OHA has applied for extensions and is awaiting FDA response.
iHealth should be extended an additional 3 months soon.
BinaxNOW has applied for an additional 9 months.
As long as the rapid test quality controls (in the BinaxNOW tests) remain functional, OHA encourages us to continue using the tests.
Since we have so many tests available, I will wait on ordering more tests for now. I will reassess prior to winter break.
COVID-19 HOTLINE IS RETIRING
On December 9, 2022, the OHA COVID-19 Hotline (866-917-8881) will be retiring. However, individuals can still call 211 for questions/information.
UKG
UKG UPDATE
The UKG implementation date has been delayed. More information to come soon.
STAFF & FAMILY NEWSLETTER
STAFF AND FAMILY NEWSLETTERS
The information below was inlcuded in the BLS Staff and Family Newsletter yesterday.
Respiratory illness having big impact on our schools
Our schools are currently experiencing an increase in student and staff illness. Increasing respiratory illnesses are causing increased pediatric hospitalizations across the state and in Central Oregon. Oregon hospitals with pediatric ICUs have all shifted to crisis standards of care. According to the Oregon Health Authority, this means is that resources are severely limited, more patients are in need of critical care than what hospitals can supply, and moving patients to another critical care center is not an option.
Here’s what you can do to help keep yourself and others healthy:
Practice measures that were practiced during the pandemic.
They will automatically upload this information into Synergy under the Documents Tab and to the Historical Documents in SE Student.
RELEASE OF INFORMATION FORMS
Please do not download any RELEASE OF INFORMATION forms directly into Synergy
Starting now, please email signed Release of Information forms to the Records Clerks at “Bend-La Pine Records”. [email protected]
They will automatically upload this information into Synergy under the Documents Tab and to the Historical Documents in SE Student.
SAFE FEEDING PLANS
Starting now, please email completed Safe Feeding Plans to the Records Clerks at “Bend-La Pine Records”. [email protected]. They will automatically upload this information into Synergy under the Documents Tab and to the Historical Documents in SE Student (if applicable).
An easy, no-cost way to share critical health information before an emergency (for Oregon children and young adults through age 26).
This information will allow first responders and hospital emergency departments to quickly and easily access critical health information when an emergency occurs.
Share this resource with your families!!!!
RELIGION AND HOLIDAYS
RELIGION AND HOLIDAYS
From Kinsey Martin
Religious tolerance and inclusive practices were an area that the majority of our staff rated as very low (i.e. poor experiences with this, as employees in our organization) on our DEI staff survey last year.
Please review this information regarding how we can ensure inclusion and belonging for students, families, and staff of all religious and non-religious backgrounds.
TRANSLATION SERVICES
TRANSLATION SERVICES
From Kinsey Martin
Please DO NOT:
Use a bilingual staff member who has not been trained/qualified/compensated.
Use Google Translate or other auto-translate tools (S’mores newsletter translation, etc) at any time.
These practices have significant legal, ethical, quality, and liability issues.
All staff (including administrators) have access to Linguist Link and should make their own requests for any translation/interpretation needs. Please let Michelle or Tami know if you need assistance with account set up and use.
A few exceptions:
If you have an emergency (gas leak, lock-down, etc), the district Communications and Multilingual teams will support the communication and translation.
If you need an immediate interpreter (urgent, couldn’t have been predicted in advance):
If it’s not needed for a few hours, put it into LL and mark it urgent.
If that doesn’t work, check whether a CAFE Program member is available,
Ask a Family Liaison (there are times they will say No),
Use the On-Demand form (this form is also available on the Linguist Link home page). Follow all directions on the form very carefully.
CPR/FIRST AID TRAINING
CPR/FIRST AID TRAININGS
From the Safety Department:
The district is currently offering a blended model for the First Aid/CPR class.
The class will be done online with a hands-on skills assessment to follow.
The online portion of the class should take about three (3) hours with the skills assessment to follow with a first aid/CPR trainer that will take about 20 minutes.
The online course can be done to fit your schedule.
Your First Aid/CPR card will not be issued until all portions of class are completed.
The process will be as follows:
Sign up for the class in Performance Matters
Michelle Spetic will send you a link from HSI/Medic to get started ([email protected]).
Please check your Junk Mail if it does not appear in your regular inbox.
After each section of the online session, there will be a one or two question quiz.
When scheduled, the hands-on skills assessment schedule will be emailed to you to register if you have completed the online portion. You can only do the in-person skills assessment after you have completed the online portion of the class.
The in-person skills assessment will be done in 30-minute increments.
First Aid cards will not be sent out until both portions of the class are completed.
From Kinsey Martin: I am excited to share a new opportunity we are offering our staff and colleagues! This fall we are launching Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), available to all Bend-La Pine Schools’ employees.
You might remember our employee survey last fall, on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Our leadership team’s analysis of the survey responses illuminated many culture and climate improvement opportunities for our staff, colleagues, and ourselves.
