001Uh hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us. Welcome you to the prep program aotment webinar. This is a recording for the webinar that was held on February 18th um for all awardees of the prep program aotment. We are so happy that you are spending time with us here today uh watching this recording and thank you so much for your interest and participation in the prep program aotment. Uh my name is Ally Freedeller. I'm the director of talent pathways at TEA and I am joined by a few colleagues today that will be sharing some information um about the prep program. Before diving in just want to again thank you for your time interest in the program. I know that this work is built on the work many of you have done across the
002state of Texas building strong teacher talent pipelines and supporting mentorship um and have participated in uh similar programs perhaps that uh we have run uh over time or have spearheaded some initiatives to grow your own talent and provide strong uh preparation for teachers across the state. So thank you so much for your engagement in that. Um today we are really setting out to accomplish three things. First, build context on the preparing and retaining educators through partnership programs that was include included in house bill 2. Second, identify highle requirements and timelines of the prep program a lotment to support final participation decisions. And third, identify info resources and any technical assistance support available to school systems, EPS and institutes of higher education. So largely our agenda today will follow um those three objectives. We're starting with
003a welcoming. We'll dive into a program uh prep program a lotment introduction. Then we'll move into key implementation info and resources followed up with a good amount of time on next steps and really where we go from here either as a school system or ed prep program partner. All right. Right. So diving into that first section with the prep program aotment introduction. Want to start first grounding in a key difference between grants and aotments. So I would imagine that many of you listening to this are uh potentially managers in school systems that manage lasso grants and also the prep program aotment. So grants are um competitive grants are based on set of a on a set of priority points and tiers whereas a prep program aotment all school systems were selected for funding that met
004eligibility criteria and committed to statutoily based requirements. There are a couple key differences on the following slides between grants and this aotment that I will walk through uh especially important for those of you that might be managing multiple programs within your school system. So there is a very tiny text on the slide and we'll zoom in into the graphic that's on the right side of the slide in just a moment but just wanted to show a vis visual representation of differences between the lasso grants timeline and the prep program aotment timeline. Some of you might have joined our webinars earlier this year in October where we dove into uh the differences between these two. And so if we click ahead to the next slide, we'll see some of those key differences, but just wanted to
005point them out to y'all that might be managing multiple programs. On the left side of this timeline, so this timeline depicts school year 2526. On the left side of the timeline, you'll see steps that have already been completed. We hosted general webinars back in the fall. School systems applied for lasso prep program a lotment in the October to December time frame. During that time, we had webinars, published FAQs, and held office hours, and then TEA reviewed applications in the December January time frame. We uh announced awards back on February 2nd. And then these two boxes with orange text really want to highlight and call to your attention for the prep program aotment, there is no egrants. So we often get questions around looking for information in the egrant system that is not applicable for the
006prep program aotment and there also will not be notice of grant awards uh which is also referred to as NOAS for the prep program a lotment. So just keep that in mind if you've applied to another uh another LASO grant program you will have eG grants and NOGAS associated with those but not that is not the case for the prep program. On the far right hand side of the slide, you'll see this arrow with blue text that says prep program verification of participation and submission of written agreements. So in the May 1st to 31st time frame, and we'll get into this a little bit later as well, we will ask all school systems to verify their participation in the prep aotment and then also submit written agreements with their partners. Uh these key points are
007captured on the bottom of the slide in that gray box. One final piece there that's noted is the foundation school program payments are anticipated to begin flowing in October of 2026 according to the schedule of monthly FSP payments. Towards the end of our time together, I will walk through this timeline with you all. There's a lot of information here, but to start off, just really wanted to call your attention to the major pieces across the bottom of the slide. We are currently wrapping up. I think we're in the final day of our commissioner rulemaking uh period for public comments. So, that is uh happening currently. The blue boxes represent TEA information that we'll be sharing with you all. So, you'll see today's webinar and another webinar in the early summer. You'll also see in the
008green boxes some prep resources that TEA will be pushing out over the coming months and we'll talk about each of those individually during our time together today. You'll see a couple of district actions in red boxes. So verifying participation, submitting data, etc. And then finally that top right box, that purple box is FSP funding. Uh the first payments will start in uh October of 2026. So just wanted to give you time and we'll walk through each of those pieces um in depth later and wanted to remind you all uh or those of you maybe that are newer to this work that the prep program a lotment really has five programs within it. First uh thinking about the recruitment side of the teacher pipeline there is a grow your prep grow your own program. Then thinking
009about high quality preparation. There are three pre-ervice programs for the prep aotment. That's residency, traditional, and alternative. And then finally, there is a mentorship program to support highquality mentorship in a teacher's first and second year. So this program is designed really to support the teacher pipeline throughout the phases of recruitment, preparation, and early career mentorship. We've mentioned this in our previous webinars. Um if you wouldn't mind going back one slide in our previous webinars. Uh three of these programs are available to start in 2627 school year for implementation. That's the grow your own residency and mentorship programs. And then next fall in the lasso 5 cycle there will be applications available for those three programs and then additionally the traditional and alternative pre-ervice programs. So applications for that will open in the fall for implementation
010in 2728. All right, as I mentioned earlier, I have a few colleagues here with me today that are going to dive into each of the programs for implementation of the 2627 school year. So, with that, I will pass it off uh to Kie. >> All right, Ally, thank you very much. I'm Josh Jones. I'm the director of EP field support and operations here at the Texas Education Agency, and I'm uh honored to be speaking with you today uh first of all about the PREPG GY overview. And so as we think about grow your own again, which I'm going to refer to as GYO moving forward, this is a program that enables you as school systems to partner with uh institutions of higher education and ed prep programs to establish innovative staffing pipelines to prepare and
