A Message from the Director

Happy New Year! Important update- the Division of Safe and Supportive Schools has joined the Office of Special Populations and Student Supports. This move will increase our ability to align Multi-Tiered System of Support initiatives and other shared work streams currently in our division and we are excited to join Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Alexander and her team of dedicated professionals. We will continue to work closely with Chief Scott and the Office of School Safety staff on several initiatives including the Vulnerability Assessments, Behavior Threat Assessment, the Safe and Supportive School Program and the HB 3 Mental Health training requirements. Our divisions three teams Restorative Practices and Student Discipline, Mental and Behavioral Health and Wellness and the Safe and Supportive School Program team will continue to provide support to the field as we have been, and we look forward to serving you; and we know 2024 will be an incredible year!

Restorative Discipline Practices & School Discipline

Dr. Gaye Lang: Restorative Discipline Practices Statewide Director

Mary Scott: Student Discipline Specialist

Victoria Rossi: Educator Training Specialist

Restorative Discipline Practices

Watch the final episode of the Restorative Practices Made Simple YouTube series -- Episode 12: Families as Partners. Explore how Restorative Practice methods strengthen family-school partnerships and enhance student well-being by fostering a nurturing and supportive environment for children both in school and at home. Featuring Dr. Gaye Lang and panelists Christian DeLeon and Nataline Hall.

Register for upcoming RDP trainings at RDP Training Information. If the training you plan to attend is FULL, please check back. New training dates are updated monthly.

Please submit all questions regarding Restorative Discipline Practices to rdp@tea.texas.gov.

Student Discipline

• Student Discipline Virtual Professional Development Training: The TEA Student Discipline Training registration is now offered through TEA. The      training is intended for administrators and PEIMS personnel covering discipline policy, procedures, and data requirements. This is the original training in which registration was held through the ESCs. You can register by clicking the following link:  

  Student Discipline Professional Development Training for Administrators and     PEIMS Personnel.  

• Student Discipline Technical Resources are now located on the Student Discipline webpage: Student Discipline Program Technical Resources and Samples
• Please submit questions regarding student discipline policy and procedure to StudentDisciplineSupport@tea.texas.gov and questions regarding student discipline data reporting requirements via TSDS Incident Management System (TIMS).

Mental Health and Wellness Team

Julie Wayman: Director of Mental and Behavioral Health

Tammy Gendke: Mental Health Program Coordinator

Ashton Millet: AWARE Texas Expansion Consortium State Coordinator

Jerlene Gibbs: Mental Health and Education Program Specialist

Mental Health and Wellness Team Updates

Webinar Opportunities:

January 11, 2024   11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Mental and Behavioral Health Webinar Series – Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Best Practice Strategies for Utilizing Health Related Institutions (HRI) through the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium

Register at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DH6MbfZ-RPOVMNagxx6tFQ

January 12, 2024     10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Human Trafficking Awareness Month: Child Labor Trafficking- Representatives from the Department of Labor will provide information about child labor laws and child trafficking. A trafficking survivor will share her story of how she overcame labor and sex trafficking.  Educators will learn warning signs and what to do if the suspect child labor trafficking. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7giJXDUnQIGXjj658vbetA

Would you like to provide feedback about your use of the Texas School Mental Health Toolkit?

Project AWARE partners with technical support from the Westat at the Region 14 Comprehensive Center would like to learn more about your use of the Texas School Mental Health Toolkit by completing the user feedback form. Click here to complete the user feedback form. To access the Texas School Mental Health Toolkit visit: https://schoolmentalhealthtx.org/school-mental-health-toolkit/ .

TEA’s Mental Health Resources

General School Mental Health Resources:  https://schoolmentalhealthtx.org/

Mental Health Resources Database: https://schoolmentalhealthtxdatabase.org/

Mental Health Best Practice Repository: https://schoolmentalhealthtx.org/best-practices/

Contact the Mental Health and Wellness Team:  mentalandbehavioralheatlh@tea.texas.gov

Student Supports Team

Hank Weikert: Director of Student Supports Implementation

Carroll Sadler: Community Partnerships Specialist

Sarah McCaslin: Stronger Connections Grant Specialist

Student Supports Team Updates

Community Partnerships

The Community Partnership Grant Program is designed to leverage community, governmental, and academic supports and resources to provide a comprehensive student support program that increases number of students performing at grade level. The community partnership spotlight district for this month is Dallas ISD. The district is focusing the grant work in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood through two single-gender middle schools and support through the feeder pattern of schools. Through the partnership program, the district has engaged families and created a sense of community pride and support for students attending the neighborhood schools. The schools serve as hubs for parent and community resources that provide wrap-around supports to the families and change the trajectory of student lives.

Safe and Supportive School Program

During the 88^th Regular Session, the Texas Legislature amended Texas Education Code (TEC), §25.002(a), and added TEC, §25.036(c), in House Bill 3, to require the transfer of a child’s disciplinary record and any threat assessments when a child transfers to a new school district.

The TEA has updated the Texas Records Exchange (TREx) system to facilitate the transfer of the required records. The agency has released a To the Administrator Addressed (TAA) correspondence describing these changes and has provided resources to support this requirement.

For more information about the transfer of student records, review the House Bill 3 Transfer of Student Records TAA linked here.

Stronger Connections

The Texas Center for Student Support has been hard at work in collaboration with the TEA, the University of Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, and the University of Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute on the development of the Student Support Framework. The TCSS convened the first advisory group composed of campus and district leaders, teachers, and parents to solicit input on the development of the framework. A future advisory group will be composed of students to ensure that their perspective is included in the framework. The TCSS website was released on December 11, 2023, to provide grantees, potential vendor, technical assistance partners, and any other interested parties with information about their work.

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Visit our webpage: Safe and Supportive Schools | Texas Education Agency