Since its inception, PEP has placed a strong emphasis on the importance of the relationship between our staff and the parents of children in our programming. We believe that parents are a child’s first and best teacher, and therefore strive to empower parents to be advocates and educators for their children. We see parents as the experts on their children, and we partner with them to ensure that the child receives the best care and education possible.

A key element to maintaining this working relationship is PEP’s Parent Advisory Council (PAC). The PAC is comprised of one representative from each of PEP’s ten Day Treatment Centers, two Early Childhood Centers and Connections. The group meets periodically during the school year to identify key areas of programming or service that could be changed or enhanced.

One of the first items the PAC identified was the need for a Parent Group within each PEP center. As a result, PEP centers conduct monthly Parent Group meetings to help parents connect with one another and discuss topics of common interest. The Parent Groups are excellent opportunities for parents to develop relationships, find support and share ideas with one another. Parent Groups are viewed as a critical component in the treatment process because children whose parents are involved in Parent Group demonstrate higher success rates.

In addition to monthly meetings, Parent Groups also participate in periodic special activities. For example, a Parent Wellness Day was recently held to offer parents a unique opportunity to focus on their mind, body and spirit. Like all parents, much of their time is devoted to their children, and this day-long retreat provided them the chance to focus on their own health and well-being.

After the retreat one parent stated, “I was excited when I first heard of this event; until I learned it was [about me], not about how to help my child. I thought maybe I should use my time more effectively. I was so wrong! [As a result of this activity] I am somehow stronger, a little lighter, a bit more resilient than I was when I woke up this morning.”

In addition to Parent Groups, each center employs a staff member who is the parent of a former PEP student. This staff person helps maintain communication and build strong relationships with families. In day treatment, these unique positions are called Family Support Liaisons. In the Early Childhood Centers, they are called Parent Coaches. These staff members understand firsthand the challenges of supporting a child with special needs and are valuable resources for the parents they work with.

To further develop the relationship between parents and staff, PEP hosts an annual Parent Professional Partnership Training. The program brings together parents and professionals to explore the values and challenges of authentic working relationships. Participants work together to develop critical insights and skills necessary to enhance the communication between each other, to strengthen their working relationships and to create better outcomes for families.

Positive Education Program’s (PEP) services were recently highlighted in the Children Defense Fund’s Ohio’s KIDS COUNT: 2008 Data Book, a resource providing current and accurate information about the well-being of Ohio’s children at the state level, as well as within Ohio’s 88 counties.

PEP is featured in the Education section as a program with promising practices that provide children and youth with serious emotional disturbance/severe behavioral handicap (SED/SBH) with a socially and academically rich environment to learn and grow.

Click here to read the publication in its entirety. The portion related to PEP begins on page 22.

KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation which is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the U.S. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, the KIDS COUNT goal is to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children. Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio serves as the state-level KIDS COUNT grantee for Ohio. As part of the KIDS COUNT network, CDF-Ohio strives to improve programs and policies for children and families by collecting and reporting credible data and promoting the use of data-based advocacy and communications strategies by releasing periodic issue briefs, issuing an annual state data book regarding the well-being of children and families in Ohio, and providing other resources available on our website.

Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) was founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman to provide a strong and effective voice for all the children of America, since they cannot vote, hire lobbyists, or speak out for themselves. CDF’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Join Positive Education Program in its First Annual PEP Rally for Kids on Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 8:00 a.m. at Windows on the River.

PEP is thrilled to announce that Deborah S. Delisle, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Ohio Department of Education, will be the keynote speaker. Ohio’s 35th Superintendent of Public Instruction, her career is marked by innovation and 21st century creativity. With over 30 years of experience in five Ohio school districts, Deborah has established networks across the State with educators on issues paramount to Ohio’s schools.

PEP is pleased to be honoring Dr. Harry Eastridge, Superintendent of the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County for his commitment to our community’s children. A passionate advocate for children, Harry has been an important partner to PEP for many years. Recognized as a trusted and visionary leader by his peers, he was recently recognized as the 2009 Superintendent of the Year at the American Association of School Administrators Conference in San Francisco.

We hope you will be able to join us at the First Annual PEP Rally for Kids!

To register, simply download and complete the RSVP card. It can be mailed to:

Development Department
Positive Education Program
3100 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115

For more information, please contact:
Emily Malloy
216-361-7760 x196
emalloy@pepcleve.org

View PEP Rally for Kids invitation              View RSVP Card

Although PEP is not a school district, our students are required to participate in state-mandated assessment. These assessments include the Ohio Achievement Test for students in grades three through eight, and the Ohio Graduation Test for students in grade 10.

Like their peers in typical school districts, all of our students are required to participate in state testing in one of three ways: testing without accommodations, testing with appropriate accommodations, or Alternate Assessment for Students with Disabilities (AASWD). During the 2007-08 school year, 122 PEP students met the criteria for participating in Alternate Assessment.

