New York State Education Department
2003-2004 Consolidated Application
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Title IV, Part A - Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities


NOTE TO DISTRICT GRANT WRITERS:

The following sample proposal is designed to help you incorporate The Yello Dyno Program into your Title IV proposal. Please note that wherever you see {boldface type within brackets}, you will need to insert information that is specific to your particular school district. Additionally, keep in mind that this may be one program out of two or more for which you are seeking funding. At several points in the proposal, you may want to mention areas in which the Yello Dyno Program and other programs work well together. Finally, keep in mind that one or more questions on the proposal may be better answered by other programs for which you are also seeking funding.

1. Performance measures for drug and violence prevention programs and activities

{Insert information regarding performance measures, based on the Yello Dyno program and any other Safe and Drug Free Schools programs for which you are applying. For example:

2. (a) Drug and violence prevention program description

The "ABC School District" proposes to provide a carefully designed anti-victimization education program for students in Kindergarten through grade six, utilizing the Yello Dyno Child Safety Program. The primary goal of the Yello Dyno program is to empower students and enable them to make positive personal safety decisions by providing them with the life skills necessary to avoid abuse, abduction, drugs, violence, and other forms of victimization, including bullying. This goal will be accomplished by completion of the following objectives:

1. District Staff Training: Teachers, counselors, and other support personnel will participate in staff development workshops to train them in the use of the specially designed Yello Dyno Pro curricula to teach students important methods of ensuring personal safety. Teacher workshops range from ninety minutes to a six hour training session providing educators with an understanding of children's personal safety along with simple methods of teaching the safety rules to their students. The multi-media program features a powerpoint presentation, original video and music, and participant support material. Educators learn how easy the program is to implement with the teacher friendly lesson plans. Emphasis is placed on empowering children and parents and providing educators with the simple, non-fearful method for teaching the specific safety lessons. Topics covered include:

2. Parent Workshops: Parents of elementary students throughout the school district will participate in workshops designed to educate parents in helping their children avoid victimization.

3. Student Programs: All programs are presented in an age-appropriate, non-threatening manner. The program is available in a variety of formats that are easily adaptable to ensure integration into regular school curriculum. The Yello Dyno program provides powerful and effective tools against all categories of child endangerment, including child abuse, sexual exploitation, abduction, bullying, Internet stalking, school violence, and other forms of child victimization. All program materials are delivered in a non-fearful manner, utilizing a musically based format, which helps enhance understanding and retention. The program offers nine key child safety benefits that are fundamental to all child safety issues:

The Yello Dyno Pro Curricula taught by teachers, guidance counselors or health educators {name here who will be teaching the curricula in your district} feature multimedia classroom presentations with easy to follow scripts. Classroom lessons offer easy to use scripts, professional props, original sound tracks, musical CD and videos, student quizzes and other evaluation materials, student review handouts, activity book, and the Raising Safe Kids Handbook for in-depth understanding of the topics.

An optional addition is the three-foot Yello Dyno puppet with a special Yello Dyno voice CD for PreK-3rd grade to help hold interest and reinforce in a non-fearful method the personal safety knowledge.

The Yello Dyno Assemblies are age-appropriate and interactive, featuring a live performance by specially trained presenters and the Yello Dyno puppet (PreK-3rd). Large and small student assemblies are available to foster comprehension and retention of key safety lessons. The assemblies feature an entertaining musical and non-fearful approach to reinforce the curricula taught. The assembly for 2nd and 3rd grades uses a life-size interactive board game as the educational format. Assembly presentations are 30 to 45 minutes in length and are age-appropriate for students in Pre-K through 6th grade.

The curricula and assemblies cover the following key topics as well as teach specific safety rules:


Special Needs Students: The Yello Dyno Program is well suited for special needs students. The multi-sensory methods of teaching, the musical component and the role playing help to ensure retention of personal safety lessons.

Additional program information and sample lessons may be viewed online at www.yellodyno.com.


(b) How The Yello Dyno Program meets each of the principles of effectiveness

The Yello Dyno program fulfills New York State Education Law 803a, which mandates education for the prevention of abduction and abuse. The program is aligned with and supports New York State learning standards for Health and Wellness, which require that students:

The Yello Dyno program meets each of the following principles of effectiveness described in section 4115(a):


1. The program is based on an assessment of objective data about child victimization problems in the schools and community to be served.

