Creating Safe Schools for All
The Schools Unified in Neurodiversity (SUN) Collaborative is a team of advocates and educators from the Pittsburgh area that co-developed a professional development training for school educators to better support neurodivergent students. This project was inspired by our PAARCC group members' ideas and experiences.
Our interdisciplinary SUN Collaborative team is comprised of public-school teachers, counselors, building administrators, district-level administrators, neurodivergent community members, and parents of neurodivergent children. All SUN Collaborative members are self-, parent-, or family-advocates of neurodivergent children.
Using a community-based participatory research process and human centered design, the SUN Collaborative team co-created the SUN professional development training program. The goal of this program is to increase educator knowledge and confidence in supporting neurodivergent children. The 6-hour SUN Professional Development Training is comprised of 4 content modules:
- Scientific advances on neurodiversity
- Fostering safe relationships at school
- Creating a more inclusive environment
- Preventing and responding to emotional distress
Each module includes: (1) a brief didactic presentation to introduce new concepts, (2) review of concepts using multimedia, and (3) an applied group learning activity.
See some of our educational videos on our REAACT YouTube page.
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Partnerships for Implementation:
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The Education Partnership provides school supplies for more than 70,000 students and their teachers in under-resourced schools in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This year TEP will provide more than $11MM worth of classroom resources, as well as professional development, partnership, and expertise to ensure a motivated, supported, and respected educator workforce.
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Our Collaborative partnered with a local organization, The Education Partnership, to offer 2 modules of the SUN training. 30 Pittsburgh-area completed the 2-module training and received neurodivergent-affirming school supplies from The Education Partnership as part of the training.
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Upper St. Clair School District
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Our full SUN Collaborative team implemented the 6-hour SUN training to educators in the Upper St. Clair School District.
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Approximately 220 educators (e.g. teachers, support staff, counselors, and administrators) completed the training.
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Members of the SUN Collaborative will lead a workshop at the SXSW EDU conference held annually in Austin, Texas.
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To be held on March 5th, 2024 from 3:30-5:00 PM CT.
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If you’re interested in learning more about SUN, please contact Kelly Beck (kellybeck@pitt.edu)!
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