Two Webinar Opportunities:

• Friday, March 19: 11:00 am -12:30 pm [register here]
• Friday, April 23: 11:00 am -12:30 pm [register here]

• Available starting March 29 [register here]

Launching March 29, 2021- NEW! Substance Misuse Prevention Online Training and opportunity to apply for additional technical assistance.

Managing school days during the pandemic has focused on putting out fires. Yet the United States and Connecticut continue to face an opioid epidemic as well, and K-12 schools are uniquely positioned to help reduce and prevent opioid and substance misuse among the students in their care. So how do we ensure the time and resources during this chaotic time to work on prevention?

Over the past 2 years, the Education Development Center has been working with SERC to develop a set of tools that districts across the state can use to assess their current substance misuse prevention programming and inform the selection of new programs, practices, and strategies. SERC, in collaboration with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), will offer a virtual learning opportunity on implementing these tools that includes an orientation, a self-paced online course, and an application for optional coaching to facilitate implementation.

Under the State Opioid Response Grant (SOR), SERC and DMHAS developed the document “Universal Opioid and Other Substance Misuse Prevention Planning in Schools: Guidance for Connecticut K-12 Educators and Their Prevention Partners.” They are creating a rubric to score districts on their readiness to implement the guidance and will select two districts in June to do a deeper dive.

The combined guidance document, self-assessment tool, and synthesis of prevention programs will support schools in meeting 2019 legislation requiring school districts to provide “instruction related to opioid use and related disorders” under Connecticut’s existing substance use prevention curriculum requirement.

This prevention guidance document describes effective universal opioid and other substance misuse prevention in schools, accompanied by a practical tool for assessing current school-based prevention programs and practices. Together, these two resources are designed to help Connecticut educators and their prevention partners understand best practices in K-12 universal substance misuse prevention and critically examine—with an eye toward improving—their schools’ existing universal efforts to prevent opioid and other substance misuse among the students they serve.

The self- paced online course will provide participants an opportunity to review and complete the prevention guidance document in addition to the collection of user-friendly tools that offers Connecticut administrators and educators a roadmap for strengthening their school-based substance misuse prevention programming.

For content questions, contact SERC Consultant Paquita Jarman-Smith, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Register for Webinar A
March 19: 11:00 am -12:30 pm

Register for Webinar B
April 23: 11: am - 12:30pm

The State Education Resource Center and the SERC Board of Directors congratulate our partner and friend, Dr. Miguel Cardona, who will now be Secretary of Education of the United States! SERC got to know Dr. Cardona in his various roles in Meriden, and we enjoyed a close collaboration with him during his tenure as Connecticut’s Education Commissioner. We admired his fervent advocacy for the students and educators of Connecticut and elevating the role of families, standing side by side with the honorees at our Parental Involvement Recognition Awards ceremony. With his inspiring background, Dr. Cardona shared our devotion to educational equity, and we were excited to celebrate the recent approval of our African American/Black and Puerto Rican/Latino curriculum along with him. We will miss him in Connecticut but are gratified knowing that all the nation’s children will benefit from Dr. Cardona’s passionate leadership and commitment to their futures.

SERC Executive Director Ingrid M. Canady was honored to contribute her reflections to Fox 61’s “Black History IS Connecticut History Project”:

View this video at fox61.com