Alternate Assessment is an interesting process assessing a student’s ability to work toward grade level standards and benchmarks at his or her own functional level. For example, in order to test whether a student has achieved the skill of communicating in a complete sentence, AASWD allows the student to use picture icons to help him create a sentence. This process is documented by the child’s teacher either in a narrative or checklist form, or via the use of photos or videotape, to demonstrate to the Ohio Department of Education that the child has mastered this goal at the level of his ability.

Alternate Assessment is a rigorous process that places responsibility on the shoulders of the child’s teacher to identify the appropriate types of evidence that will reveal the skills the child has mastered. It is important to challenge the student to demonstrate his highest level of performance in each content area through annual testing.

At PEP, our teacher-counselors work closely with the students to help them gain new skills, which are demonstrated each year in the test scores achieved by our students who have been Alternately Assessed. During the last school year, 97% of PEP students who participated in AASWD scored at or above the Proficient level. In addition to benefitting the students, these scores benefit our partner districts because PEP student test scores count toward the students’ home districts' adequate yearly progress and Ohio State Indicator compliance requirements.

AASWD testing for the 2008-09 school year concluded during the first week of March. In May we should receive test scores from school districts for the 20% of students who participated this year.

Ann Bowdish, PEP's Early Childhood Services Director, was recently nominated by her peers to be an advisor on Voices for Ohio's Children's (Voices) Public Policy Partners Advisory Committee (PPPAC). In this capacity, Ann will work closely with Voices' Executive Director and Board of Directors on issues related to the well-being of our community's children. She will help shape public policy agendas and institute change for some of Cleveland's most vulnerable children and families.

“Voices is truly grateful to have someone like Ann on the PPPAC – a committed child advocate who has the experience, information, and resources needed to help shape the messages that make positive change in children’s lives,” stated Amy Swanson, Executive Director of Voices for Ohio’s Children.

Ann’s tenure with PEP spans 35 years, and during that time, she has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the agency’s early childhood services. She has a passion for working with children during the early years and an unwavering commitment to providing services that honor family-centered practices. It is her personal philosophy that children are best helped by enhancing their parents’ sense of confidence and competency in their parenting skills.

Voices is the non-partisan voice of Ohio's nearly 3 million children. With more than 100 collaborative partners, it impacts the changes in public policy that improve the health, safety, education, family stability and childcare of Ohio's children and their families.

Congratulations to Ann on this nomination. Her expertise in education and mental health and her passion for helping children succeed will be invaluable in this exciting new role.

Habeebah Rasheed Grimes, Clinical Supervisor at PEP Eastwood (one of ten Day Treatment Centers), was recently accepted into the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's distinguished Ladder to Leadership Program. Ladder to Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Community Health Leaders is a collaborative initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Center for Creative Leadership.

Habeebah is one of only thirty young leaders in Cleveland chosen to participate in the Ladder to Leadership project, which aims to develop the next generation of community health leaders. She will undergo an innovative 16-month leadership development curriculum that will utilize face-to-face training sessions, individualized executive coaching and mentoring, and team project work to grow her leadership potential.

In addition to developing her personal leadership skills, Habeebah will also work in groups with her Ladder to Leadership peers to tackle some of the key health challenges facing our community.

“Habeebah has distinguished herself as a highly respected psychologist who already influences key decisions within the organization,” stated Frank A. Fecser, PhD. “[She] is an avid learner, maintaining cutting edge knowledge of developments in our field.”

Cleveland was one of nine communities in the U.S. selected for this project which aims to enhance the leadership capacity of community-based nonprofit health and health-related organizations serving vulnerable populations. RWJF is committed to leadership development and improving the health of all Americans, particularly those in the most vulnerable communities.

Congratulations to Habeebah on this exciting opportunity!

The children and youth who come through PEP’s doors are not only faced with serious social-emotional challenges, but most are struggling to keep up with their peers in school. Their challenges have interfered with their ability to learn. They have come to associate school, and reading in particular, with failure.

At PEP, we believe children’s mental health and academic achievements go hand in hand. We must improve one area in order to have a lasting impact on the other. No one knows which area, the academic or the social-emotional, has a greater influence on their long-term success. But what we do know is that children who don’t learn to read are going to have an even tougher time achieving success as adults.

PEP is constantly looking for ways to build this success within our students, and our newest reading intervention does just that.

With the support of many generous funders*, PEP has adopted and implemented the Wilson Reading System and its partner system, Fundations, as an intensive reading intervention for children struggling to grasp basic literacy concepts. Wilson Reading System meets the needs of students in grades 4-12, while Fundations targets young children in grades K-4.

With the leadership of PEP’s Educational Services Department, the two systems allowed us to train a core group of teachers and staff to become in-house experts in this intervention. This group has then worked diligently to train staff in all centers where appropriate (based on age and cognitive abilities of the children) on how to best implement these reading interventions into the classroom. And across the board, we’ve experienced sweet success!

