicate with student’s team about decision for outside referral
  3. Offer ability for Release of Information
  4. Support recommendations from outside therapist as possible
3. IEP services
  1. Any student with a related service on their IEP will be seen according to their service agreement.

Programs

Zones of Regulation

Lower and Middle School students partake in lessons (often modified for their class) based around the Zone of Regulation. This curriculum focuses on recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions. Most importantly, students learn and create a functional toolkit of strategies and tools to use throughout the day. This helps students stay in the emotional, mental, and physical state they are in or move into another one based on the task they need to complete or because of an intrapersonal or interpersonal conflict. The concepts and language taught in the Zones of Regulation are embedded campus wide. Teachers will often proactively use strategies like breathing or movement during breaks or during class to reinforce the importance of the strategies to get students into an expected zone for learning. In addition to the Zones of Regulation, specialists often will push-in to class to help instruct students or provide one-on-one, small group, or large group interventions. This might be from a school counselor, occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist, or another member of the student support team.

Future Holders

Lower and Middle School students partake in lessons (often modified for their class) through the Future Holders curriculum. All lessons include a learning objective, a famous quote, vocabulary, and engaging lessons. Although there is a focus on social emotional development, Future Holders rounds out other social emotional needs. Some examples of concepts covered in the social emotional domain are position relationships, qualities of friendship, asking for help, learning to use I statements, stress management, etc. Beyond the social emotional domain, Future Holders has four other domains of enriching content: Character and leadership; students explore what it means to be a leader and how to be one. Cultural competency; students learn about diversity, differences, culture, and identity. Financial acumen; students learn about money, the work force, and money management. Entrepreneurial mindset; students use all their learned skills to work as a team to develop, pitch, and sell a product. The students work in Future Holders is cross-curriculum, specifically through the STEAM department.

Council

Heavily based on the Circleways methodology, Council provides students at all levels, especially at the high school level, the ability to develop conversational skills and discuss topics in a meaningful way. Ultimately, the goal of council is for students (and faculty) to connect with each other. At times, council looks like a game. Students might sit or stand in a circle partaking in physical activities where they have to connect with another through their eyes, body, or voice. Being able to connect in a structured manner allows for personal connections where students have positive interactions with each other, share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions openly in a non judgmental space. With a focus on listening with the intent to understand, students also often partake in deep discussions around current events, project period concepts, as well as various ideas around diversity, equity, and inclusion. In discussion based councils, students often follow a protocol where a topic of discussion is presented and students are given time to think about their feelings, thoughts, and those others might have that are different than their own. From here, students take turns saying one word that summarizes their feeling, thought, or opinion before looking at a student next to them and passing a talking piece (when appropriate). The second round, students are able to elaborate on their one word. Again, as a listener, the focus is on understanding and making connections. In the third round, the students repeat back a word or phrase they heard someone else say that resonated with them. Often a council session will finish with some sort of group physical activity. Council is also used by faculty as a way to work through conflict resolution. Sometimes this might be community wide, large group, small group, or with a pair of students. This can be seen as a form of restorative justice, where students who are experiencing conflict have the opportunity to express themselves in a safe, facilitated environment.

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