011retain educators with whom you already have, individuals you already have on your campuses. uh to take your pair professionals, teachers, aids, again individuals who already on campuses and then help them become highquality classroom teachers of record in your in your own classrooms. So, as Ally mentioned just a moment ago, there are five kind of uh programs in the prep aotment and the prep gio is the first step of a long-term talent pipeline strategy to help you intentionally recruit individuals to go through quality preparation through an approved uh EP and then move into the teacher of record role within your own classrooms. So you can kind of think about go yo as being a baton pass. Uh big fan of track and field. My children were were runners and so I got to run enjoy watching
012them do that when they were kids. But one of the favorite events at every track meet is is one of the relay races. And so you know just as you know runner one hands the the baton to runner two for them to move forward from there. The GIO is an opportunity for you to take candidates that are already in your employee and then move them forward to a preparation program where then they'll receive high quality preparation. So then they can become teachers of record in your classroom and then to help them improve and grow in their early career. That's when the prep mentorship program will step into place as well. Uh again, another colleague is going to speak to you more uh regarding the prep mentorship program in just a few minutes. But uh how
013this is going to work is the once the employee has earned however many college credits they need to in uh so they can enroll in their EPB of choice, they'll then transition from the GIO program to the pre-ervice partnership program. So again, those two are going to work handinand with one another as we're moving forward uh here through prep. So the prepgio program is going to provide funding through which school systems can support two different streams. The first is again as I mentioned earlier current employees in your school system. So these are individuals who are currently employed by your ISD or charter school. They do not already hold a teaching certificate. So you can use these funds to assist them in earning a bachelor's degree, enrolling in a ed prep program to become a certified
014teacher while remaining in your employee in the school district. The second group of candidates you can utilize these GIO funds for are your high school students. So, if you uh have the career and technical education uh education pathway currently within your ISD, you can take these candidates as they're in school, work with them so that they can receive their educational aid certification and then be hired on as teachers, excuse me, as uh as pair of professionals within your ISD. and then they can utilize those G.I.O. funds as they're continuing on into college, working toward uh entering into an EP and then becoming a teacher of record. So, a couple of things regarding uh statute and rule surrounding these things. So, first of all, there are implementation supports for participants such as scheduled release time. Now,
015uh, one thing that I want to speak about regarding that scheduled release time, this is not just free time where they are off and kind of doing their own thing. They're, this is very prescripted as part of the ED prep program. So, uh, as candidates go through this, they'll need specific uh, fieldbased experiences. So this will be time that you will allow them to step away from their normal duties as a pair professional to complete assignments and complete experiences as part of their experience towards becoming a teacher of record. You'll also partner uh are going to be required to partner them with the cooperating teacher as well as give them transition supports as they move from being a pair professional or employee within your district to becoming a resident to begin with. So, because the
016first uh as we begin this, you must partner with a program that is uh that culminates in a year-long residency. You'll also be required to complete written partnership agreements. We'll speak about those more a little bit later on here in the webinar. And you will be eligible for successbased funding and performance goals. And again, all of this comes from the Texas Education Code, chapter 21.906. So, a couple things as they become through this. First of all, the first step is they're going to earn their bachelor's degree. So, you're going to take your candidates who do not currently have bachelor's degrees and partner with your IICH and EP to enroll them in their uh in a bachelor's program. Provide them their schedule release time for coursework and advising so they can complete that with and become
017enrolled within three years. So again, they've got to become enrolled in an EP within 3 years of beginning the GIO program. They're going to gain early teacher training. So they'll have on the job training on your campuses working with a cooperating teacher. So they have opportunities for practice under underneath that effective educator. This allows you to grow future educators as well. Again, going back to your candidates that are in high school and showing uh potential interest in becoming a teacher. This provides them with opportunities in practice and training for these current students to then continue their interests and then join the teaching profession. There is success and need-based funding available. So the prep aotment has funding that will flow to the LEA per it's and again this funding is per employee. So every candidate that
018you have that moves forward into this program there's funding available for those for each one of those candidates. This funding can be used at your discretion as an LEA for program implementation including tuition costs and is also going to be tied to the employee successful completion of a bachelor's degree. And again, just as a note, uh currently eleas are only eligible for the GIO program if they also apply for a pre-ervice preparation partnership for 2627. This is only residency uh pre-ervice partnerships, but as additional years roll on, you'll have other options to partner with other EPS that might offer either the traditional route or the pre-ervice alt route as well. So, the initial funding that you'll receive is $4,000 per candidate. you could receive up to additional $2,000 based upon your rural and high need
019uh qualifications that you might have. So, it could be up to $6,000 initially per candidate. Notice that there is a cap of 40 pair of professionals per year for this. And then on uh success uh success based funding of an additional 4,000 with an additional zero excuse me additional two uh $2,000 potentially available for each employee who successfully earns their bachelor's degree and enrolls in EP. And again one more time you as the LEA can allocate these funds to support your candidates in the matters in which you see fit. Again, this may be an opportunity to support them with their tuition costs. There will be costs likely uh to provide structured advising to the pair professional. So, you can utilize funding for that those costs as well. Cost for the release time. Again, the release
020time when they are completing assignments and activities as prescribed as part of their degree. and then any other GIO related costs that may uh may come up as you're part of the program. So, as we move forward, you uh are going to have some resources available to you. one the webinar deck from today's uh meeting as we're going through as well as webinar recording from a previous meeting regarding uh prep GIO from October 23rd of 2025 those uh that information is going to be available to you as well. Now, as we talk about technical assistance, there are optional inind supports available. As you notice here, there are three current dates available uh in uh in the month of March and you'll be sent the links to be able to register for these as well. And
