NH Educators' Summit on Opiate Use

Free to NH Educators! Lunch provided

To register for November 17 at SERESC (Wait List Only) click here!

Space is limited; early registration recommended!

Participants in this summit will receive 5.5 hours of professional development from either SERESC or NCES depending upon which site they attend.

• School leaders
  
• Teachers
  
• Related service providers including school counselors, school psychologists, and school nurses
  
• Others involved in crisis response in schools
  

District teams are encouraged to attend as a group to promote planning and team building within districts.

The Summit will include information relevant to educators from preschool through high school.

The Summit offers a statewide opportunity for educators to engage with efforts to minimize the impact of New Hampshire’s opiate abuse crisis on student learning.

The day will begin a Keynote Address by Kevin Sabet, Ph.D, author, consultant, and adviser to international and national governmental and non-governmental administrations and organizations on on the use and abuse of drugs, and policies to reduce drug abuse and its consequences.

Following the Keynote, attendees will look closer at the NH experiences in addressing opiate abuse as it affects learning. They will hear about the efforts of some New Hampshire School Districts to respond to the crisis. The afternoon will include time to identify regional resources and develop specific strategies to respond to the crisis in schools, districts, and regions.

School districts are encouraged to send teams to one of the days to promote effective and lasting team building and planning.

As a result of attending, Participants will be able to:

1. Identify at least 3 critical factors in the opioid crisis
   
2. Explain how opiod abuse affects students academically, socially and emotionally; academic and social-emotional factors
   
3. Assess status of the impact of opiate use on student learning in their specific region, schools, and districts and assess resources available
   
4. Develop strategies and action steps to address the problems in the particular region, district
   

8:00: Check-In

8:30-9:15: Keynote: Kevin Sabet, Ph.D.

9:15-9:45: School Administrator

9:45-10:15: Law Enforcement Speaker

10:15-10:30: Break

10:30-11:15: School District Panel

11:15-noon: Speaker on Leading by Convening: Collective Action, Collective Impact

Noon-1pm: Lunch

1:00-2:00pm: Regional Breakout Sessions

2:00-2:15pm: Break

2:15-2:50pm: Facilitated Discussion of Next Steps

2:50-3:30pm: Plenary Session with

• Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry
• NH Governor’s Advisor on Addiction and Behavioral Health James Vara
• Director of Program for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Chair of the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs Timothy Rourke.

Author, consultant, advisor to three U.S. presidential administrations, and assistant professor, Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., has studied, researched, written about, and implemented drug policy for almost 20 years, when he started reporting on drug issues as a junior high school kid in Orange County, California.

As a junior at UC Berkeley, he was asked to work in the Clinton Administration as a researcher on drugs, and was a speechwriter in the Bush Administration (2002-2003). In 2011 he stepped down after serving more than two years as the senior advisor to President Obama’s drug control director, having been the only drug policy staffer to have ever served as a political appointee in a Democrat and Republican administration.

In 2013, he co-founded, with former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), which advocates for a public health based marijuana policy. He is the President of SAM and leads an advisory group comprising the most prominent scientists in the field of marijuana research.

He is the Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Addiction Medicine and the author of numerous monographs and peer-reviewed journal articles. He also regularly advises foreign governments, several non-governmental organizations working to reduce drug abuse and its consequences, and serves in an international role as an adviser, in various capacities, to the United Nations and other multi-national organizations.

Dr. Sabet received his Doctorate of Philosophy and Masters of Science from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar in 2007 and 2002, respectively, and his B.A. with high honors in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001.

Dr. Sabet's presentation will be followed by two additional speakers who will further expand upon the impact of opiate use on student learning.

First, a school administrator will discuss experiences supporting students impacted by opiate use, describing the impact on both academic growth and social and emotional health. Additionally, considerations for the appropriate discipline policies will be discussed.

Next, a school resource officer will discuss the the impact of opiate use on families and students. The impact of the opiate crisis on students’ readiness to learn when they arrive at school in the morning will be highlighted in this presentation.

Additionally, strategies to support school culture and climate, and team building will be discussed.

A panel of educators, including representatives of school districts participating in grant funded programs such as Project Aware, as well as those without grant support will discuss their efforts to combat the opiate crisis. Panel members will discuss their success and ongoing struggles, programs and strategies that have made a difference, and identify key factors in preventing and responding to the impact of opiate use on student learning. Audience members will have the opportunity to engage with panel members and ask questions.

During the afternoon regional breakout session, participants will engage in facilitated discussions with other educator from their regions. As noted, district teams are encouraged to attend this event to promote effective and lasting team work during this session. Teams will work together to identify regional resources, current needs for support and services, and effective practices that exist locally. Next, teams will be led through a process of identifying next steps for reducing the impact of opiate use on student learning in their district.

Free to NH Educators! Lunch provided

To register for November 16 at LOON MOUNTAIN click here!

To register for November 17 at SERESC click here!

Space is limited; early registration recommended!

Participants in this summit will receive 5.5 hours of professional development from either SERESC or NCES depending upon which site they attend.

Financial support for these events has been provided by a generous grant from the NH Charitable Foundation. The NH Charitable Foundation has long led efforts in fight drug and alcohol misuse in NH and we are deeply thankful for their support of these events.

This event has been organized through a collaboration of the regional educational services centers in NH and the NH Department of Education Office of Student Wellness. NH regional educational services centers include SERESC in Bedford, NCES in Gorham, Strafford Learning Center, RSEC in Amherst, and Educator Preparation at Keene State College.