School Psychology Consultation - Dr. Paul B. Jantz
Dr. Paul B. Jantz is available to consult with school district personnel on the following topics and may be contacted at jantpaul@isu.edu
Drug and alcohol use among adolescent populations
Dr. Jantz has 15 years of experience working with substance using/abusing adolescents (between the ages of 11 and 18) in the public school setting. In addition, he has a very extensive and up-to-date working knowledge of various legal and illegal drugs, their classifications, physiological and emotional effects, and the impact of use on students in the educational setting.
Dr. Jantz has taught substance use/abuse classes to parents, teachers, and students for over 15 years and has presented on adolescent drug use at a variety of conferences and in-services, His classes are considered to be down-to-earth and educationally-based.
The focus of Dr. Jantz’s instruction on drugs and drug use varies depending on the audience.
Teachers: Recognition and awareness of drugs currently available to youth on the street and in the schools, recognition and awareness of the effects of various classifications of drugs and how they manifest in the classroom setting, what to do (and not do) if you suspect a child of using/abusing/experimenting with drugs, recognition of drug paraphernalia and graffiti, and reasons for use/abuse/experimentation.
Parents: Recognition and awareness of drugs currently available to youth on the street and in the schools, recognition of drug paraphernalia and graffiti, recognition of warning signs of use, ways to effectively talk to children, action-oriented decision-making, and reasons for use/abuse/experimentation.
To general populations of students who are not at-risk to use/abuse/experiment: Recognition and awareness of drugs currently available on the street and in the schools, what to do (and not do) if a friend is suspected of drug involvement.
At-risk and drug-involved students not in treatment: presentation of factual information designed to help students in their decisions about drug use/abuse/experimentation. This includes legal ramifications, medical, physiological, and psychological affects, peer-group influence patterns, consequences of long and short-term use on education, social skills, thinking patterns, and the drug community peer-relationships (i.e. the “drugships”).
School violence risk assessment
Dr. Jantz has received training in both the FBI and the Secret Service Models of targeted violence risk assessment. He was a member of a collaborative school district and mental health agency School Violence Risk Assessment team for six years. During that time he personally conducted School Violence Risk Assessment interviews with children who had made targeted, school-based homicidal threats.
Dr. Jantz has made presentations on both the FBI and the Secret Service Models and is able to assist school districts establish a working school district-based targeted violence risk assessment process that collaborates with both the mental health and law enforcement community. He is also able to provide training in how to conduct targeted violence risk assessment interviews of children ages kindergarten through 12th grade.
Crisis Intervention
Dr. Jantz has successfully developed and implemented building and district level crisis intervention response teams/plans. These teams/plans operate whenever there are crisis that impact schools including suicides, deaths of teachers or students, natural disasters, building fires, etc. Dr. Jantz is available to help school districts and buildings establish crisis intervention teams.
Gangs and adolescent criminal thinking errors
For 15 years Dr. Jantz worked with adolescent gang-involved and criminal youth in educational settings. He was also extensively involved with the juvenile justice system’s transition of youth back from treatment/detention into the schools as well as placement in intensive supervision programs such as S.H.O.C.A.P. (Serious Habitual Offenders Comprehensive Action Plan) and juvenile probation. In addition, Dr. Jantz worked for two and one half years at an adult prison in the maximum, hard maximum, and death row facilities.
Dr. Jantz has an extensive working knowledge of criminal thinking in adults and adolescents. He has made numerous presentations on criminal personality and thinking errors, and on school-based criminal activities related to recruitment and control of adolescent gang members.
Dr. Jantz can help school districts design and implement a school-based aftercare transition program and/or a threat and intimidation reduction program.
Alternative education services
Dr. Jantz worked for 6 years in an alternative education high school setting with over 1000 regular education and special education students. His responsibilities included those related to a school psychologist and he taught daily classes with the focus on such things as problem-solving, anger management, choice and responsibility ownership, decision-making skills, healthy relationships, etc. The program also included teen mothers. Dr. Jantz can help a school district examine and improve systemic operation and education.
Mental Illness and adolescent after care
Dr. Jantz has 15 years of experience helping students with mental illness in the public school setting. This includes such things as special education assessment, placement, and support, student transition into the workforce, school-based aftercare transition programs, teacher support and education, collaboration and liaison with psychiatric and treatment facilities.
He is able to consult with school districts on a wide variety of mental health issues.
Self-injurious Behavior
Dr. Jantz has extensive knowledge regarding adolescent self-injurious behavior and has presented to teachers, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, physicians, and parents on the topic. He is an expert on the understanding and treating of self-injurious behavior in adolescents and how to differentiate this behavior from suicidal behavior.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Dr. Jantz has extensive knowledge regarding how to help children with traumatic brain injury make the transition back into the educational setting. He has acted as a school-based support for not only TBI children, but parents and teachers as well. Dr. Jantz has worked closely with neurologists, neurosurgeons, and a variety of hospital therapists as children have transitioned back into the schools following severe through mild, open- and closed-head injuries.
Adolescent depression
Dr. Jantz is an expert on depression in early adolescent children (between the ages of 12 and 16). He has helped educate parents, teachers, and mental health professionals on the educational manifestations of depression in all school-aged children for over twenty years. He has helped counselors and school psychologists set up school-based interventions designed to help depressed children succeed as well as teach parenting classes on understanding childhood and adolescent depression.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)
Dr. Jantz has 15 years experience working with children with AD/HD and has made presentations to schools and school districts on how to identify and manage children with AD/HD.