The purpose of these ERGs is to provide spaces for employees to network and build community (Joy!) with one another around common interests, identities, and experiences.
With the increasing number of students/staff out due to illnesses, we felt that communication regarding currently illnesses in the community along with prevention strategies was warranted. This letter was sent to all level leaders to include with their weekly blogs this week. Message should be sent home to families. Currently being Spanish translated.
If you are interested in helping with any of these trainings, please let Tami know. Bend Fire would sure appreciate it!
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH TELE-HEALTH APPOINTMENTS AT SCHOOL
Bend-La Pine Schools Procedure for allowing Behavioral Health (BH) tele-health appointments at school.
iHEALTH TESTS
The iHealth tests are set to expire in mid-December. At this time, OHA has not received word if an extension will be made on the current extended expiration dates. That being said, Tami will check back in with OHA right before Thanksgiving break and if there is not an extension date, Tami will order more tests for the district.
If your school needs more tests, please order more now. Distribution would greatly appreciate getting some cases out of the warehouse.
Have you had an Assist training within the last 3 years? If so, would you like a recommended ASIST training tune up?? It is a 4-hour virtual training. If you are interested, please let Tami know asap.
UPSHIFT REQUEST FOR REIMBURSEMENT
For reimbursement for UpShift support, you must submit the following:
If you are going to time sheet the extra time, you must:
From Kinsey–Office of DEI Leadership re: CAFE Program: In-House Bilingual Support
We are thrilled to have our first group of CAFE Program staff members in Bend-La Pine Schools! As a reminder, these bilingual staff are receiving a stipend as trained, qualified linguists who can support occasional translation/interpretation needs in our schools.
Some very important notes about this program:
These folks do not replace Linguist Link. LL is our primary source for all translation/interpretation requests, and all requests (even most urgent ones) should continue to go through that system.
CAFE Program services should be used for walk-ins, phone calls, or situations that could not be planned or predicted in advance, and/or for very small/short messages (i.e. needing to add a short addition to your school newsletter that you’d already sent through translation, or sending a quick text/email to a family).
These staff members are not for translations of emergency situations—those should continue to go through our Communications and Multilingual Depts for support and translation.
Each CAFE member has a log of hours, to track their time and effort. They will monitor and update supervisors regularly, and have the right to say No to a request if they are unable, uncomfortable, or have maxxed their hours.
If you don’t have a staff member from your school/dept listed here, you are welcome to contact any of the folks on that list when a need arises. We’ll update the list as additional folks are tested and trained in the future.
Have you ever had a student come to you stating that they squirted hot sauce in their eye? What about a student who has ingested ice melt on the sidewalk? Well, both of these scenarios have happened and much much more!!
Poison Exposure
Toxicologists use the term “poison exposure” instead of “poisoning” to refer to an incident involving a person who swallows or comes in contact with a substance that might be poisonous. Contact could be swallowing, splashed in the eyes or on the skin, breathed in, or injected. Often the substance isn’t as toxic as one initially thinks it might be, or the amount taken is so low that no bad effect is expected. Since symptoms may not develop, technically these exposures can’t be called “poisonings”.
Two ways to get help for a poison exposure/poisoning:
1:Use the webpoisoncontrol online tool – when there are no serious symptoms, most single substances, unintentional (no self-harm or suicide attempts), age 6 months to 79 years, not pregnant, otherwise healthy.
Please make sure all of your administrators are aware of the tools available to assess whether or not students can be outside/participate in outdoor activities. Additionally, the air quality can rapidly change and what may have been an acceptable AQI number at 8 could change to an unacceptable number at 9. This should be taken into consideration with field trips.
Determine the limit of your visual range by looking for distant targets or familiar landmarks such as mountains, mesas, hills, or buildings at known distances (miles). The visual range is that point at which these targets are no longer visible. As a general rule of thumb: if you can clearly see the outlines of individual trees on the horizon it is generally less than five miles away.
Ideally, the viewing of any distance targets should be made with the sun behind you. Looking into the sun or at an angle increases the ability of sunlight to reflect off of the smoke, and thus making the visibility estimate less reliable.
Once distance has been determined, follow this simple guide:
If visibility is well over five miles, the air quality is generally good.
Even if visibility is five miles away but generally hazy, air quality is moderate and beginning to deteriorate, and is generally healthy, except possibly for smoke sensitive persons. The general public should avoid prolonged exposure if conditions are smoky to the point where visibility is closer to the 5-mile range.
If under five miles, the air quality is unhealthy for young children, adults over age 65, pregnant women, and people with heart and/or lung disease, asthma or other respiratory illness. These people should minimize outdoor activity.
If under three miles, the air quality is unhealthy for everyone. Young children, adults over age 65, pregnant women, and people with heart and/or lung disease, asthma or other respiratory illness. These people should minimize outdoor activity.
If under one mile, the air quality is unhealthy for everyone. Everyone should avoid all outdoor activities.
