Fostering healthy relationships — both romantic and platonic — is something that counselor education doctoral student Shazia Mirza teaches in the online Couples, Families and Intimate Relationships course. Offered in the fall, spring and summer as part of the human services undergraduate minor in the , the course provides foundational knowledge of the dynamics of families, dating and marriage, how to establish stable and satisfying couples and families, the impact of divorce and couples’ education. Notably, the course challenges students to consider their own relational experiences within the academic content.

“This class is about couples, families and intimate relationships, so the name itself is very attractive — after all, we all have relationships, so why not learn about them in a professional way?” Mirza says. The class includes assignments to help students get to know themselves, assess where they’re at in their relationships, and asks them to look at whether they’re building positive relationships and connections.”

Despite being a mental health services course, it’s a good elective open to any student, Mirza says. No matter a student’s career aspirations, they still have relationships with family, clients and peers that can grow from the deeper introspection and foundational knowledge the class provides.

“This class helps students gain awareness of where they are in life and how they can be successful personally, professionally and academically,” she says. “When we are not fully connected with our relationships, whether it is family, friends or partners, we are not satisfied. It can also help students realize if their relationships are negative and how they can change them.”

Some of the other important skills the course teaches are the primary issues that arise in dating and marital relationships, like decision-making, power and control issues, and how to problem-solve through conflict resolution and effective communication.

One interactive assignment students enjoy is creating a relationship genogram — a family tree specifically about relationships. The fun part, Mirza says, is that they can base it on a fictional family from a television show of their choice.

“Their job is to find a popular show, identify those characters, put those characters in the genogram, and describe their relationships and connections with each other,” Mirza says. “For example, Modern Family is a very popular show with many interesting relationships.”

Although students will have to take the class to learn all the ins and outs of maintaining healthy relationships, Mirza offers one key piece of relationship advice that applies to everyone: be flexible.

“In any relationship — it doesn’t matter if it’s with our parents or romantic partners — flexibility is key,” she says. “Don’t have rigid expectations for how your relationship must be. It’s not compromising because you should still establish boundaries, but being flexible is one important thing we can do to maintain possible connections.”

The project, Connecting Enhanced Networks to Reach All Learners (CENTRAL), is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and will help educators in the state receive enhanced education and preparation.

Program participants will have the opportunity to earn either a master’s degree in exceptional student education or an educational specialist degree in school psychology at little to no cost to them. They will also earn a collaborative intervention specialist graduate certificate.

is a continuation of previous work, such as Project Bridges 2.0, which funded education for 56 scholars. The Project CENTRAL team, which is comprised of researchers in �鶹ԭ��’s , say they hope to fund just as many or even more this time around.

A key emphasis of the project is enhancing collaboration between special education and school psychology using research and evidence-based practices. The goal is to facilitate high-quality implementation of these practices by program scholars within K-12 schools and to develop interdisciplinary programs that deliver instruction, interventions and specialized services for students with high-intensity needs.

“The scholars accepted into the program take four courses collaboratively, focused on communication, problem-solving, data-based decision-making and evidence-based practices,” says , a professor of exceptional student education and principal investigator. “Authentic performance tasks ensure creative solutions and innovative approaches to address current educational issues. We are focused on increasing the quantity of special educators and school psychologists and also the quality of professionals to address the needs for students that have more significant needs through innovative interdisciplinary programming.”

The first cohort of scholars will begin the two-year program in Spring 2023. Federal funds will pay for up to 36 credit hours toward the scholar’s degree program through Fall 2027.

According to data from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), there is a serious and critical shortage of school psychologists to support the needs of school-age children. Recent research indicates there is one school psychologist for every 1,828 students in Florida’s schools. NASP recommends a ratio of 500 students to each school psychologist.

Knowing there is a critical shortage of school psychology and exceptional student education professionals both at the local and national levels, the team worked closely with leaders around the Central Florida area to help co-construct the program to address policies and procedures locally and within Florida. This is especially important because most of these scholars are employed in the 10 school districts within Central Florida, says Dena Slanda, a research associate in the and co-principal investigator.

The project will also impact how school psychologists meet the needs of students with behavioral and mental difficulties, says , professor of school psychology and co-principal investigator.

“Supporting the mental health needs of students in Florida schools has become a growing concern,” Edwards says. “Vivek Murthy, the nation’s surgeon general, has referenced this as a youth mental health crisis. This led us to propose funding to help prepare school psychologists and teachers to be trained in specific psychosocial and psychoeducational strategies to be more responsive to the needs of students. As a result of being awarded the federal funding, these projects are providing highly trained school psychologists and exceptional student education teachers to Florida schools to mitigate the youth mental health crisis.”

Research conducted as part of the grant provides evidence that specific collaborative training strategies are valuable in developing these highly effective professionals, and the school psychology aspect is a crucial part of this, Slanda says.

“Historically, this program used to be focused just on special education teachers,” Slanda says. “Now, being able to prepare both special educators and school psychologists is really the critical piece moving forward. U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs wanted to make sure that if we are going to have a collaboration of all experts in K-12, there needs to be collaboration in the higher education setting as well.”

The collaboration during personnel preparation will then lead to educators and school psychologists collaborating fluidly when it matters most — with the students in the schools, she says.

“I think the best part is just knowing how many lives we’re going to impact because we had a very similar grant, Project Bridges 2.0, and you don’t ever want to see the work stop,” Slanda says. “Knowing that the work will continue and that we’ll be able to keep moving forward is the best part.”

Educators interested in the program are encouraged to reach out to the Project CENTRAL team for more details.

Edwards is the chair of the . He received his doctorate in school psychology from the University of Florida. Edwards practiced as a school psychologist and district administrator with the School Board of Broward County before joining �鶹ԭ��.

Little received her doctorate in special education from the University of Kansas. She has received almost $30 million in external funding for research and development from federal, state and foundation agencies, including the Institute for Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs.

Slanda is a research associate in the School of Teacher Education. She received her doctorate in exceptional student education from �鶹ԭ��. She is the project coordinator of multiple grants from the Office of Special Education Programs focused on personnel preparation for special education teachers, school psychologists, and speech-language pathologists.