021then just in terms of a timeline of support, April 1st will be our first meeting. In May, we'll have our second meeting. In June, you'll meet collaboratively uh with other LEAs in a regional work group and have another regional work group meeting in August. These supports are designed to help you design and implement your GIO pathway in alignment with the Texas quality guidelines that have been set forth, funding guidance, and then also you'll receive implementation resources as you are establishing your GIO pathway. So now we're going to move we're going to pass that baton onto our next step and we're going to talk about residency. So as we talk about residency, these are requirements that are focused on implementing highquality year year-long residencies for aspiring teachers. Uh, now full disclosure, I am a former EP
022director myself and the institution I previously worked at, we utilize a year-long residency and uh, as a result, I'm a big fan. And so, uh, forgive me if I get a little excited as we talk about residency simply because I understand uh, firsthand how uh, how high quality this preparation is for candidates as they come through. So, if you've never heard of a residency, let me explain a little bit about it to you. Uh, first of all, it is a practice-based preparation for in a full year. So, the candidates that come to your campus are going to be with you from day one through day 187. They're going to be with you the entire the entire academic year. You'll provide them with an effective cooperating teacher for an entire school year as they become teacher
023record. Now, big fan of barbecue here. Um, you can't see all of me, but there's a lot of me. And, uh, I love barbecue. And, uh, I love Style Switch there in Austin. It's one of my favorite spots to go. And I know that if I went to to Style Switch and I spent a full year working alongside their pit pit masters every single day, at the end of that year, I'm going to be pretty darn good at making barbecue. And that's what happens with our candidates who go through a residence program as well. They spend a full year. They get to see how the sausage is made from tip to tail. and they they have that experience and they uh are very prepared as they enter in to day one of being teacher of
024record. These candidates are going to be exposed to state developed content prior to entering into your classroom. Now this requirement does begin in 2728. So this first year they won't have the candidate uh excuse me the the content per se but as we move forward uh these candidates will come prepared with the content as they uh enter into your classrooms. This high-quality content includes the reading and mathmies, instruction on blue bonnet learning, and other classroom management content from trained and certified facilitators. A residency pres-ervice program does require formal partnerships with written agreements. So, you'll sit down with your EP and you'll create a partnership that works for y'all and for your partnership. If you're partnering with multiple institutions, it is possible that your uh written agreements are going to be similar, but they probably won't
025be exactly the same because your context that you're working with each ep uh program to program. So, you'll identify what are your needs as what are your needs as a school system? What is the vision for the instruction for high quality instructional material content as well as what is required from the EP standpoint for content and training? And finally, the residency pres-ervice program does also come with success and needsbased funding. So the funding is going to be split between the EP and the school system. So both of y'all have skin in the game here. And this funding compensates candidates during the residency and also increases for high need areas. Funding is going to be ti tied to the success of the candidate and will flow to the school system when the candidate earns their enhanced
026certificate enhanced standard certificate and to the EP after the candidate has completed their first year of successful teaching in Texas classrooms. So, as we think about the core components of a residency, one placements must occur in person in preK through 12 classroom settings. They need to be assigned to a cooperating host teacher who meets ESP aspect qualifications and is trained to mentor and support the resident. It must their experience must go over a full academic year including the first and last instructional days and total at least 750 hours of clinical experience with a minimum of 20 21 hours in placement per week. That 21 hours allows for candidates if they need to return back to campus to complete additional coursework. That provides you an opportunity to do that. It also uh provides you with opportunities
027if you're utilizing strategic staffing models such as subm models or uh or or others provides you with opportunities to utilize those as well to help uh pay for the residents that you'll be having on your campuses. The resident is required to be hired as an at will employee of the school system. The candidates must engage in co-eing and lead instruction for a minimum of 400 hours. And the school system must facilitate opportunities for residents to gradually assume greater instructional responsibilities aligned with structured performance benchmarks and gates established by the EP. But one thing about that when you look at those last two bullet points, those go hand in hand. So as you're moving forward in the residency program, you the candidate should be eventually taking over more and more responsibility for instruction. However, it is
028a co-eing environment. So even though they're taking over additional uh instructional opportunities and responsibilities, they still have that cooperating teacher in the classroom with them. This is not designed to be where the candidate the classroom in itself is completely turned over to that individual but it is set up such that they are working together with the residency uh candidate assuming the lead responsibility with the assistance of that highly trained highly qualified host teacher in the classroom. Now, funding wise, let's talk a little bit about how that's going to work. The initial funding of $12,000 will go to the school system. For that $12,000, $10,000 of that must go directly to the resident. That's going to make up their uh their pay of $20,000 per year. That is a minimum amount required by statute. the additional
029$2,000 must go to the cooperating teacher as a as a stipen or payment to them for participating in that as well. So again, 12,000 comes directly to the ISD or charter school from the state. 10 of that goes to makes up the half of the 20,000 that's required to go to the resident and then 2,000 goes to the cooperating teacher. Successbased funding, the school system can receive up to $16,000 per candidate of successbased funding. Now, this funding is going to flow via the FSP when the resident completes their residency and earns their enhanced standard certificate. this additional funding must be spent on program implementation. Now, of that 16k, 2,000 of that is going to come to you directly. So, that's the amount you're going to get regardless of any other factors. The additional funding will
030come from the high needs or rural factor that is then multiplied to provide up to 12,000 additional dollars. And additionally, if the candidate is receiving special education or bilingual education certification, you are eligible for an additional $2,000 per candidate of funding for those candidates. And again you can see that uh how that funding is broken down uh currently on the screen as we see now the funding for the EP will flow after that candidates has earned has completed their residency earned their standard certificate and successfully completed their first year teaching in a Texas school system. That funding will be a base of $10,000 per candidate to the EP with an additional one point uh $1,500 for successful completion of reading to mathmies. So this funding must be used to offset tuition fees, administrative costs that
031the uh EP or IEC has regarding or relative to the implementation of the residency program. And as you can see, I are required to allocate at least 85% of that funding on the approved program. And just as additional supports, you'll receive this deck as well as a copy of this webinar and those will be available to you. And with that, I believe I'm going to pass it off to uh Miss Ricky Hera. >> Hi. Um, I am super excited to talk to you all today about the prep mentorship program. So, we'll start with a few quick overview slides and then talk a little bit more in detail about some of the unique aspects of the prep mentorship program. So, the prep mentorship program provides school systems with funding to build and or strengthen highquality new