Using the 5-3-1 Visibility Index
Distance you can see*
You are:
OR
You have
An adult A teenager An older child
Age 65 and over Pregnant A young child
Asthma Respiratory illness Lung or heart disease
5 miles
check visibility
minimize outdoor activity
minimize outdoor activity
3 miles
minimize outdoor activity
stay inside
stay inside
1 mile
stay inside
stay inside
stay inside
No matter how far you can see, if you feel like you are having health effects from smoke exposure, take extra care to stay inside or get to an area with better air quality. You should also see your doctor or other health professional as needed.
* less reliable under high humidity conditions *
NURSE MANUAL UPDATES
Please let Tami know if you see something that needs to be updated in the Nurse Service Manual.
*Concussion – Documents have all been updated including Return to School Project information.
STUDENTS WITH MEDICAL NEEDS IN EMERGENT SITUATIONS
Because lock downs could potentially take hours to clear, please remind teachers/staff to have a plan in place should an unforseen event occur.
Ex: lock down – diabetic student
Ensure that snacks/fast acting sugars, emergency medications are accessable
In the past, nurses have distributed smarties in zip lock bags to teachers to have on hand.
Let Tami know if this is something you would like to do and we will order supplies.
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). ACEs can include violence, abuse and growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems. They can have lasting, negative effects on health, well-being, as well as life opportunities such as education and job potential.
Both HIPAA and FERPA are nationally mandated laws that protect information. HIPAA keeps medical records secure while FERPA keeps education records private. After reading the links below, if you have questions about FERPA/HIPAA, please email Tami. She will put the questions and answers in the next nurse’s blog.
FAN advocateswork in public schools in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties to assist students/families in need connect with essential services such as food, shelter, heating, health care, clothing and more. If you don’t know who your FAN advocate is, ask your office manager.
How is FAN funded? The FAN Foundation is a 501(c)3 that was incorporated in 2006 to help to raise funds, increase community awareness, developing resources, and support the operations of our FAN advocates’ work in Central Oregon’s schools. FAN is currently funded through School Based Medicaid Administrative Claiming (MAC) (55%), FAN Foundation non-profit fundraising (36%) and local school districts (9%).
MEDICAID ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMING (MAC) SURVEY
What is it?? – Three days during the school year are identified as MAC Survey days. (We don’t know the specific dates until the date is near.) The MAC program reimburses districts for time spent on administrative activities associated with coordination, referral, outreach and program planning of Medicaid-covered health services. On October 6, 230pm, via Webex (you should have received a calendar invite), Sandy Schmidt, McKinney Vento Liaison and Foster Care Point of Contact for Bend-La Pine Schools will be providing a training specifically for nurses to prepare for MAC Survey Day (which will be the week of October 31). On the MAC survey day, you will log certain claimable tasks (medical, dental, vision, behavioral issues working with a student, family, and/or through planning) that you completed throughout the school day. At the end of the day, you submit a survey that documents claimable tasks that will be submitted for reimbursement to the FAN.
Don’t stress, Sandy will go over everything in the training and is available to help on MAC survey day.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
For those that were unable to attend the Care Solace training on August 30th, there will be a condensed training on Wednesday, September 28, from 230-3pm. Please let me know if you are interested in attending this virtual training.
CULTURE OF CARE
As the school year gets up and running, your Culture of Care team wanted to reach out and share what they are up to! Lots of resources, opportunities and collaboration across our region this year. Please check it all out using the link below and let us know if you have any questions.
The direct link to the First Step app that was previously featured on middle and high school iPads has been replaced with direct links to the apps our students use the most: Safe Oregon and YouthLine.
As a reminder, these two resources also continue to be featured on the back of all student IDs for those in grades six through 12.
First Step continues to be a resource for our families:
Bend-La Pine Schools :: Student Mental HealthBend-La Pine Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other status protected by law, in any of its programs and activities and provides equal access to the designated youth organizations in the Boy Scouts of America …www.bend.k12.or.us
REPORTING A BIAS INCIDENT
Each of us is responsible to ensure that students, families, staff, and community members feel a sense of belonging and dignity in our schools. This involves actively promoting equity and inclusion, and standing up against harmful acts that run counter to these values.
If you observe or experience a bias incident, report it right away:
We have officially completed our first week of the school year!!! And we are actually doing things that are not COVID related!!! As we all begin to get wrapped up into the school year, I want you all to remember to take care of YOU! As nurses we get so focused on taking care of others that we forget to take care of ourselves!!!! I have included some self-care ideas/thoughts in this week’s blog. Take care!
In reality, the term self-care–as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO)–is the ability of an individual to promote and maintain health, to prevent disease, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.
Bend-La Pine School employees have access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Work-Life Services through Uprise Health. This benefit is free and extends to anyone living in the employee’s home. The following support services are available:
24-hour crisis support
Confidential counseling
Work-life services, including finance and legal services
*Remember….sometimes a 3rd or 4th dose is needed before EMS arrives. If NARCAN is being administered, have someone go to a different AED cabinet to get another box for additional dosing (if needed).