Felicia Demchuk, PEP Educational Services Director, was instrumental in implementing this intervention at PEP. She states, “In spite of the fact that the Wilson Reading System has not been used extensively with children who have behavioral problems, we believed that the program would be successful with our students because of the level of emotional and instructional support we are able to provide them. This proved to be true. Although our students express more anxiety and lack of self confidence after years of failing to learn to read, they quickly recognize that they are able to learn to read successfully with the Wilson system and positive support from their teachers.”

Teachers overwhelmingly agree that this reading intervention has significantly improved their abilities as teachers. More importantly, students are showing incredible gains in their reading abilities. On average, older students involved in the Wilson project showed an improvement in reading competencies of one to three grade levels. Younger students demonstrated improvements in their abilities to identify letters and the sounds associated with letters, to write letters, and to identify words.

“Our students need direct and deliberate instruction in all areas,” stated a teacher at PEP Phoenix Place. “Fundations is able to provide the needed support and practice that has made it possible for our students to grow and learn to read.”

Using the WADE scores (this measures a child’s phonics ability to read and spell words), children in grades 3-8 who were exposed to Wilson showed an improvement of 22% in literacy competency. That’s a significant improvement considering that their peers who were not exposed to Wilson showed only a 1% gain.

Because of the success of this intervention, it is continually being implemented into more PEP classrooms, thus equipping more and more students with basic literacy tools.

In addition, Cynthia Edwards, PEP Literacy Coach, is in the process of becoming a full Wilson trainer, which will enable her to train and certify PEP staff to become Wilson instructors. She is one of ten Wilson instructors chosen from the entire United States who have been accepted into the internship program for 2008-09. Within the next year, when she completes her internship, she will be able to train all of our staff members to implement the Wilson Reading System exactly as it has been designed, as an evidence-based approach to reading instruction.

While this intervention is relatively new at PEP, we have great faith that it is the first step in building life-long readers and supplying our children with the keys to their future success.

*The following generous funders made the implementation of Wilson Reading System and Fundations possible: Eva L. and Joseph M. Bruening Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, MBNA Foundation, The McBride Fund of The Cleveland Foundation, McGinty Family Foundation, Rico F. Pallotta Fund of The Cleveland Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeastern Ohio, and Thomas H. White Foundation.

Kevin Rice, a former PEP Willow Creek student, was recently honored with Project Love’s Eric Scott Russell Student Kindness Award. This award recognizes great teens who consistently demonstrate caring, kindness and mutual respect in their interactions with adults and peers. The recipient serves as an outstanding role model of these values.

At home, school and in the community, Kevin is a role model of caring. Rice recently left PEP and is in the process of returning to Fairview High School. Although he is no longer a PEP student, those who worked with him feel that he’s still very much apart of the PEP family and are very proud of his accomplishments. According to Bill Jindra, Rice’s Case Worker at PEP for the last eleven years, “No matter what obstacles that have been placed in his path, Kevin remained determined to make something out of his life. Kevin has grown into a very caring, trustworthy, hard working young man.”

Jindra continues, “Kevin remains driven to be as independent as possible, not giving into any obstacle or disability that is in his way. It is my pleasure to continue to work with Kevin.”

A dedicated volunteer at Fairview Hospital, Rice donated over 700 hours of his time this year to the hospital. He is the Volunteer Coordinator and has been named Volunteer of the Month for five consecutive months. When announced that he would win the award for the sixth time, he declined so that another volunteer could be recognized.

Pamela Bruce, Volunteer Coordinator at Fairview Hospital states, “He is always pleasant, polite and willing to fulfill any request. He takes new volunteers under his wings and teaches them. He is wonderful with the patients and the staff. Everyone knows and loves him.”

Rice was nominated for this award by Heidi Solomon of YouthAbility, the organization through which Rice was connected with volunteer opportunities. According to Solomon, “Kevin is a gift to those who know him and an inspiration to those who have watched him grow up. There are many teens who reach amazing heights, but there are precious few who have had to climb as long or as hard as Kevin to reach the peak.”

Rice has faced many difficult challenges in his young life. The biggest being the loss of his mother in 2006 when she succumbed to cancer. Rather than acting angry and bitter as many teens would do, Rice chose to focus his energy on helping others and giving back to his community. According to Solomon, “Kevin demonstrates maturity and a sense of purpose rarely seen in a teenager.”

Rice proudly accepted his award on December 9, 2008, at Project Love’s 14th Annual Rescuer of Humanity Awards Dinner. He stood in front of hundreds of attendees to pay special thanks to important people who have helped shape his life – his father, grandmother, teachers and counselors.

Rice has a very bright future awaiting him. PEP is extremely proud of Kevin Rice and congratulates him on this well-deserved honor.

YouthAbility empowers young people who are disabled and at-risk by engaging them in volunteer service. For more information about YouthAbility, please contact Heidi Solomon (hsolomon@jfsa-cleveland.org) at 216-378-3434.