032teacher mentorship programs. And the overarching goal of mentorship as and like the other programs in the pathway are to increase teacher effectiveness and retention for prep mentorship program. It's specifically designed to support uh the effectiveness and retention of beginning teachers across Texas. And I'll talk a little bit more in a moment about who a beginning teacher is. Also through the prep mentorship program, school systems will engage in the Texas mentorship training and we have across the state a um a a group of approved Texas mentorship training providers and there the goal there is to provide highquality researchbased training to both mentor teachers as well as any appropriate district and campus employees who work with or supervise classroom teachers. ers um that have less than two years of teaching experience. So, just wanted to um give
033you just a little bit of a heads up. We do have a Texas mentorship training website and so that URL is listed at the bottom of this slide. If you have any questions or want to learn more about the Texas mentorship training, please uh visit that website to to learn a little bit more. And just as a quick overview, I mentioned that the prep mentorship program supports beginning teachers. Beginning teachers for the prep mentorship program are defined as those teachers in their first or second year in the classroom as teachers of record. and they receive support through prep mentorship program via the assignment of trained highquality mentor teachers who will provide that coaching and support to them in their first couple of years in their own classrooms. There are some um statutory and rule requirements
034around the prep mentorship program particularly pertaining to the implementation supports of participants such as um rules and uh requirements around scheduled release time for mentor teachers and beginning teachers to meet for mentoring activities. the qualifications of a mentor teacher as well as the training requirements for um mentor teachers and any appropriate district and campus leaders who work with or support beginning teachers. Also within um that policy there are some requirements around mentor teacher stipens as well as program funding and performance goals. You can find more um about you can read into these policies. Check our statute in the Texas Education Code 21907 and 21458. This is just a a little bit more of a summary of the the slide before. It kind of breaks down the aspects of the prep mentorship program into kind of
035the three main features. Once again, those being structured support for beginning teachers in their first and second year. um as well as the requirement of those supporting those beginning teachers participating in completing the state developed mentorship training um which is the Texas mentorship training as well as the financial support that goes to school systems in order to support this um mentoring program which includes stipens for mentor teachers as well as program implementation funding um such as like things that can cover training costs and mentor teacher release time. >> So the funding for prep mentorship program is um awarded per beginning teacher that is assigned to the prep mentorship program. So each beginning teacher will generate a $3,000 aotment and an any school system can have up to 40 beginning teachers participating in the program. And
036so that funding of $3,000 per beginning teacher will go to the school system. And from there, mentor teachers will receive at least a $1,000 stipen per beginning teacher assigned. Um, and then from there, the remaining funds can be used on several different things. One being the Texas mentorship training costs if you choose to. We have um all 20 of our ESC's across the state are approved TMT providers as well as a handful of other certified um approved providers. And so if you choose to uh partner with an ESC, that cost will be $500 per participant per pathway. But just want to note if you do partner with another one of our providers um outside of the ESC's that cost may vary. So, if you haven't already, I recommend you refer to the Texas mentorship uh
037training website, contact your preferred provider, and start having some conversations around cost and registration. Uh other than the stipens and the training, school systems may allocate the remaining funding received to provide additional mentor stipens, um coverage of release time for mentors and beginning teachers to meet andor strategic staffing training. All right. So talking a little bit more about the Texas mentorship training and that technical assistance provided there. School systems must partner with an approved Texas mentorship training provider uh to provide training for the required attendees. As we had stated before, you can find a list of all of our approved Texas mentorship training providers on the TMT website. Um and then those training requirements for prep mentorship program include a 90minute Texas mentorship training kickoff. This is a virtual kickoff um between the district and
038the approved provider. And this takes place later on this spring. And in that uh meeting, you'll talk through some logistical pieces um determining um who is attending the different pathways of training, which I'll talk about in more detail in just a moment, as well as some other pieces of the Texas mentorship training just to get everybody u ready to go. There's also two different pathways of Texas mentorship training designed for those two different groups of folks who are supporting mentorship programs. And so pathway one is our mentoring educator training. And mentoring educator training is really designed for any of those uh staff that directly touch the mentorship space as far as the new teachers that they support. So these could be mentor teachers of beginning teachers, host teachers of residents and and those types of
039folks. And so the first pathway for mentoring educator training is 24 hours total. It'll begin around July of 2026 and then continue throughout the school year 2627. And I'll show a graphic in a little while of kind of the distribution and competencies that that training addresses. And then additionally there is this second pathway and the second pathway is called our district and campus leader mentorship program design sessions. These are designed for those folks who are really um imperative in designing planning implementing the mentorship program at the school system level. And so this is divided into four half-day design sessions that'll start in around late May, early June and continue throughout uh school year 26 27 for a total of about 16 hours of those design sessions. In those design sessions, uh, school system district and
040campus leaders will, um, address everything from planning for that release time for mentors and beginning teachers to meet down to kind of looking through um, program sustainability and planning for the for the future of the program. And I also wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about the role of the prep mentorship program manager. This role is absolutely crucial for the success of the prep mentorship program and the implementation of the Texas mentorship training at the school systems level. And so school systems are going to identify their own program managers for prep mentorship program. And these people will be responsible for attending all of the Texas mentorship training sessions for both pathway one and pathway two to coordinate and track participant attendance to provide support to the participants as well as track
