001Okay. All right. This webinar is being recorded at this time. Welcome. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to our highly mobile and at risk student programs quarterly meeting number two. My name is Dr. Ann Lei and I serve as the manager for the HMR team. We are so grateful for those who are joining us from across our great state. Your presence reflects the deep commitment you bring to supporting our students and families, and we're honored to spend this time with you. We hope you've had a great start of the school year, and that it was both exciting and impactful. These quarterly meetings are designed with you in mind to bring forward relevant resources, timely updates, and actionable strategies that support your work in the field. Our team shows up every day with one goal, to serve you
002as you serve our students and families. So, thank you for the incredible work you do and thank you for being here today. As we begin today's meeting, we'd like to take a moment to reintroduce the highly mobile and at risk student programs team. We are housed in the office of special populations um and student supports at the Texas Education Agency. Our work uh centers around three key areas. Texas education for homeless children and youth at risk programs which includes foster care pregnancy related services and dropout preventions and military connected students. Each of these programs is designed to support students who face unique challenges and transitions. Our team is here to ensure that you have the tools, resources and guidance needed to serve these students with excellence and compassion. We are proud to partner with you
003in this work and grateful for your dedication that you bring to the campuses and communities every day. Before we dive into today's content, let's take a look at our objectives in our agenda. Our goal for this meeting is to provide updates, reminders, and key action items that will support your work throughout the school year. We will start off with some highlevel HMA overview. It's going to be followed by our respective program updates and then we're going to wrap it up with some reminders and closing remarks. We've designed this session to be informative and actionable and we encourage you to engage, ask questions, and share insights throughout the webinar. Before we move forward, we'd like to share that Kelly Kravitz, our director, and Dr. Vitamantes, our Mckin Vento state coordinator, were unable to be with us
004today. They both send their warm regards and appreciation for the incredible work you're doing across the state. Again, my name is Dr. Anne Lei and I am honored to lead today's presentation. I serve as the manager of HMAR and leading the military connected students program including purple star campus designation initiatives and I also serve as the highly mobile state coordinator for the state advisory council for educational opportunity for military children. Joining me today is our HMER student program specialist. Good afternoon everyone. I am John Dobbins. I am the HMR program specialist here on the team. I oversee our atrisisk programs which include foster care, pregnancy related services and dropout prevention. I also support our work with homeless education. I'm excited to be here today. Thanks for joining us. >> Together we're here to support you,
005answer your questions, and ensure that you leave today's session with valuable insights and resources. So before we begin, there's some housekeeping items we'd like to make note. We have prepared a full deck of rich content for today's presentation. So we will do our very best to respond to any questions that may come in during the webinar, but we may not be able to get to all of them. And we encourage you to email our program um email addresses directly for your technical assistance requests. If you do have a question that is related to the content that is being presented today, please use our Zoom's Q&A feature to submit them. You're also welcome to use the chat to share input or live links with fellow attendees and hosts. And a PDF and recording of today's presentation
006will be posted to the HMER website following the session. And as a reminder, CPE certificates will be provided for those attending the training live and complete the end of the webinar feedback survey. So our first portion of the webinar will be general updates and as the uh presentation is going uh Mr. Dobbins will be dropping links into the chat and monitoring the questions and comments that are coming in into the Q&A and chat functions of the Zoom. We want to take a moment to celebrate your engagement from our last webinar. We had a total of 624 attendees. 42% of attendees completed the end of webinar survey which awarded them their two hours of CPE. Thank you for your commitment to professional learning. 11% of those joined as part of a watch party with watch parties
007all the way up to seven individuals uh watching together. This shows the power of collaboration and shared learning. And most exciting of all, 100% of participants reported that the webinar met their expectations. These numbers reflect the strength of our community and the value of the work we're doing together. Let's take a moment uh to uh share in this success and keep the momentum going today. And if you were one of our attendees from the first webinar, give us an emoji, a thumbs up, a heart, anything you'd like. And thank you for joining us again today. Love it. Yes, look at all those emojis. Okay, we are very excited. Oh, I skipped a slide. All right, we are very excited to share a brand new resource with you. If you if you've seen this promotional video,