Project Love® Remember the Children Foundation is a character-building education and training organization. Through workshops, community events, leadership training and media programs, Project Love empowers teens and adults to create a culture of kindness, caring and respect wherever they go. For more information, visit www.projectlove.org.

PEP recently gifted 100 books to the Carl and Louis Stokes Central Academy, a Cleveland Metropolitan kindergarten through eighth grade school. The books were donated by PEP employees as a way to uniquely honor colleagues and friends.

Frank A. Fecser, PhD, PEP CEO; Claudia Lann Valore, PEP Chief Program Officer; and Felicia Demchuk, PEP Educational Services Director delivered the books to the school library. A classroom of second grade students was eagerly awaiting the delivery of their new books.

Valore read to the students from one of the donated books. The PEP staff enjoyed interacting with the students and asking them about some of their favorite books.

Errol Savage, the school’s Media Specialist, was pleased with the donation. “The donation of books from PEP will greatly enhance our primary collection,” Savage said. “The books that were given to Stokes were of excellent quality and will be widely popular with the students. These books will enhance our collection and add to the students’ enjoyment for a long time to come.”

The school formerly housed a junior high school, and the library contains books targeted toward the 6-8 grade students. They are lacking in books for their younger readers.

PEP greatly enjoyed the experience and will again be collecting books this holiday season. In lieu of traditional gift giving, staff is able to purchase books for Carl and Louis Stokes Central Academy in honor of their colleagues.

PEP is pleased to welcome two new members to its Board of Directors, Matthew J. Brinn, President of GasTran Systems, and Monyka S. Price, Chief of Education for the City of Cleveland.

Brinn serves as the President of GasTran Systems, a Cleveland-based company he founded in 2003. He also runs Pinetree Partners, a private equity company. Brinn is involved with many professional and non-profit organizations. He has an undergraduate degree from Miami University and a graduate degree from Babson College. He resides in University Heights with his wife, Sandy, and their two children, Hanna and George.

As part of the Mayor’s Cabinet, Price is primarily responsible for serving as liaison between the City of Cleveland and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Previously, she served as Principal of Citizens Academy, and before that, a teacher in Cleveland elementary schools. Prior to her career as an educator, Price built a successful career in sales and marketing. She brings a unique combination of both education and business expertise. She has an undergraduate degree from Kent State University and two Master’s degrees from Ursuline College.

Both Brinn and Price bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the PEP Board of Directors. They are a welcome addition, and their expertise and leadership will be greatly appreciated as they help guide PEP into the future.

PEP Connections was recently honored by the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services (CCDCFS) with its Adoption Advocacy Award. This award is presented to adoptive families, CCDCFS staff and collaborative agencies who have made outstanding efforts in providing services and permanency to waiting children and adoptive families and their children.

CCDCFS staff is responsible for making nominations for this award. A special committee then reviews the nominations and a recipient is selected.

PEP Connections was specifically recognized for its work with the CCDCFS Post-Adoptions Unit to support adoptive families. Nancy Lowery-Bregar, PEP Connections Director, proudly accepted the award at a luncheon on November 13, 2008, in conjunction with CCDCFS’ Adoption Awareness Month Celebration.

PEP Connections staff was recognized for its commitment and compassion in helping maintain children with their families. Staff works tirelessly to connect these families with necessary resources to help with challenging situations.

According to Frank Fecser, PhD, PEP CEO, “Since 1990 the PEP Connections staff has been stepping up to creatively serve many of our community’s most needy children and youth. Their reputation for excellent work, including responding to urgent matters around the clock, is unparalleled.”

In its nomination and at the awards luncheon, PEP Connections staff was praised for providing innovative solutions for the many difficult problems children and their families encounter, as well as its ability to answer any crisis, day or night.

“We congratulate our PEP Connections staff members who were recognized by DCFS with the Adoption Advocacy Award,” Fecser stated. “You are some of PEP’s finest!”

PEP proudly congratulates the following Connections staff members who were recognized with this well-deserved honor: Jeff Banker, Andrena Jones-Sharp, Nancy Klein, Jill Koenig, Lateasha Lester, Nancy Lowery-Bregar, Randy Muir, Maria Owens, Matt Ross, Karen Sharaba, Linda Torbert, and Susan Wilson.

So many young people were eager to participate in our most recent Election Day. And thanks to a special program with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, PEP Midtown youth were able to do more than simply cast their vote.

Vonita Burke, PEP Vocational Teacher-Counselor, discovered the Student Poll Worker Program which trains high school students to work at the polls on Election Day. Burke thought this could be an excellent opportunity for PEP Midtown youth to learn first-hand important vocational skills and actively participate in their community.

Midtown Center for Youth in Transition is designed to meet the specific needs of troubled teens transitioning to adulthood, all of whom are experiencing severe emotional disturbance. The specialized center focuses on building skills related to earning a high school diploma, work readiness, community participation, independent living, and lifelong learning. Without the programming at PEP Midtown, many of these young people would be unable to earn their high school diploma.