{Insert specific data from school district's assessments and include data for your community. Note: child abduction statistics can be located online at www.parentsformeganslaw.com by clicking on the NY sex offender registry link, at www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us by clicking on the Sex Offender Subdirectory Search link, and at www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us/missing/aware/actvtyrpt.htm. Additionally, your local precinct may provide you with statistics on local incidents of child abduction and child abuse. Include information from needs assessment surveys completed in your district such as drug and violence data. Seek out data that reflects the needs of all students and explore collaborative efforts in your data collection. Data should reflect the need to correct those risk factors being addressed by the performance measures listed in Item #1. Be sure the data you are citing reflects and identifies a problem to be addressed by the Yello Dyno program, and that the data is connected with the goals of Yello Dyno.}


2. The program is based on performance measures aimed at ensuring that the schools and community have a safe, orderly, and drug-free learning environment.

{Using the performance measures you list in Item #1, relate those performance measures to the objective data cited in Performance Measure #1. For example:}

The Yello Dyno program reduces incidences of particular risk factors that are precursors to drug use and violent behavior. Participation in the Yello Dyno program increases buffers and assets by:

3. The program is grounded in scientifically based research that provides evidence that the program will reduce violence and illegal drug use.

The scientifically based Yello Dyno Method is the core of the Yello Dyno Pro Curricula. Professionally developed age-appropriate videos and scripts minimize teacher preparation and insure maximum success and deliver anti-victimization content in a non-fearful approach. Yello Dyno Pro curriculum is based on multi-sensory education practices. Students benefit from the memory enhancing effects of musically driven learning. Bruce D. Berry, M.D., Ph.D, states in Childhood Trauma: Understanding and Responding to the Effects of Violence on Young Children, "if a child has information stored in cortical areas but in the specific moment is very fearful, this information is inaccessible. In this regard, cognitively stored information does little good in the life-threatening moment…Information learned in song (and) rhyme…is more easily recalled when in a state of high arousal (anxiety). This is due, of course to the fact that this information is stored in a different fashion than traditional verbal cognitive information." Yello Dyno Pro Curricula is designed to first teach children to (1) recognize deceptive behavior, (2) reawaken instincts and feelings (intuition), and (3) build self-confidence. Then, on that basis, safety rules are written in rhyme and embedded in music and dramatic stories to reinforce learning and ensure retention. Mnemonically crafted phrases are then role-played and practiced to the music and stories, helping children recall the right action in a challenging situation.

Teachers participating in the program have observed improved problem-solving skills, self-confidence, and a reduction in bullying and other incidents of violence at school. Additionally, numerous teachers have indicated that following program participation, their students reported incidents in which they utilized skills learned in the program to protect themselves in potentially dangerous situations.

The Yello Dyno Program, founded in 1987, has reached over 2 million children. It is widely accepted and has the endorsement of parents, school districts, schools, and law enforcement agencies across the United States. The Yello Dyno program has been selected and implemented by 150 schools in Texas in 2002 and 2003, more than 1000 schools in districts in New York State, including the New York City Board of Education, and over 5,000 schools in districts throughout the United States and Canada have sponsored the Yello Dyno Assemblies and parent workshops during the last 10 years. The program has been recognized and received numerous endorsements from educators, child safety experts, and members of the entertainment industry, including Helene Siefert, a former producer for the highly success Zoom Show on PBS and Dan Kulak, President of the Independent Music Association. The Yello Dyno program has received honors from Early Childhood News for two years running with the Director's Choice Award for excellence in childhood education and the best products in a classroom setting. The program is also a National Parenting Publications Gold Award recipient from Industry Experts, a national corporation. In addition, the program has received the Dove Foundation Award for Excellence in Family Education, and the Film Advisory Board's Award of Excellence.


4. The program is based on an analysis of the prevalence of "risk factors, protective factors, buffers, assets, or other variables," identified through scientifically based research that exist in the schools and community.