041some of those action steps that come out of the trainings in order to follow up on those next steps with the TMT provider um just serving as the district point of contact. And so, um, if you want to learn more, please contact your preferred TMT provider to discuss those training timelines, registration, and cost, and, um, begin thinking about who your point person for the prep mentorship program is going to be. And here's that graphic of the Texas mentorship training scope and sequence. As I mentioned before, we have two different pathways. One is for that mentoring educators. You can see it across the top in blue. And pathway two is that orange um for the design sessions for the district and campus leaders across the bottom. And as you can see up at the top, we've
042got um several different points in time where the mentoring educators will attend that training. But in between those times that they've built those skills through the training, the district and campus leaders are going to provide ongoing mentoring mentor coaching and support. And this is actually something that the district and campus leaders plan for within the design sessions to kind of have a plan in place for when and how and what that support will look like. And then down at the bottom in the pathway two, you can see the four different design sessions that take place throughout the year. And that purple arrow kind of signifies that that school systemapp appointed prep program manager is going to engage in TMT communications with the TMT provider and TEA throughout the school year. We also have uh some
043additional resources for you all to peruse. And so we uh gave a series of webinars last fall for the lasso4 application. Those are still posted and available to you all. So if you are curious and want to hear a little bit more of a deep dive into prep mentorship program, you can refer to those. The webinar deck is there as well as the webinar recording from October the 10th. But I wanted to note this uh orange asterisk here. So, there was a bit of a change between the prep mentorship program webinar and the prep residency program webinar around um Texas mentorship training requirements. And so, just wanted to note that if your school system is participating in the prep residency pre-ervice program, the Texas mentorship training is required starting in school year 2728. And that's
044a change from what you'll see in the webinar recording from October the 10th. And so just want to reiterate that TMT for prep preser residency program is required starting in school year 2728. And what that will look like is any of your host teachers that are supporting residents in 2728 will complete Texas mentorship training as well as any of your mentor teachers who are assigned newly hired residents um or those who have completed their residence and have become newly hired teachers of record in their first or second year will need to complete the Texas mentorship training as well. Thanks. So, I'll hand it back over. >> Thanks, uh, Ricky and Josh for walking us through grow your own prep residency and prep mentorship programs. We are going to transition now into talking about some implementation
045information and resources that will be coming out over the coming months. After this section, then we'll dive into next steps. So, we have stood up a prep landing page uh online, and this is intended to serve as the one-stop shop for information and resources for the prep program aotment. We'll be building this out and adding information over time. But first, you'll see a blurb describing what the prep program aotment is, an overview at the top of that web page. You'll also see towards the bottom a section for prep program aotment frequently asked questions and overviews of the programs. We really encourage individuals to take a look at those FAQs. There are some very common questions that we get here. So we answered many questions uh throughout the application launch period and we'll be updating that
046FAQ section over time. On the right hand of the slide, you'll see prep resources with uh links that we'll be updating over time as things come online. So, we will we intend to send out roughly a monthly newsletter with information updates to our points of contact on file. Um so, you don't need to come back and check this uh periodically. We'll kind of notify you when things have been updated or posted, but this page is here for you to access as needed. And then at the bottom you will see a prep support portal. That is the best way to get in touch with our team Ricky, Josh, Scott, myself or other members of our team with questions related to prep program a lotment implementation. You'll see a drop down of what type of question you
047have and that will get farmed out to our team uh and we will follow back up. So please feel free to use that as questions come up. We know this is a lot of information in a new program so want to make sure we're supporting and getting you all the answers that you need. I will turn Oh, and finally, there's a link to the web page in the top right corner. I think with that, I will pass it back over to Josh to talk through partnership agreements. Um, after that, we'll get into rulemaking and then close out with some next steps. >> Thank you, Ally. I appreciate that. Uh so I know that uh y'all are aware of the statutory requirement for partnership agreements as you enter into uh this prep uh brave new world
048that we're going into. But uh one thing that I do want to state is that your partnership agreements may take the form ofus and I know that many of you utilize and that's something that you're very comfortable with and we certainly encourage you to continue to and use those. However, there could be other agreement forms that are acceptable. Uh there are a few priority criteria that have been established for your partnership agreement and yourou or agreement must include these things. One, defining overarching roles, goals, and responsibilities for the program. Secondly, the governance structure that you will utilize to ensure that you are in compliance with and communicating with one another. Third, the financial obligations. There are obviously some uh statutory requirements for how the funding must be spent. You know, again, just thinking about the
049residency program for instance, 20,000 uh must go directly to the resident. And so, just outlining how that those funding requirements, those financial requirements are going to be met. training requirements. Who's going to be providing training to the candidates as well as to the host teachers both initially and ongoing throughout the program? And then finally, monitoring accountability. What kind of data will be collected? Who will collect the data? What will be utilized for? Who's going to see the data? Those kinds of things. How are you going to uh progress monitor the success of your program? All of those pieces need to be included in your partnership agreement. Grow your own programs will have uh need to have this with an IICE that they're working with and districts you are responsible for the submission and ownership of
050the partnership agreements. So in terms of resources, we will uh provide to you uh a partnership agreement form which the district and EP will use to asssure that the key partnership actions and accountabilities are included in yourou or agreement. It is going to require signatures from the district authority and the EP or IE legal authority as well. And then the signed form and the partnership agreement whether it's anou or some other format must be uploaded to the verification and participation form online. So currently a sample is it's it's on the way. It's coming. Uh we're almost ready to prepare it. It's uh getting approved uh by quote unquote the higherups right now. And so that'll be uh give you an example of what a sample could look like including all the uh required components. It
051also is going to show you some some other locally agreed upon components that have been specifically tailored to meet local needs. This will you'll also have anou template showing you the same thing. you could utilize this template as your base to uh to help you as you're designing your partnership agreements. One statement that I do want to make sure that I say clearly to everyone is that if you currently have anou that is in place between your uh you as the LEA and your EP partners, you can util continue to utilize that but just make sure that you have updated thoseus to asssure that all of the required components in the partnership agreement are uh present and agreed upon. And then finally, just some planning tools to help y'all as you're working through the steps,
