Is it Candy, or Drugs? Substance Abuse Awareness and Over-the-Counter Medicines
Phillip Hubbs, Executive Director, Proactive Network Against Substance Abuse, CA

Is it candy or is it drugs? What household products are abused? Why is the abuse of prescription drugs & OTC medicines on the rise with our teens? How easy is it to buy marijuana in your neighborhood? Come and learn to recognize the signs of drug use, as well as the physical effects, packaging, and slang terms of the latest drugs. This session is for parents, teachers, and administrators interested in the latest news, strategies, solutions, and resources in the fight against substance abuse.

Strand: NEW!; Safety and Violence Prevention; CASCWA; Juvenile Detention
Grade Level: K–12

Substance Abuse Prevention: A Win-Win for Districts, Students, and Families
John Miranda, Regional Coord. LifeSkills Training, Princeton Health Press, CA; Jim Crittenden, SDCOE Student Support Services, CA; Christina Boyd, TUPE Coord./Life Skills, SDUSD: Counseling and Guidance, CA; Pamela J. Werb, U of Min Medical School, Facility Department of Family Practice and Community Health, MN

Alcohol and other drug use results in predictable negative consequences for teens, the classroom, and districts–including absenteeism and related underachievement. Prevention and early intervention services are a cost-effective strategy to move the marker on test scores and improved school attendance.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; CASCWA; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Suicide Prevention Strategies–What Every Educator Should Know
Bob Burt, Outreach Coordinator, Riverside COE, Teen Line, CA

This presentation is extremely powerful and includes three content areas:
1. Understanding the causes, signs, and symptoms relating to at-risk students
2. Using outreach techniques that include all school stakeholders in suicide prevention awareness
3. Mandated reporting, education code issues, and resources that all attendees need to know. Also included are several true examples of the aftermath when educators fail to observe or report depressed and possibly suicidal children.

Strand: NEW!; Safety and Violence Prevention
Grade Level: K–12

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Brian Lee, Deputy Director, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, CA

California faces a dropout crisis that poses a significant threat to public safety. An estimated one in three California high school students does not graduate from high school on time. High school dropouts are three-and-one-half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested, and more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California is a nonprofit, bipartisan, anti-crime organization led by California's sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, and crime victims dedicated to reducing crime. This session will address their efforts to reduce the dropout rate and its impact on schools and communities.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; CASCWA; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention
Grade Level: K–12

Empowering and Partnering with Youth to Stop School Bullying and Violence
Brett Naftzger, MPA, Community Matters, CA

Bullying and violence prevent effective teaching and learning. Students hold the key: with what they see, hear, and know, they can intervene where adults can't. Community Matters presents field-tested best practices to equip and empower student leaders, ages 10–19, with nonviolent skills to prevent and stop bullying and violence and involve adult leaders in a partnership with these youth. Activities, Q & A, DVD clips, Power-Point, discussions, student ambassadors' presentation (if possible).

Strand: Safety and Violence Prevention
Grade Level: 4–12

Trickery, Trolling, and Threats: Understanding and Addressing Cyberbullying
Marcie Denberg Serra, Assistant Director of Education, San Diego Anti-Defamation League, CA

For the current generation of teens, e-mailing, instant messaging, text messaging, chatting, and blogging are a vital means of self-expression and a central part of their social lives. This session will look at how some youth are misusing Internet and cell phone technology to bully and harass others, and even to incite violence. The session will provide educators and administrators with strategies to respond effectively to cyberbullying.

The workshop will also provide practical information and opportunities for skill-building that will support school communities in developing comprehensive plans for preventing and taking action against cyberbullying and social cruelty in online forums.

Strand: NEW!; Safety and Violence Prevention; CASCWA
Grade Level: 6–12

FERPA: Protecting the Rights of At-Risk Students
LeRoy Rooker, Director, Family Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Ed., DC

Students at risk are impacted in most aspects of their lives–at home, in school, and in the community. As fragile members of the school population, they are frequently bombarded by intrusions into their private lives. School personnel must ensure that these students' rights of confidentiality are not compromised. This interactive session will focus on the federal protections afforded parents and students under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and how school officials, including school law enforcement personnel, can operate under FERPA. Session will include a question and answer time.

Strand: NEW!; Safety and Violence Prevention; CASCWA; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Girls: Risk Factors, Trends, and Strategies
Gabriela Baeza, Project Specialist, San Diego COE, Pupil Services, Safe Schools, CA

This workshop will provide participants with an overview of the latest research relating to females and violence. Trends and research-based strategies will be discussed to provide participants with ideas on how to work with female students effectively. Ideas for how to approach issues such as academic failure, teen pregnancy, gang violence, and other risky behaviors will be explored..