Burke arranged for a staff person from the Board of Elections to visit PEP Midtown and provide the necessary training for those students who were interested. The training was very intense, emphasizing the strict rules and high level of detail needed to ensure that election results are accurate and uncompromised. Ten students completed the four hour training and passed the required test to become poll workers.

Korena, who participated in the program, was eager to be a part of her very first Election Day. “This was the first election I could vote in and I wanted to work the polls,” she stated.

Come Election Day, nine PEP Midtown students were assigned to work at their neighborhood precincts alongside other high school students, as well as community members who have been working the polls for years. They arrived Monday night to help with set-up and then reported for duty at 5:30 am on Election Day. All served as greeters, directing voters to their correct precinct sign-in table.

All nine students stayed at their assigned precinct for the entire day, well past 7:30 pm when the polls closed. They helped to ensure that votes were correctly counted and processed. According to Korena, “We counted all the votes by hand. We made sure everything was put together right.”

PEP Midtown Vocational Teacher-Counselors visited all nine students while they were hard at work at their assigned polls. According to Burke, “Every place we visited had nothing but good things to say about our students.”

“I had a lot of fun. I was able to meet a lot of people and talked to kids from other high schools,” stated Korena. “I was able to function in a social setting. I learned so much and wouldn’t have found any of this out (otherwise).”

During the weeks prior to Election Day, PEP Midtown was abuzz. Students were eager to participate in their first election and staff helped keep them informed. They included election-related civics lessons into their daily planning, focusing on the election process, studying the differences between the two major political parties, and reviewing the candidates and issues on the ballot. They even helped students who were eligible to vote to print out their individualized sample ballots from the Board of Elections website.

Korena shared the excitement of her classmates, “I was excited to vote. I felt like my one vote could change the world.” Korena, like so many other young people, was energized by this election. “Why not vote? I kept telling my family and friends to get out and vote,” she said.

For Korena and the other students who worked at the polls, Election Day was more than a chance to make their voice heard. It was an opportunity for them to participate in their community, putting their social skills to the test. And proudly, they all passed with flying colors.

Over the last four decades, PEP has become known for its expertise in providing therapeutic academic environments for troubled and troubling children. Committed to sharing its knowledge, PEP seeks opportunities to help peer professionals in their work with challenging students.

Recently, PEP Assist (PEP's consultation and training arm) has been working with districts in Pennsylvania to better serve children with mental health needs. Within these districts, PEP Assist is helping implement integrated classrooms that align with the principles of Re-ED (Re-EDucation of Emotionally Disturbed Children)* and combine both educational and mental health objectives to provide therapeutic learning environments.

PEP was approached six years ago by Estelle B. Richman, then Director of Human Relations in Philadelphia, about piloting a few specialized classrooms within the Philadelphia City Schools. The classrooms were intended to better serve an increasing number of students with mental health needs. To Richman, it made sense to create classrooms to accommodate this population, classrooms with both a teacher and a mental health professional.

PEP Day Treatment Center classrooms exemplify this model, with educators and mental health professionals teamed to create an environment that serves as both the school and the therapeutic treatment center. PEP was the perfect match to help the Philadelphia schools bring this concept to life.

"Over our 35 years of providing quality education and mental health services, PEP has developed expertise in serving troubled and troubling children and youth," said Frank A. Fecser, PhD, CEO of PEP. "We invest a great deal of resources in professional development in order to maintain cutting edge knowledge as the field develops. PEP Assist is well-equipped to help schools design effective programs for challenging students."

With the help of PEP Assist, the therapeutic classroom model in Philadelphia began in a small cluster of three classrooms. Since its inception, the project has grown to 24 CARE (Children Achieving through Re-EDucation) classrooms, three in each region of the district.

According to Anne Zembroski, Program Analyst-SBBH with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health, Division of Community Behavioral Health, "[PEP Assist] helped us integrate the educational and classroom management strategies with behavioral health interventions, thereby providing the needed support and learning environment necessary for our CARE children to succeed. As we have grown steadily from one to eight programs and have gone through many staffing changes, PEP continues to provide us with annual trainings and with consultation on an 'as needed' basis."

The therapeutic classroom model has not only seen significant expansion in the Philadelphia schools, but is now making its way into districts across the state. With the leadership of Richman, now Pennsylvania Secretary of Public Welfare, and Dr. Gerald Zahorchak, Secretary of Education, this concept has grown into a state-wide initiative, with therapeutic classroom environments in a growing number of districts.

As a result, PEP Assist is able to share its expertise with even more educators, including those in Sharon City Schools and Oil City Area Schools, both in the western part of the state; and Chester Upland Schools, a district near Philadelphia.

"Working with [PEP Assist] to implement the Re-ED philosophy has afforded us the opportunity to reframe the paradigm of offering a continuum of behavioral health services within an academic environment," stated Tamara S. Shepard, MS, School Based Services Director for the Northwest Behavioral Health Partnership.