052making sure that you've hit all your marks and you've hit all the required components. This form will not need to be submitted. We will also be offering additional office hours during the month of May or excuse me, the month of March. Pardon me. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Uh office hours and supports will be available in the month of March and those will be coming out very soon. Now just looking at the there is a there are some small differences between the partnership agreement for the residency program and the GYO. Let's look at the residency program first. Uh when you get together with your dis as a district and your EP partner you're committing to identify how you're going to be recruiting. How are we meeting recruitment needs for the district? What are our
053shared governance structures and progress monitoring? How are we going to get together? How are we going to communicate with one another? How are we going to identify if we're being successful? You'll identify resident supports and host teacher supports as well as conduct financial planning. The biggest priority is that as you're setting this up, this is you are developing a mutually beneficial partnership that addresses quality preparation experiences and addresses local needs that the LEA and the EP both have. So, all of those are components that you'll need to keep in mind as you're getting together to identify and start building your partnership agreement for the residency. If you'll look at our on our next slide as we talk about the grow your own program, many of the same components are there. We're still going to talk
054about recruitment. How are we getting in who the LA the kind of candidates the LAA needs to fit their needs? How are we monitoring our progress to show that we've been successful in our program? But a couple of things that a little bit different. One is the grow your own supports because candidates who are in the grow your own program again remember these are your own employees these are your current employees who are currently serving a much needed role within your district so there needs to be flexibility and I as part of your partnership agreement you're going to identify how are we going to address these flexibilities that are required so that the candidate is able to ensure that they're receiving all of the high quality preparation that they need to become the teacher of
055record that you need them to be in in their classroom as well as as they transition from being a pair professional or a employee in your district to becoming a resident in your district as well. What does that transition support look like? And then of course the financial planning. What does this look like in terms of meeting all the requirements uh set forth statutoily uh for the prep GIO program? This partnership will ensure you together that the GIO participants progress through the through degree completion requirements with the supports they need so they can be successful. >> And Ally, I think it's you now. >> All right. Well, thank you for that, Josh, and walking us through those partnership agreements. In thinking about information and resources coming out, wanted to spend a moment talking about the
056prep program aotment rulemaking process, where we are in that process, and how you might be able to access information. So, for starters, I always like to distinguish between Texas Education Code and Administrative Code. So, on the left side of the screen, you'll see the Texas Education Code, uh, named as a law that's enacted by a legislative body. This is the uh House Bill 2 established that the prep program aotment in the 89th legislative session and there are several new sections of the Texas education code that came out of House Bill 2 related to the prep program aotment. We are currently going through the rulemaking process. So the right side of the screen the Texas Administrative Code. Those rules are statements of general applicability that implement, interpret or prescribe the law or policy and describes procedures
057or practices um of a state agency. So we'll talk through a couple examples of that and where we are in this process because knowing the information there would uh be helpful for all the school systems and partnerships that are moving towards verifying their participation in this program. So there are two associated rulemaking timelines, rulemaking processes that we are going through for the prep program aotment. On the left side of the screen, you'll see the commissioner of education rulemaking timeline and on the right side of the screen, you'll see the state board of educator certification rulemaking timeline. To start with commissioner of education uh rulemaking timeline, this is related to all of the school system facing rules for the prep program aotment. So over the summer after the close of the legislative session, we engaged in
058stakeholder engagement meetings, drafted rules, and then posted them on January 23rd for a 30-day public comment period closing on February 23rd of this year. Over the next couple months or the next month or so, we'll be responding to those public comments and aiming to have the rules published and effective by early May, as you'll see um in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Later we'll talk through this verification of participation step of the process for school systems that are interested in verifying their participation in the prep program. That window will be open May 1st through 31st. So just wanted to flag that here that we want to make sure there's a chance for you all to review the final and effective rules um for commissioner of education rules for the prep program aotment
059uh before verifying your participation in the program. On the right side of the screen, as mentioned, this is the ESP rulemaking timeline. These are the rules that apply to educator preparation programs and certification of teacher and educator um certifications across the state. So again coming out of legislative session this summer engaged in an ESPC work session took a discussion of some proposed rules to the ESPC in September and then really in that October through spring uh timeline we are continuing to go through the rulem process with uh discussion proposal and adoption of that and throughout that uh that time period also engaging stakeholders and anticipate that there would be an effective date around July July 2026 that is subject to uh the board processes. All right. So, diving into the proposed section of the commission
060of education rules, there is a new section um section 153 that's sub chapter FF of the uh administrative code that outlines prep program aotment. Um so, wanted to walk through a couple different subsections that you will see there. First is 1531301 is definition. So the an example I often provide is mentor teacher is a term that is used all across the state in many different contexts and sometimes have slightly different meanings depending on what part of the state or what institution you're engaging with. So we will do things like define uh mentor teacher uh in those in those sections. So we're really clear on what the requirements are related to those roles. Um then 1531302 gets into general provisions. I'll walk through that in just a moment. And then the subsequent sections have the program
061standards for each of the prep programs that are available for implementation in school year 2627. So that would be grow your own residency mentorship and then a final section on EP training content as it relates to the prep program. All right. So um wanted to dive into the general provisions of the commissioner of education rule section related to the prep program aotment. Again, this is proposed Texas administrative code 1531302. Uh section A talks about eligibility application procedures and approval processes for school systems interested in the prep program aotment. This defines charter eligibility for example including uh SB182 partnerships. Outlines application processes. Um, we anticipate continuing to use lasso as the way to um, uh, source who is interested in applying for the prep program a lotment in the years moving forward and then provisions for
