We are excited to welcome the newest member of the Highly Mobile and At-Risk Student Programs Division team, Dr. Jimmy Bowser, Highly Mobile State Coordinator. Dr. Bowser brings a wealth of experience to the HMAR team. His previous experience includes roles as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, associate principal, campus principal, and district-level administrator. In addition, Dr. Bowser is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. Dr. Bowser’s role in the HMAR Division includes serving as program lead for the Military-Connected Families program. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Bowser to TEA!
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Project Restore Training
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Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness |
All educators and mandatory reporters for child abuse and neglect. Specifically, new school employees are required to participate in child abuse prevention and awareness training, as a part of new employee on-boarding. Superintendents and School Board of Trustee members are also required to participate in training. TEA has a flyer that highlights these requirements and some training and resources available to support LEAs with fulfilling these requirements.
Webinar Series for ESCs and LEAs
TEA and cross-agency leaders host a Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness webinar series to take a deeper dive on child abuse prevention, human trafficking awareness, and related topics. State and national leaders provide important information on difficult and complex topics pertaining to child safety. Continuing Professional Education (CPEs) are available.
Upcoming webinar
Trends in Trafficking
Friday, December 9th from 10:30-11:30 am CST
Register Here
For more information, please email: PreventingHumanTrafficking@tea.texas.gov
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Military Connected Students |
Did you know that the State of Texas is home to the second largest military connected student population nationally, currently serving over 175,000 identified students? Texas first began collecting “military identifier” data in the 2013-14 school year and strengthened the military identifier to include dependents of current or former members of the U.S. Military, Texas National Guard, a reserve force or a member of the U.S. military or reserve force who has fallen in the line of duty (Texas Education Code § 25.006). To read more about the benefits military connected students, please visit TEA’s Military Connected Students website.
Purple Star Campus Designation
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The Purple Star Campus Designation recognizes Texas district and charter schools that show their support and commitment to meeting the unique needs of military-connected students and their families. In September, TEA awarded 179 campuses the Purple Star Campus designation for 2022-23 school year. The designation lasts for two school years. Selected campuses receive a special Purple Star recognition to display on their campus or on their school’s website. Purple Star Campus Designations are also featured on the Txschools.gov website to support military families when transitioning to Texas. To learn more about the 2022-23 Purple Star Campus Designation view TEA’s Purple Star Announcement Press Release and To the Administrator Addressed communication. Visit Purple Star Campus Designation for more information. |
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Texas Education for Homeless Children
and Youth Program (TEHCY) |
On behalf of the entire TEA TEHCY Program and TNOYS team, we would like to extend our sincerest thanks for joining us at the 2022 TEHCY Program Summit!
It was so great to see education professionals and providers from across Texas come together both in person and virtually to help each other create connections and build bridges for Texas students experiencing homelessness. Now more than ever, it is so important for us to share knowledge, collaborate on best practices, and build an equitable and resilient community!
For those that were able to attend the in-person conference, we hope you had an opportunity to participate in enriching sessions, check out the vendors, and network with peers. Feel free to revisit the PheedLoop event platform (desktop) or the PheedLoop Go app to view any of the session materials speakers may have uploaded, any messages you may have received from attendees or other speakers, or any other resources on the platform. Stay tuned, as the session recordings will be posted to PheedLoop soon.
Sign up for our McKinney-Vento newsletter to stay updated!
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Foster Care and Student Success |
The Foster Care & Student Success Guide is on the TEA website for you to download. You may download the guide as a whole or you can focus on individual chapters. The guide is helpful to all those working with students in foster care. Goals of this guide are to inform, educate and empower education professionals with information, resources, and tools to positively impact the educational experience of students in foster care.
There will be specialized trainings based on the chapters in the guide. The next training is December 2, 2022, for Chapter 10. Use this link to see all upcoming guide training dates and register for the trainings. The previous trainings for the guide are archived on the Special Student Populations Division Webinars and Trainings on the TEA website.
Building a welcoming environment is important for all students, but especially important for assisting students who are at risk of dropping out of school. As a campus, it is essential to provide caring relationships with the students, assist the students in creating realistic goals, and engage the community around the student to provide support and encouragement.
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HMAR Updates |
On September 29, 2022, the HMAR Division kicked off its first quarterly webinar of the 2022-2023 school year. Relevant updates and timely information from each of our programs were shared. Previous TEA HMAR presentations are located here.
To sign-up for future presentations, please visit the links below:
Thursday, December 1, 2022 (1:00 – 2:30pm) - Register
Thursday, February 16, 2023 (1:00 – 2:30pm) - Register
Thursday, May 4, 2023 (1:00 – 2:30pm) - Register
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