Shepard continued by saying, "[PEP Assist]'s guidance has assisted us with the establishment of a strong foundation for the programmatic development and implementation of our integrated classrooms. Peggy Klein's [PEP Assist Supervisor] continued support, encouragement, and expertise for our management of the paradigm shift lends a common sense approach to the successful practice of a strength-based model. The most significant aspect of the integrated classroom initiative is that we now have students with acute mental health needs attending public school daily and engaged in meaningful experiences within a nurturing environment."

_______________________________

* Re-ED (Re-Education of Emotionally Disturbed Children), the philosophy behind all work done at PEP, is a dynamic, strength-based, family-centered approach for working with children and youth with severe emotional disturbance. It was developed in the early 1960s by Dr. Nicholas Hobbs of Vanderbilt University at the request of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH was seeking a new paradigm for the treatment of children with severe emotional disturbance that would be both highly accessible and cost effective.

PEP constantly strives to provide every child with a learning environment that promotes growth. Not all children thrive in the classroom, and PEP students are no exception. In fact, many children at PEP have come to equate school settings with failure. They need to see beyond the walls of the classroom to realize they truly are capable of learning.

As a result, PEP has always firmly believed in the benefits of an outdoor education curriculum; a curriculum that instills important academic and life lessons in nontraditional settings.

According to Doug Hershman, Outdoor Education Manager, "I have watched kids who struggle in a traditional classroom environment excel in the outdoors, building new skills and increasing their confidence and self-esteem."

A key element to the outdoor education curriculum is therapeutic camping. Throughout the school year, PEP classroom staff takes children on trips to local camping facilities (i.e. Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts campgrounds) to enjoy nature, experience teamwork and feel a sense of personal accomplishment.

Therapeutic camping provides challenging opportunities that allow individuals to grow and groups to develop into cohesive teams. In new environments away from their regular daily activities, children and staff are forced to work together to achieve common goals. Children who rarely experience personal achievement are finally able to taste sweet success.

Of course these outings include all the regular activities associated with camping. Campers pitch tents, build fires, and go for nature walks. But behind every activity is always an underlying therapeutic objective, such as communication, teamwork, trust building, or problem solving.

For example, eating dinner together seems simple enough, but there are many teaching opportunities along the way. Numerous tasks need to be accomplished in order for the group to enjoy a meal. Someone must gather firewood; someone else must prep the food. Another person must start the fire, and later someone else has to help clean up.

The success or failure of this activity is dependent upon each member completing their assigned task. When these tasks are completed, members feel a sense of accomplishment both as an individual and as a member of the group. As a result, children feel immediate gratification and an increase in their self-esteem.

These simple accomplishments build competence in children, and at PEP, we believe in the words of Nicholas Hobbs, PhD, "that competence makes a difference" in the life a child. This simple statement is a cornerstone of Re-ED, the strength-based, family-centered approach used at PEP to work with children and youth with severe emotional disturbance.

Building competence in children brings joy to their lives. And Doug Hershman has experienced this first hand; "I have seen the look in a child's eyes when they come back from camping with their heads high, shoulders back and smiles on their faces."

This feeling of pride and competence isn't left at the campsite. Children carry these positive feelings with them for years to come. They may be small accomplishments, but for these children, they leave a lasting impression.

In order to keep the experience fresh, Hershman is constantly adding more initiatives to the outdoor education curriculum. This year, PEP children can look forward to indoor and outdoor rock climbing, nature hikes, environmental education activities and much more.

Susan Berger, PEP Development and Community Relations Director, was recognized as the 2008 ATHENA Award Recipient in Cleveland. Susan was selected from a group of eleven outstanding finalists for her leadership, her dedication to the community and the positive impact she's had on other women.

The ATHENA Award, coordinated locally by Inside Business is an international award celebrating women and men who have made an impact on their communities, their professions and the lives of women. Finalists are selected because of their effort and leadership to make our community a better place. There are two recipients named each year in northeast Ohio; one from Cleveland and one from Akron.

"Susan embodies what the ATHENA Award stands for," stated Megan O'Bryan, Executive Director of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. "She is a woman of professional excellence, high integrity, compassion, and has the courage to always advocate for what she believes in; even if contrary to popular opinion."

Susan has been with PEP for nearly eight years, and her positive impact has been felt by all. During her tenure, she has been instrumental in raising community awareness of the organization and greatly increasing the operating budget. In addition to fundraising, she has also been heavily involved in strategic planning, government relations, public relations and marketing and communications.

"Her work here is close to the heart; she genuinely cares and gives her enormous energy and talents to bring skills, hope and strength," stated Frank A. Fecser, CEO of PEP.

O'Bryan, one of the people responsible for Susan's nomination, described her as having "chosen her life path on wanting to make a difference. This has manifested in her professional choices and her community service. She is mission-driven and has been recognized with this accolade for many reasons."

Those reasons are all based on Susan's love of Cleveland and her desire to help those around her. And throughout her life, Susan has found many opportunities to do just that.