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: 7–12

Safe Schools: Addressing Gangs, Racism, Violence, and Bullying Through a Youth Development Lens
John Vandenburgh, PLUS Program Creator/Safe School Coordinator, Murrieta Valley USD Support Center, CA

One of the many goals of this workshop is for participants to develop a strong understanding of the impact group identity has on individual adolescent behavior, particularly with regard to gangs, violence, and bullying. Educators must understand the importance of developing peer programs that foster relationships among youth and developing youths' sense of belonging to a peer group identity. Our youth are simply growing up in a violent culture that invests itself in a code of silence. Schools must counter this and develop a culture of communication, where students feel connected to one another and responsible for the outcomes of their campus culture.

Strand: Safety and Violence Prevention; Juvenile Detention
Grade Level: K–12

Suicide Assessment, Response, and Postvention in School-Age Youth
Golnaz Agahi, LCSW, MPH, Crisis Response Network Coord., Division of Instructional Services, Orange County COE, CA

This interactive workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to identify warning signs among youth at risk for suicide. Participants will be introduced to a protocol for assessment and response to suicidal ideations. The workshop will offer a structure for school response to ensure the healthy recovery of students and staff who may be affected by the suicide of a peer.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention
Grade Level: K–12

The Impact of Violence on a Child's Developing Brain: Implications for Foster Youth
Craig Pierini, MS, Education Programs Assistant, Foster Youth Services Program, CA

Research from Dr. Bruce Perry and others strongly suggests that the brains of children, ages 0–3, who are chronically exposed to violence are organized differently. Basic neuroscience will be explored, along with how these children process information and the types of interventions that are consistent with the science.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; Foster Youth
Grade Level: K–12

Teens and Unprotected Sex: Beyond Prevention 101
Ellen Hohenstein, MA, Health Center Director, Hoover High School, CA

With birth control readily available, why do so many teens get pregnant? With the risk of HIV, why would any teen have unprotected sex? Decreasing sexual risk-taking requires implementing a continuum of prevention strategies. This interactive workshop will present a variety of strategies from integrating HIV/STD and teen pregnancy prevention into core subject area curricula to establishing individual behavioral contracts with students most at risk.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; VetORC
Grade Level: 9–12

Child Abuse Identification and Reporting
Craig Pierini, Education Programs Assistant, Foster Youth Services Program, CA

This presentation will include both identification of child abuse and neglect, along with reporting requirements of mandated reporters. In part, the information will clarify the reporting of child sexual abuse. Participants will be exposed to slides depicting child abuse victims in order to visually identify those incidents that are abusive, accidental, or the result of certain cultural practices. Participants will also be brought up-to-date on the reporting law.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention; Foster Youth; Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

We're All Doing Time: Reality Is for Those Who Can't Handle Drugs!
Victor La Cerva, MD, Consultant, Speaker & Writer, NM

This workshop explores talking with young people about alcohol and other drugs (AOD) in real ways. It contains an interactive process for clarifying our own values with regard to substance use, an explanation of adverse effects on the growing brain of AOD, information on the new “club drugs,” the stages of drug use, and what messages we most need to effectively communicate to

Strand: Safety and Violence Prevention; VetORC
Grade Level: 6–12

Cyberbullying and Internet Safety
Steve Wolf, Field Training Officer, Irvine Police Department, CA

Learn how to protect your students on the web in this interactive internet safety workshop. Participants will gain practical strategies to implement safety standards at school regarding MySpace, chat rooms, instant messaging, interactive chat, California Education Codes, and more. Steve Wolf will discuss online dangers and what teachers, parents, students, and school communities can do to protect children.

Strand: Safety and Violence Prevention
Grade Level: K–12

Positive Student Behavior Strategies from Individual to School-wide
Gini Dold, Principal/CSS Field Colleague; Brigitte Knight, CSS Outreach Consultant; Lori Swihart, Social Worker, E.R. Taylor Elementary, CA

This workshop will provide effective strategies to help schools implement school-wide behavior expectations on macro and micro levels. From supporting students with their individual behavior needs to creating systems to address challenging behaviors, this workshop will provide a diversity of tools and ideas for teachers, outreach consultants, and administrators.

Strand: Safety and Violence Prevention; VetORC
Grade Levels: K–5

Girls United to Succeed (GUTS): A Gang Intervention Program
Barbara Rivas, Coord. Violence Prevention/Intervention Unit, Founder, GUTS Program; Cathey Casanova, GUTS Program Lead Facilitator; Reina Morgan, GUTS Program Facilitator; Erika Gonzalez, GUTS Program Facilitator Intern, Student Support Services Dept., San Diego COE, CA

This workshop will describe a gender-specific intervention model for working with highly aggressive and/or gang-affiliated girls and/or parenting teens with high risk factors. Program is geared for schools, agencies, and institutions serving school-aged girls. Data for GUTS pilot program at a middle school in the San Diego area will be shared. Q and A period allowed as part of the session.

Strand: NEW!, Safety and Violence Prevention, CASCWA; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: 7–12