Please check out the Autism Alliance of Michigan's (AAOM) 2021 Navigating Autism Today Conference. The conference is virtual and free, with a number of different sessions caregivers can attend. Strive Center for Autism is sponsoring the conference this year, and we hope that you will consider attending.

The conference is on Friday, March 19th.

Find out more here: Autism Alliance of Michigan Navigating Autism Today Conference

We had a little mix-up in last week's newsletter - two of our therapists were listed with the wrong location. Nahemae and Erin both work in our Burton location, but were incorrectly listed in Brighton. Sorry for the confusion, and you can learn more about each of them below!

Nahemae started at the Strive Center in April of 2018, so she's rapidly approaching 3 years on our team. She has a bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan – Flint.

She previously worked at Helping Hands and Whaley’s Children Center. She also had an externship within the Genesee Health System.

Nahemae enjoys swimming and boating.

Erin joined our team in June 2018. Erin graduated from the University of Michigan – Flint with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work.

Erin previously interned at the YWCA as a children’s advocate in the safe house.

Erin has a passion for photography and writing. She is interested in writing stories geared towards children with disabilities and spreading awareness. She also enjoys any outdoor activities, especially water sports.

Many parents have asked about spring break. Our centers don't observe a spring break, as the research shows that what makes ABA therapy most effective is the intensity and consistency of delivery. We do take a longer break between Christmas and New Year's, as families have told us over the years that they prefer to be off during that time. Other than that longer break, we try to take just long weekends here and there to allow families and staff a little extra time to celebrate around holidays, while maintaining the intensity and consistency of treatment.

We do understand that families like to take vacations throughout the year, and that is why our attendance policy has always allowed room for families to take those breaks on their own schedule, while providing us at least 2 weeks' notice so that we can adjust staffing.

The current CDC guidance on travel continues to recommend a quarantine period after traveling.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html

The current recommendation is to get a test within 3-5 days of your return, but to continue to quarantine for 7 days OR to quarantine for 10 days.

We do request that any families who choose to travel follow the CDC guidelines for quarantine after travel, as all our other children are considered an at-risk group.

With that in mind, we ask that families talk with their BCBA as soon as possible if they have spring travel plans, and understand that your travel plans will also mean your child misses up to 10 additional days of therapy.

We will continue to count absences, including vacations, and your BCBA will give you an absence report monthly. We request that families be mindful of the number of days your child is missing, as it directly affects the effectiveness of his therapy.

Every family is allowed 12 unexcused absences per year, which include last minute absences due to illness or other reasons, whether you call to report the absence or not.

There is not a specific number of excused absences allowed per year, which includes those absences you provide 2 week's notice for or are excused by a doctor's note. However, our policy does state that we reserve the right to end programming for a child with excessive absences. Your BCBA is reviewing the absences with you monthly so that you will know when your absences become excessive. We do not want to discontinue services, we want to work with you to provide as much high quality treatment as possible.

We are also working on scheduling some additional training for our newer staff members, so if families provide us enough notice of their plans to travel, that might make it possible for us to schedule training a little easier. Please just continue to talk with your BCBA, as we all have your child's best interests at heart.

This is a friendly reminder that our organization is currently working through the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) accreditation process. Parents and staff have both received emails with surveys regarding our center, and we would appreciate each of you taking the time to respond to the survey.

Our virtual site visit with our Clinical Evaluator is scheduled for next week, and she will be requesting to complete virtual observations with several clients, and to speak to parents who are willing to answer questions about our services. Parent interviews can be completed over the phone, and our staff will arrange the virtual observations for the evaluator.

Our families and staff were great about responding last year, and we know you will all make the effort this year too.

If you haven't received an email from the BHCOE, please contact Amy at ahund@sc-centers.com and we will make sure that you do.

As you may have noticed, we use pictures of the children in the centers in our newsletter, and on our Facebook page pretty frequently. We do this because we want to celebrate all the little things that make our kids unique, and we want parents to see that children in our care are having a great time.

One thing we do when we share pictures is we make sure not to show your child's face. We accomplish this by using pictures taken from behind, showing the back of a child's head, or a picture of a child with a mask on, but still from the back or side. We want to make sure that our parents know why we do this. As Board Certified Behavior Analysts, we are held to a high ethical standard by our certification board, and one of the items on our ethics code is:

Behavior analysts must not share or create situations likely to result in the sharing of any identifying information (written, photographic, or video) about current clients and supervisees within social media contexts.

So, while we want everyone to see how fun and engaging our therapy is, we have an obligation to protect the privacy of our clients, which includes not sharing anything that might identify them on social media.

For more information on the BACB's Ethics Codes, please click here.

Email: info@sc-centers.com
Website: www.sc-centers.com
Location: Burton and Brighton, MI
Phone: 810-344-8082