One organization she is proud to support is the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, where she served on the board for eight years, some of them as board president. During her time on the board, she helped raise awareness of the center and its important mission. Her dedicated leadership helped to increase funding, build a solid board and develop a growing endowment.

Susan's civic involvement isn't limited to serving on nonprofit boards. She also finds time to directly connect with members of our community, especially children. Driven by her passion for reading, Susan and a friend, Cheryl Davis, created a book club for girls at Buckeye Woodland Elementary School. Susan not only instilled the importance of education, but also provided the girls with a positive role model and an opportunity to realize their potential.

Frank A. Fecser, PhD, CEO of PEP, was the recipient of Pressley Ridge's 2008 Annual Achievement Award. Each year, the award recognizes an individual who has significantly contributed to the welfare of children and families.

"Frank was chosen for his lifelong commitment to serve children and families, using the principles of Re-EDucation (Re-ED)," said B. Scott Finnell, Ph.D., LCSW, president and CEO of Pressley Ridge. "PEP is one of twenty agencies in the nation, like Pressley Ridge, that uses Re-ED to guide its work with children and youth on a daily basis."

Re-ED (Re-Education of Emotionally Disturbed Children), the philosophy behind all work done at PEP, is a dynamic, strength-based, family-centered approach for working with children and youth with severe emotional disturbance. It was developed in the early 1960s by Dr. Nicholas Hobbs of Vanderbilt University at the request of the National Institute for Mental Health.

"Frank has been a strong and effective leader, not only at the Positive Education Program, but also in his role as a board member and past president of the American Re-EDucation Association (AREA)," said Mark Freado, executive director of AREA. "His colleagues in AREA are pleased and proud that he is receiving this recognition."

In addition to leading PEP, Dr. Fecser's work includes consulting with child-focused programs across the country, developing day treatment models and conducting statewide training institutes for teachers, special educators and mental health professionals.

He is the co-founder of the Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) Institute, an advanced therapeutic strategy for working with challenging youth and is co-author of the book entitled, "Talking with Students in Conflict."

Pressley Ridge, a Pittsburgh-based organization, helps troubled children find joy in life, become healthier and more productive, and find a place in society where they can be successful. Pressley Ridge provides services in numerous states and around the globe.

Over the summer, PEP hosted the 2008 American Re-EDucation Association Conference in Cleveland. Over 800 professional child educators and mental health providers convened to share ideas and take away new concepts to help better serve children and youth.

As the conference name indicates, it was attended by organizations that are part of the American Re-EDucation Association (AREA). AREA organizations subscribe to the philosophy of Re-EDucation (Re-ED), which is a dynamic, strength-based, family-centered approach for working with children and youth with severe emotional disturbance. It was developed in the early 1960s by Dr. Nicholas Hobbs of Vanderbilt University at the request of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH was seeking a new paradigm for the treatment of children with severe emotional disturbance that would be both highly accessible and cost effective.

Keynote speakers Ruby Payne, PhD, and Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD, gave attendees helpful insight to better serve and relate to the children in their care.

Dr. Payne provided the opening address. She is an expert on the mindsets of economic classes and on crossing socioeconomic lines in education, work, and for social change. Dr. Payne provided helpful strategies for successfully raising student achievement and negotiating economic class barriers.

Dr. Prothrow-Stith closed the conference by sharing her expertise on the application of rigorous scientific methods to strengthen violence prevention curriculum. Dr. Prothrow-Stith, a former inner-city Boston physician, turned to public health, and was instrumental in creating a social movement to prevent violence.

Conference attendees chose from a wide array of session choices which covered everything from leadership development to successful reading interventions to engaging and empowering parents. Presenters came from many different agencies and brought fresh ideas and perspectives to the group.

AREA agencies came from across the country to share great ideas, new skills and enjoy time with colleagues, many of whom have worked closely for years. The conference recognized the importance of the teacher-counselor. The term was coined by Hobbs and refers to all staff, regardless of role or discipline, who enrich the lives of children with severe emotional disturbance.

The conference is held every other year and honors one individual who has made a lifelong commitment to helping children. James Doncaster, Senior Director of Organizational Development of Pressley Ridge (a Pennsylvania-based AREA agency), was named the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. For over 35 years Doncaster has been dedicated to the principles of Re-ED and has made a lasting impact on the lives of many.

In addition to Doncaster, staff from each AREA agency was recognized as Teacher-Counselors of the Year. Each person was nominated by colleagues he/she works with every day.

Maripat Hanna, a speech-language pathologist at PEP Harbor, was honored as the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County's (http://www.esc-cc.org) 2008 Outstanding Educator.

Maripat received this award for her work to increase students' access to curriculum and meaningful learning activities by using her extensive knowledge and expertise, especially in the area of augmentative communication.

Maripat works with both educator teams and parents to promote consistency between school and home. She has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of many of her students by showing them how to utilize their voice, whether it is their voice through sign language, a communication device or with the use of pictures and icons.