062adding and removing ed prep program partnerships. Uh then there's a section on funding and spending requirements and within that we outline some data collections that TEA will engage in for both funding and settle processes and then outlines a couple provisions for school system spending in accordance with statute and rules. There are a couple places where there um are some more specificity that we provide uh for spending uh relative to what's in the education code. There's also a section on uh school system program submissions. We have been getting a lot of questions about what would school systems need to submit to TEA. And so it outlines a couple provisions that on an annual basis there would be a submission of prep spending and how that funding is used. Um this is a similar process in the
063teacher incentive aotment. So there will be one annual submission of that and also an annual survey of prep participants. Some more information will be coming out about that later in the spring, but there is a provision for that. And then also one for evidence of written implementation of written agreements. Uh then in section D, we've got periodic reviews, which outlines TEA annual reviews of both program submissions and school systems performance goal attainment and then provisions for incomplete or inaccurate submissions or failure to meet performance goals. And then finally there is a section subsection E on renewals and withdrawals um a provision around automatic renewals. So once a school system has applied and starts receiving prep funding for one of their programs they will be automatically remove renewed unless they opt out of that funding. So
064for example, a school system that is implementing prep mentorship in will automatically be renewed to continue receiving funding in 27 28 28 29 etc. And then there also is a process for withdrawing from prep for districts that would not like their uh renewals to be automated each year. Uh so that is a snapshot of the commissioner of education rulemaking process timelines and some of the content in those general provisions. I did want to share as I had mentioned we are moving through the state board of educator certification rulemaking updates and in that there are some uh rules in chapter 228 that have been updated. Um you can see those rules on the left side of the screen that relate to prep program aotment. So things like prep pres-ervice content that ed prep programs must implement
065or mentor cooperating teacher host teacher training requirements. Again back to that mentoring term uh training requirements. So you see that on the left side of the screen and then there are some additional HB2 requirements that went in front of the board on February 13th I believe it was. With that, I think we are going to move into the section around next steps. We've been getting I'm I know a lot of school systems are very eager to know where do we go from here? We've indicated our interest through the Elasto cycle 4 process. What is next for us? So, this is intended to walk through what's coming. And I will preface this all with saying we are going to continue updating our web page and communicating with the field. So, um, we recognize there's a lot
066of information and a lot of questions folks might have as they're implementing this program for the first time. All right. So, starting off with the verification of participation process, we will have a window open from May 1st to May 31st and we will send this out to all prep aotment awardees asking in which awarded aotments they'd want to participate. So there might be an instance in which a school system has applied for and been preliminarily awarded for example a prep grow your own program but something may have changed within the school system and they would no longer want to participate in that program. So this is an option provides option to opt out. We'll also ask for agreements to asurances for each program. Again I mentioned those commission of education rules are were aiming to
067be effective by early May. Um and so just an agreement to those asurances and the administrative code. We'll also ask for estimates of participant counts for each aotment program. This is help helpful for our budgeting and planning purposes. But this is not the official estimate on which funding will be based. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But we will ask for estimates because we anticipate that school systems might have clearer estimates of participant counts for say grow your own individuals or residents in the May time frame compared to the last October. And then also specifically for prep preser residency and grow your own will ask for those partner names, partnership details and an uploaded copy of partnership agreements. Um, as mentioned in bold print here at the bottom, districts districts will have the
068opportunity to opt out of some or all of the worded aotments at this point with no negative repercussions. This is not a grant system. I want to reiterate that um and have designed this from the beginning of having a two-step process with lasso applications and then this verification of participation for form um which we know also with so much new information coming out we wanted to make sure to build this in uh for school systems to be able to apply early and then um spend some time getting to know program requirements better. Um the verification of participation form will be available on the website. will have a preview of that on April 13th. Um, in case folks need to go through internal um, approval processes or need to collaborate with their stakeholders, we want to
069make sure that you have that preview of the form on the 13th and then the window will officially open on the May 1st and be open for an entire month. All right. So, a few uh, resources that we anticipate being published in the coming months. The first is a funding calculator. We anticipate this will be published on March 20th. These dates are subject to change, but we're really aiming to get it out uh by that date. This funding calculator will be a downloadable Microsoft Excel file, and it really is intended to be a tool for school systems to use. That will not school systems will not submit that Excel file to TEA. We will not use that for calculations for foundation school program FSP payments, but really is intended to help you generate estimates of
070funding that you will receive and also at what points in time. So, it will include formulas for each of the prep programs where you will be able to plug in your estimated participants to generate an estimate of the prep funding you will receive. So, for example, you might have 15 um beginning teachers participating in the prep mentorship program. you'll be able to plug that in, think about um mentorship, some fixed cost you'll have associated with that and and get a sense of how much uh money you'll generate. Same thing with residency. Say you'll be having, you know, one district might have 12 and a district might have 35. This is intended to help you estimate that funding that you'll receive. So that's a funding calculator. Uh next is the preview of the verification and participation
071form. I just mentioned this on the last slide. The preview will come out on April 13th and it will have details about the types of info and data that you'll be required to complete. Again, the idea is that you can go in that, you know, two two final weeks of April, start planning for that submission so you're ready to go when that window opens up. All right. Um, April 20th, we are shooting to publish a prep guide book. If you're familiar with the teacher incentive aotment guide book, this will be modeled off of that. that it's intended to be a onestop shop in addition to our website to get comprehensive information on prep implementation. Right now we are doing the best we can our team to answer the frequently asked questions that are coming through.
