Save the date for an 3-day free online conference for Social Workers, Law Enforcement, Educators & Prosecutors.
This event is co-sponsored by Cumberland County Children’s Advocacy Center, Maine Department of Education’s Maine School Safety Center, Trauma-informed Prosecutor Project (TiPP), and Portland Pump Company.
Trainings are designed to provide cross disciplinary education, advocacy for systemic legal change, guidance for survivor support and leadership on emerging technologies, education and training around how to recognize and address the intersecting forms of child maltreatment in connection with child sexual abuse is the focus of all.
FEBRUARY 2-4, 2022 – 8:30AM TO 4PM
Day 1:
Essentials of Trauma-Informed Care
Essentials of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Empowering Survivors To Understand The Impact of Childhood Trauma… Getting Through, Not Over
Vicarious Trauma & Self-Care Strategies
Day 2:
Understanding the Impact Of Trauma On Boys
Strategies, Tips, & Activities for The Classroom: Building Connections & Developing Empathy
Personal Safety Building Blocks: Consent, & Empathy for Parents
Personal Safety Building Blocks: Consent, & Empathy for Professionals
Day 3:
Trauma-Informed Approaches to Victims of Technology-Facilitated
Abuse No Perfect Victim: Combating Issues & Overcoming Jury Bias in Cases with Difficult Kids
Smoke & Fire: Trauma, ACEs, How They Impact Child Abuse Investigation & Prosecution
Creating Trauma-Informed Spaces for Victims & Families Throughout the Justice System
As we all work together to fight the Omicron variant of COVID-19, effective mask wearing continues to be one of the best strategies.
Find important information, graphics, and translated resources on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website to share with your school community about how individuals can improve how their mask protects them:
The Mills Administration is distributing printable 4×6 cards and 8.5×11 posters encouraging Maine people to get vaccinated this season in order to protect their health and the health of their communities. Maine Schools are important partners in this effort, which is why we wanted to provide you with these materials to post in your spaces to help spread the word about the importance of getting vaccinated. Helping reinforce the importance of vaccinations is even more important right now during this sustained surge of COVID-19.
Due to an increase in requests for training, the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) will host an encore presentation of their latest study, Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools.
As part of its mission to prevent targeted violence, NTAC has long maintained a particular focus on the safety of children in schools. The following NTAC resources are available to assist community partners in developing behavioral threat assessment programs and to inform the decisions for when and how to initiate a threat assessment.
Additional resources:
Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence provides eight actionable steps for establishing multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment teams. Behavioral threat assessment is a proactive approach to identify, assess, and appropriately intervene with students who display a behavior that elicits concern for the safety of themselves or others. – Enhancing School Safety
Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence is the most comprehensive analysis of targeted school violence ever produced by the federal government. The study offers unparalleled insight into the motives, behaviors, and other situational factors that ultimately led to school violence. – Protecting America’s Schools
Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools examines instances when a student advanced a plan to attack their school, but was stopped before violence occurred. The report affirms the importance of bystander reporting and intervention before a student’s behavior escalates to violence. – Averting Targeted School Violence
The Maine Department of Education updated its Pre-Screening Tool this fall for School Attendance – translations of this document are now available in the 10 most spoken languages in Maine schools. Changes to the prescreening tool included only clarifying language and the addition of common and less common symptoms of COVID-19 (which are unchanged from when they were previously listed on the pre-screening tool).
The State of Maine is running its own State-based insurance marketplace called CoverME.gov, where uninsured people or those who buy insurance on their own can get health insurance, usually with financial assistance. It is currently an open enrollment period, with next Wednesday, December 15 being the deadline to sign up for January 1 coverage. Open enrollment ends on January 15, 2022.
If you have families within your school community who might benefit from affordable health coverage, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has a toolkit with sample messages and other information to help schools promote this great opportunity.
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Maine School Safety Center (MCCS) is happy to announce that they are offering virtual Office Hours to connect with Maine school personnel who oversee school safety planning. An open forum to bring questions, ideas or concerns, the team will be available to provide support and technical assistance every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-11am thru February 17.
The office hours will provide an opportunity to check in and ask questions or seek support for subject matters such as:
Forming Collaborative Safety Teams
Resources for the prevention of youth violence
Recommendations to support a positive school environment
Multi Hazard mitigation and response plans
Site assessments
Climate Assessment
Training exercises
School Safety Services
SRO MOUs
SRO and Administrative Team building
SRO training opportunities
Please hop in for an informal discussion about any of the above listed topics, or any other way the Maine School Safety Center can support your school. If those days/times do not work, we are still available to do the same anytime by phone, email, Teams, or Zoom. As always, the MSSC can still be reached by email or phone to answer questions, collaborate, or commiserate.
