Volume 59, No. 1
Winter 2009
Affiliate Updates
Ventura County Association of School Psychologists
VCASP recently hosted Dr. Stephen Graff from Tri Counties Regional Center who spoke
to the members about autism. He gave some information about how students are found
eligible for services. Data was presented about the growing trends of this diagnosis and
possible environmental causes.
In December, VCASP took a break from meetings and presentations. January brings
Howard Fulfrost, one of our favorite education attorneys. He will be chatting with
members about legal components of a report. VCASP will host his presentation at the
Conejo Valley Unified School District board room from 2:00 – 4:00 on January 23.
Come on down – the presentation is FREE!
February 20th from 2:00 – 4:00 Rick Clemens from ICP will talk with the VCASP
members about inclusion. Come on down to the Ventura County SELPA office to hear
this presentation – once again, the price is right! It’s FREE!!
Always check the VCASP website for updates and important information.
www.freewebs.com/vcasp
Orange County Association of School Psychologists
Greetings to all. I hope that you have all had a great start to the 2008-2009 academic
school year. We continue to work very hard to provide Orange County school
psychologists with professional development delivered in a practical and informative
manner. We have a lot going on at the Orange County Association of School
Psychologists (OCASP) this year. First of all, our website is up and running! You can all
thank Veronica Olvera, web designer/editor, for the great work she has done. Please log
on to website for upcoming events, newsletters, and other announcements. Check us
out at www.ocasp.net.
Secondly, we had a terrific workshop presentation by Dr. Randy Busse on
psychopharmacology. We had a great turnout. Please log on to our website to see
pictures and comments that were shared with OCASP. We want to thank Starbucks of
Southcoast Plaza for donating coffee for this event. We would also like to thank Mimi's
Café of Laguna Hills for donating muffins for our workshop.
Third, we had Doug Siembieda speak about the current state of school psychology in
California. He spoke about CASP's involvement in current legislative issues, such as the
APA model act, and encouraged participants to join CASP. We also had our first ever
toy drive to support children in need and those affected by the recent wildfires. I am
happy to say that we had a total of 29 donated toys!! Thank you OCASP. These toys
were donated to the Yorba Linda Fire Department which partnered with the Salvation
Army this holiday season. Please join Team OCASP as we partner with Walk for Autism
Now. We are forming Team OCASP and joining forces with other organizations to
support autism research. OCASP is excited to be part of efforts to support good causes
in the community. Join us!
We have two great workshops lined up for the Spring. We will be having an Academic
Intervention Monitoring System (AIMS) workshop in February. This will be very relevant
as many of us are implementing RTI programs in our schools. We will also have a
workshop looking at the biological bases & neuropsychological assessment of autism in
April.
Last, OCASP Board Member, Derek Ihori, is organizing a Repsonse-to-Intervention
(RTI) Roundtable for Orange County and surrounding area school psychologists. The
purpose is for districts to collaborate and share ideas about the implementation of RTI in
their school districts. He is putting together a Google Group to create discussion
regarding this very important and exciting topic. Log on to www.ocasp.net for further
details.
On behalf of OCASP, we hope you had happy holidays.
Pedro Olvera, president
Note to Affiliate Leaders:
The Affiliate/Region Representatives meeting at CASP Convention 2009 will be held
Thursday, March 12 at 5 p.m. An election will be held for the Affiliate Representative.
This person is the main contact between the affiliates and the Board of Directors,
coordinates the October Affiliate Leadership Days held in Sacramento and strives to
organize new CASP affiliates.
If you are interested in running for this important position on the CASP Board of
Directors, please contact Heidi Holmblad at communications@casponline.org.