Advocacy Action Center

URGENT ADVOCACY ACTION REQUEST

OSPI proposing changes to the Washington Administrative Code

OSPI is proposing rule changes to the WACs that pertain to the provision of special education. These proposed changes have been reviewed by the WSASP Government and Public Relations (GPR) committee. While many of the changes involve moving toward person-first language and aligning vocabulary used throughout, there are some substantial changes being proposed. GPR highlighted several positive additions and has identified three changes that raise concerns. Though there are positive changes you may want to highlight in your comment, we recommend that you submit public comments only on areas of concern, and to do so as clearly as possible. To assist you, we have drafted language you may want to use in your public comment, as well as recommended replacement language for the WACs. Please take action now and send a public comment. Public Comments will be accepted until January 20th.

If you are a school psychologist, click here to Take Action Now

If you are not a school psychologist, click here to Take Action Now

2020 Fall "Postcard" Campaign

Thank you so much for participating in our virtual version of our annual postcard writing campaign where we send 500 handwritten postcards to our elected officials during the fall conference. You can click on the Postcard Campaign 2020 button below for all the information for this advocacy opportunity.

We count these contacts for our annual tracking of how many school psychologists contacted their elected representatives and officials (almost 5,000 last year including the postcard campaign!), so please complete this form when you send your letters this year!

Postcard Campaign 2020

Self-Advocacy Toolkit

Your Government and Public Relations (GPR) Committee has compiled our favorite and most effective tools to promote the role of school psychologist in our day-to-day work. The information will provide reminders for communication essentials, develop an advocacy message, and provide a framework for implementing change, no matter how big or small. Click here to access the Self-Advocacy Toolkit, and be sure to share your experiences with us at gpr@wsasp.org, or on social media using the hashtag #WSASPadvocatestoo!

Self-Advocacy

NASP Advocacy Action Week

NASP hosted an Advocacy Action Week from July 20-24th, focusing school psychologists across the country on federal advocacy for our students and our profession. Click here to learn more about it.

NASP Advocacy Action Week 2020

How are schools funded?

Information about the Washington Prototypical School Funding Model for School Psychologists

The OSPI Staffing Enrichment Workgroup is tasked with making recommendations for reducing educational opportunity gaps in Washington State. The group’s first directive was to make recommendations for the Prototypical School Funding Model. A report with recommendations was released during the fall, and was of concern to many WSASP members. Click here to access an article providing clarification and understanding about what the Prototypical School Funding Model is, how school psychologist roles are typically funded, and the advocacy work that WSASP is engaged in on this topic.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Who: WSASP's Government and Public Relations (GPR) committee has been hard at work in Olympia, and now we need your vital contribution and active support!

What: Advocate for your self, your field, and kids! Contact your representatives TODAY about the below-mentioned important issues! Your representatives value your opinion as a constituent, and the more of us they hear from, the louder our collective voice! Below are 8 bills we are tracking now. A brief summary is provided and each bill is linked, allowing you to review the contents of the actual bill.

When: The legislature is in session, but this will end in early March. As bills cycle through the process and move to a vote from the entire legislative body, we will alert you to action through our member email system. When the time is right for each bill, the Form Letter Link will be activated, and you will get an email reminder to take action!

Where: Thanks to NASP, you will only have to send the message once to get to all three representatives based on your home address, and we will be able to pull data about how many of us are taking action!

Why: With more letters of support and phone calls from all stakeholders and professionals in school psychology and allied fields, the legislators in the House and Senate will be informed and can realize the wide range of importance these issues represent. If we are not at the table, we are on the menu!

How: You can contact your legislators today. You can submit public comment via the legislative website (see directions below, via NASP, directly with an email address, or via Our Voice, through WEA (Click here for a step by step tutorial on how to use Our Voice to email your representatives). The GPR Committee will provide form letters as appropriate for each bill of interest to WSASP. When these letters are made available, you can use them exactly, add personal stories or comments, or write an original letter to submit to your legislators. Once your letter is ready, using NASP's Advocacy Action Center, you can send it to all your state representatives with one click. We ask that you send one letter for each bill, as this is how representatives prefer communication, and it keeps our message clear.

Tips and Tricks

Click here for a description of how a bill becomes a law (it is not so direct of a process as we were taught in middle school...)
See the State Advocacy page for instructions on how to submit a public comment on these bills or any others of interest.
Click here for more resources on Advocacy.

Did you contact your representative(s)? Let us know!

We want to know how BIG our impact is!

Click here to tell us about the action you took.