Topic: Maine School Safety Center Virtual Office Hours
Time: Dec 7, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada). Every week on Tue, Thu, until Feb 17, 2022, 22 occurrence(s)
This month, we also have a new podcast series on What It Means to Be a School Leader and leading through crises. Episode 1 on Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Oriented Leadership is available now. Dr. Linda Henderson-Smith from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing has tips for proactively building resiliency and promoting healing for students, school staff, and community members.
We are including some additional resources to support your school violence prevention initiatives:
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in partnership with the Maine Department of Education (DOE), today announced the winners of the video competition for Maine children to encourage COVID-19 vaccination.
DHHS and DOE announced the contest on November 3, inviting Maine youth ages 5 to 17 to submit 30-second videos that they believed would encourage other children, along with their parents, to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The winners are:
1st place: Renée Morin (sophomore), Olie Saywell (sophomore), Hunter Roberts (junior, created original score), Ian Kruger (senior, camera operator); The New School (high school), Kennebunk
2nd place: Spencer Michalski (8th grade), homeschooled, Columbia
3rd place: Natalie Waters (6th grade), Lincoln Middle School, Portland
The winning entries can be viewed here:
“Congratulations to the winners of our Maine Kids COVID-19 Vaccination Video Contest, who displayed creativity, conviction, and courage in their submissions,” said DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and Maine CDC Director Nirav D. Shah. “We’re grateful to every Maine child and teenager who submitted an entry – they are all public health champions. Thanks to people like them, Maine is quickly getting enough students vaccinated to begin returning to more normal ways of learning and having fun.”
“Getting back to normal and doing our part to end the pandemic inspired us to submit to the contest,” said the first-place team from The New School. “By spreading awareness and empowering fellow young people with facts about vaccination, helping younger Mainers to not be afraid, and using skills we learned in video production, we hoped to contribute to positive public health messaging.”
“My plunge into the frigid water was worth the sacrifice for the greater good,” added Olie Saywel.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is promoting the winning videos on social media.
Additionally, first-place winner The New School will receive $50,000; second -place winner Spencer Michalski selected Downeast Audubon as the nonprofit to receive the $25,000 second-place prize to fund summer camp scholarships; and third-place winner Lincoln Middle School will receive $10,000.
Schools can use the winnings to supplement school meals with healthy treats; purchase playground, classroom, gym, sports, or music equipment; enhance a special school activity; or support a school field trip for all students.
Over 50 submissions were reviewed, without identifying information, by a committee comprised of DHHS, CDC and DOE staff members. The selection criteria included originality and clarity of the message, consistency with public health information on youth vaccination, and potential to reach unvaccinated groups, among others.
Children could produce the video submissions on their own or as part of a school activity. Participation was limited to Maine residents.
The prize winnings are supported by the Federally funded Coronavirus Relief Fund at Maine DHHS, which was the source of funds for previous COVID-19 vaccine incentive programs in Maine.
The video competition is part of Maine DHHS and Maine CDC’s broader plan to support vaccination of children ages 5 to 11. Nearly 29% of Maine children ages 5 to 11 have received at least a first dose of vaccine, nearly double the national average of 14.7 percent and ranking Maine third in the nation, according to the U.S. CDC.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is available for children 5 to 11 years old in a two-dose series, and is administered in a lower dose than the vaccine for adolescents and adults.
COVID-19 vaccines are available at no charge at sites across the state. For information on getting a vaccine, please visit Maine.gov/covid19/vaccines or call the Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.
Please join the U.S. Department of Education and National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement for an informational webinar following the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech age 5-11 vaccine.
Thursday, December 9, 2021 At 8:00PM EST
This is a such special time of year, and this year, we all have one more thing to be grateful for: Kids ages 5 to 11 are now eligible to get vaccinated. The vaccine is safe and effective, specifically formulated for young kids. And getting your child vaccinated is the best way to keep them safe from COVID, including the Delta variant. This is great news for parents and families.
During the webinar, esteemed panelists including United States Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten along with representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics will address common concerns and worries among parents and families about the COVID-19 vaccine for their child(ren) ages 5-11.
Parents are invited to submit questions about the vaccine on the registration form. Pre-submitted questions will help plan the content of the session. Time will also be reserved for live questions and answers at the end of the event.
Maine DOE Newsroom 