072We have a section of our website with that. We've engaged in uh a couple webinars and really hope to combine all that information into one comprehensive guide. Some examples of topics included will be um funding and spending information, how to add or update partnership programs, more details around these annual program submissions that I uh mentioned earlier related to submitting information on spending and survey participation. So, we think that will be a helpful resource. Um and they're working as hard and fast as we can to get that out to you all hopefully by April 20th. Um that next you'll see in the bold print in the middle of the page that prep verification of participation window will be open May 1st to 31st. And then we anticipate to have a second kickoff webinar in June with
073more detailed program information focused really on that next level of detail with implementation around next steps, trainings, etc. In the meantime, um we might also open up some office hours and other supports, but we know for sure that we'll be having that second round of webinars in June. And with that, here is this uh informationpacked timeline that I previewed at the beginning of our time together. So, wanted to walk through um a couple upcoming timelines or I guess current and upcoming uh points in time, I should say, and events. Okay, so we had our award notifications go out in early February. Y'all have received that. I would imagine that's how school systems and partnerships have made it to this webinar. As mentioned, we've got our commissioner of education um rulemaking process happening posted for public
074comments now through February 23rd and then we anticipate those rules will become effective in May. We've got these webinars, this first one today and then also the kickoff webinars in June I just talked about. Then we'll have some resources coming out in February through April. um partnership written agreements that Josh talked through in February, that funding calculator in March, and then that guide book in April. And we hope all of that information can help inform final decisions around participation. So, you've got that verification of participation window May 1st to 31st. And then one I don't think we've spoken about yet in this presentation is ECOS um being open for prep aotment data submissions. So ECOS is the system that uh school systems and e ed prep programs will use to submit official participant counts for
075funding purposes. So TE eps and eleas will enter information into eos tea teams will work to extract that information and calculate the allotments based on that information submitted. So there's a pretty good chunk of time available this summer for those entries to happen and we'll have trainings and technical assistance for that as well. Um but that is where the official counts will come in. As mentioned, um, FSP funding, the foundation school program funding will start flowing in October of 2026 for school year 2627. We looked at lots of different options of timelines for flowing initial funding to school systems and this was the earliest feasible um, place that we could start flowing that funding. Um if you look at that eco submission in the June through August time frame just to the left that we'll
076need to take those official accounts in that time frame um then turn that around make the calculations and then issue those payments in October. So just wanted to kind of show that connection between those two steps. And finally this all starts again uh with lasso five applications in early October. If you decide to decline participation this year in that verification of participation form, we know there are lots of factors that go into it. That's okay. You will have another chance to apply for actually all five programs uh within prep in October of next year. So know that's know that that is coming. Uh I before wrapping up did want to just remind you on the prep program aotment web page on uh the TEA web page there is a support portal for questions to submit
077questions you've got. We've also got an FAQ question. We do see some trends and questions that we receive and that's helpful for us to know where we can get better with communication. But also wanted to point you to there um to review those questions. So definitely look through the FAQs if you've got questions that come up to see if they've been answered. Um, and feel free to reach out to our team to ask any further questions. Lastly, um, we really value your feedback. So, if you are listening to this recorded and we're not able to join the live session, we'd still love your feedback via the survey link. This is a um, pretty big initiative across the state. We've got hundreds of districts participating, close to half of the state's districts participating in this program
078and we want to be able to provide the best support for you all as you work towards implementation and we can only do that with um honest and candid feedback from you all on how we are doing as a team and where more support is needed. So there will be some survey questions related to the content that we've put out in today's presentation. Um we really value your feedback. So, please take a moment to to share that so we can make sure we're providing the best supports for you. Um, lastly, well, two last things. We've got the support portal there again, uh, if questions come up and just want to thank you all, two things. one for sticking with us through this presentation and second for your interest and commitment to supporting our teacher candidates
079and our early service teachers across the state through growing your own talent, providing really high quality preparation to ensure that teachers are day one ready when they're in front of students and then to support them through those critical first few years in teaching where we know uh support is needed. So really appreciate you all for the work that you've done in these areas and the work that you will continue to do to to ensure that we've got the the best pipeline of educators for our students across the state. So thank you so much and look forward to working with you and partnering moving forward.