{Point out research from your school district that indicates prevalence of certain risk factors in your community (poverty, family risk factors such as single parent homes, and high numbers of latchkey children). Continue with "The Yello Dyno Program is aimed at reducing risk factors, such as violence to children and lowered self-esteem, which lead to an increased incidence of violence and substance abuse. The Yello Dyno program is further beneficial in that it increases protective factors such as: pro-social behavior by encouraging non-violent conflict resolution, community and family by encouraging improved communication with parents, teachers, police and other trusted adults to whom children can turn for help, and setting clear standards and norms for behavior by teaching children key safety rules."}

5. The program includes consultation with and input from parents.

Following careful study of prevailing risk factors in the community, the district's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Community team (composed of teachers, administrators, parents, and community representatives) elected implementation of anti-victimization curriculum as a priority in improving child safety. Along with a number of other child safety programs, The Yello Dyno program was presented to the SADFSAC team for review prior to final selection of an anti-victimization program. Following careful analysis and review of several currently available child safety programs The Yello Dyno Program was selected by district administrators, teachers, parent members of the district's site-based management teams, representatives from the Parent-Teacher Association and the SADFSAC team.

The district will work collaboratively with the PTA in presenting parent education workshops designed to educate parents in helping their children avoid child predators. As advocates for child safety, the PTA will serve as a resource to encourage parent involvement in the parent training workshops. Topics to be covered in parent workshops include:

6. The program is evaluated periodically against locally selected performance measures, and modified over time.

In order to assure maximum effectiveness of the program, evaluation is comprehensive and ongoing. A variety of evaluation techniques are built into the program. Following workshop presentations, parents and teachers complete evaluative questionnaires. Grade-level appropriate pre- and post- tests are given to students to measure the degree of acquired information, demonstration of skills, and general effectiveness of the program. Following school assemblies and lessons, evaluations take various forms, including: teacher questionnaires, student quizzes, and alternative and developmentally appropriate forms such as teacher observations, journals, portfolio/project assessments, and teacher/student interviews. Data from these evaluations will be combined with school district data (collected both prior to and following the program) on behavior referrals, school suspensions, incidents of school violence, and incidents of substance abuse. All data collected will be analyzed, comparing pre- and post-program results; and any necessary modifications to the program will be made based on post-program analysis.

(c) How program will prevent or reduce violence and illegal drugs and contribute to a safe and drug-free learning environment that supports academic achievement.The Yello Dyno Program will reduce violence and child victimization by:

The Yello Dyno Program empowers students and enables them to make positive personal safety decisions by providing them with the following life skills and strategies necessary to avoid abuse, abduction, drugs, violence, and other forms of victimization, including bullying.

3. Targeting of services to schools and students with greatest need.

The Yello Dyno Program offers several features to tailor the program to meet the needs of students with special needs. Classroom scripts for Grades Pre-K through 4 are also available in Spanish. Lessons on how to respond in an emergency, how to use 911, and how to help your family develop an emergency plan are included. Lessons such as "No!" really means "No," the difference between character and learned traits of deception (nice versus good), key tricks used to deceive young people, the power of "PC" (privacy and control), the beginning of understanding the difference between healthy dating relationships and what turns into domestic violence.

4. Evaluation

In order to assure maximum effectiveness of the program, evaluation is comprehensive and ongoing, and any necessary modifications are made according to evaluation results. Following workshop presentations, parents and teachers complete evaluative questionnaires. Grade-level appropriate pre- and post- tests are given to students to measure the degree of acquired information, demonstration of skills, and general effectiveness of the program. Following school assemblies and lessons, evaluations take various forms, including: teacher questionnaires, student quizzes, and alternative and developmentally appropriate forms such as teacher observations, journals, portfolio/project assessments, and teacher/student interviews.

5. Coordination across other NCLB programs and Federal, State and local programs for drug and violence prevention

{Describe how the program coordinates with other programs funded by NCLB, and other Federal, State, and local programs implemented in your district for drug and violence prevention, character building, homeless children, special needs children, for example, 21st CENTURY, DARE, SAAVI, SECOND STEP, A World of Difference (bias reduction program), etc.}

6. Mechanisms to provide effective notice to the community of an intention to submit an application under the subpart

{Insert appropriate information for your district.}

7. Suspensions imposed with respect to firearms


{If no suspensions for firearms occurred, insert: "No student suspensions due to firearms occurred in the ABC School District."}


{If any suspensions for firearms occurred, insert: "Pursuant to New York State Education Law, Section 3214(3)(d), ABC School District has imposed _____ suspensions due to firearms. Suspension(s) occurred in the following schools:}

School

Number of Suspensions

Type of Firearm

 

 

 

 

 

 


8. Assessment and public reporting of progress toward attaining performance measures

{Insert appropriate information for your district.}