"Maripat provides support for the students, colleagues and parents by working beyond her required work hours, during weekends and summer vacations," explains Kathe Shelby, former Director of the State Support Team for Region 3, now Director, Office for Exceptional Children, Ohio Department of Education. "She is a dedicated professional who strives to empower students with significant disabilities to experience the joy of communication and independence."

Back in 1996, a group of Cleveland-area nonprofits conducted their own survey to see how many preschools were expelling children.

They found more than 90 children had been kicked out of preschool programs in the previous six months, and that was just among those schools who bothered to return the survey.

"It was probably much worse," said Ann Bowdish, early childhood services director for the Positive Education Program.

So in 1997, Positive Education Program, a 30-year-old nonprofit that addresses children's social, emotional and behavioral problems, started a new program called Day Care Plus.

Today, Day Care Plus works directly with the teachers and families of more than 500 children at risk of being expelled from preschool. The program works, Bowdish says. More than 95 percent of the at-risk kids are able to stay in their current classroom as a result of the help.

Joanah, the Lakewood boy, is one of the few whom PEP Day Care Plus helped into a different program.

Consultant Anne Gannon worked one-on-one with the family, from meeting with Joanah's therapist to coordinating with the director of his new school, Lakewood Baptist Child Development Center.

"It's devastating to a parent to hear their child isn't accepted. I tell them, though, that sometimes it isn't a good match," Gannon says. "No, you're not a failure, and your child is not a failure -- we just have to find the right fit for him or her."

They found that fit at Lakewood Baptist Child Development Center, where Joanah is now in an integrated classroom that includes children at a variety of developmental stages.

Joanah's mom, Lori Napier, said the change took some adjustment but has been for the best. She credits Lakewood Baptist staff, who are diligent in keeping her apprised of what's happening day to day, as well as Gannon for stepping in when the mother felt she had nowhere else to turn.

"I feel like they're backing me up," Napier says.

What helps

There are things any preschool can do to help keep kids like Joanah in their classrooms.

Not all preschools are heartless. "The daycare business is a tough business," Gannon says. But sometimes people don't "get it."

In January 2008, Gilliam, the Yale researcher, followed up his study of preschool expulsions with a policy brief outlining what can be done to help curb the rate.

Near the top of the list: Teachers should have regular access to early childhood mental health consultants, people like Gannon, who can help them address challenging behaviors in the classroom.

Preschool teachers who reported having an ongoing relationship with a classroom-based mental health consultant are about half as likely to report expelling a preschooler, relative to teachers with no such support, according to Gilliam's research. Only about one-quarter of these teachers, however, reported regular classroom access to a mental health consultant.

Schools have speech-language pathologists, occupational therapy and special education programs. But this kind of help is often missing.

Gilliam says it's "actually very tragic that when you ask preschool teachers what they'd like assistance with more than anything else, they say behavioral issues."

His spotlight on the issue is beginning to pay off, according to Pre-K Now, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

Several states, such as Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan, have expanded their early childhood mental health consultation systems, according to the group.

There are more practical changes preschools can make, too.

If a school does not have a documented expulsion policy, or specific policies against expulsion, that's the first step. Most states don't have procedures for preschools to follow like they do for K-12, and so problems often go unnoticed, Gilliam says.

Teachers also need to be treated with respect, given breaks and paid well. And, for all that, they need to be qualified.

The National Institute for Early Education Research recommends all lead teachers have bachelor's degrees, but fewer than half of the 38 states that sponsor preschool programs require such a credential.

"They're not just babysitters. Early care in education really does require some skill and some training," says McCabe, the Cornell early childhood expert.

Class size makes a difference

The National Association for the Education of Young Children recommends a ratio of no more than 10 students per teacher, and preschools need to enforce that, at a minimum, Gilliam says.

The recommendation resonates with Gannon, who sees class size as the biggest problem.

"When you have too many children in one area all trying to get the teacher's attention -- sometimes I'm wondering, why do they think this child has a behavior problem? I would have a behavior problem, too, if I was in this room," she says.

Besnoy, the New York City-area mom, feels that was a contributing factor in her son Wyatt's case. Wyatt was one of 17 kids in his former classroom, although the teacher had an aide.

"When you have that many kids ... you don't want the kid who's not cookie cutter. Because you don't have time to deal with them," Besnoy says.

Parents also bear responsibility, and many want help but don't know where to turn, Gannon says.

Maybe a child lacks a consistent bedtime, has an undiagnosed learning disability or is spoiled by parents who don't know how to set limits.

"Parents appreciate that (help), too. They like to know if what they're doing is working because they, of course, want their children to be successful, too," she says.

Gilliam says his study of preschool expulsion rates, the first national study conducted, actually was a small afterthought to a much larger study of preschool policies.

"It was this bizarre finding that was kind of thrown in there and has got all this attention," he says. "It's a good thing -- if it helps."