008give me a heart. Um, it is our HMAR promotional video titled Programs with Purpose inside HMAR. While we won't be viewing the video during today's session, John will be sharing the link in the chat so that you can watch it at your convenience. This video was designed to inform and ignite action showcasing how the HMR team is working to transform educational outcomes for students experiencing homelessness in foster care or connected to the military. We encourage you to share this video with your stakeholders, your colleagues, and community partners. It's a powerful tool for raising awareness and building support for the students we serve. And Mr. John Dobbins will be uh sending you the link to that in the chat. Before we dive into program specific updates, we want to take a moment to share some overarching
009strategies to consider as you support our students during the upcoming holiday season. While this time of year can bring joy and celebration, it can also be a period of increased instability for our highly mobile and atrisisk students. Thoughtful planning and proactive support can make a real difference. Here are the three three key strategies to guide your efforts. Uh help them to meet essential needs. Connecting students with resources for food, warm clothing, and a safe shelter. Fostering connections. Um creating welcoming activities and sharing information about supports available during school breaks. And then collaborate with your community partners. Extend your reach through donations, outreach, and shared services. These strategies help ensure every student feels seen, supported, and safe not just during the holidays, but all year long. And for our moment of reflection and processing, we have
010an audience activity for you. Um, in the chat, if you are so inclined, please share what is one strategy or partnership your campus or district or ESC has used to support HMR students during school breaks. Um, your ideas may inspire others across the state. John, do we have any that's coming in? >> Local church. We have local church. >> We do have local churches, food banks, we have food drives there. Someone has bridge the gap food program. Operation Noel. Uh, take food boxes with families. school pantries. Yes, >> I love the community involvement using your community resources. >> These are wonderful strategies. We hope that you may have gained additional ideas on supporting students during the upcoming holiday season. Thank you so much for sharing this with our colleagues. At this time, let's check in
011with John on at risk program updates. Thank you so much Ian. So the HMR at risk program includes uh four components. We have foster care pregnancy related services. We do oversee a machi grant which is with big brothers and big sisters and also dropout prevention. Our focus is to equip school systems with resources, training, supports they need to serve students who face the greatest challenges. These programs help ensure the schools can provide effective services and create opportunities for success for students in most need in Texas. First, we would like to cover foster care. In Texas, a student is coded in PES as being foster care if they are in the custody of the state of Texas due to abuse or neglect, regardless of their current living arrangement. Our team provides comprehensive resources, guidance, and professional
012learning opportunities tailored to the unique needs of students in foster care. Our goal is to ensure every student in foster care receives the support they need to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. A new resource we have is the foster care ESSA tool promotional video. This video spotlights the critical ESSA tools available to support educational stability for students in foster care. Whether you're briefing district leaders, training campus staff, or engaging community partners, this video is a dynamic resource to start spark conversation and drive meaningful support. And I will drop this resource in the chat now. We do have the foster care PES coding and guidance to streamline enrollment and clarify expectations. TA developed the foster care PES coding and supplemental guidance document. This resource explains how to correctly apply the PES foster coding indicator codes, how
013to identify students in foster care, what are acceptable documents. Please ensure this document is shared with your campus administrators, teams coordinators, foster care liaison, registars, school counselors, and any other staff that are involved in the enrollment process. This guidance helps schools maintain accurate data, support smooth transition, and provide the right services for students in foster care. And I will drop a link to this resource in the chat now. So defining foster care in PES for educational reporting the term foster care includes all students in the managing conservatorship or legal custody of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services or DF DFPS. Yes, this covers this also covers students placed in kindmanship caregiving and uh as long as DFPS retains legal custody for prek eligibility only. The definition expands to include students who were in
014or are currently in another state's foster care system and now reside in Texas. The Texas legislature authorized TEA to collect foster care status for students in DFPS managing conservatorship. Students from other states foster care systems except for prek purposes and unaccompanied refugee minors living in Texas are not to be coded as foster care and pe. And now I'm going to cover acceptable documentation for PE's coding. DFPS uses the designation of education decisionmaking form or the 2085E to identify who has authority over a child's education decisions. All guardians of students in DFPS management conservatorship must present the E the 25 2085E form at enrollment as required by Texas family code. If the form is missing, the school should request it immediately. Why does this matter? The form includes contact information for both the education decision maker
015and the case worker. Schools are required under Texas code to notify these individuals about any event that could significantly impact the child's education. Schools must store this document securely with other privacy protected records. Additional guidance on education decisionmaking is available in chapter 9 of our foster care and student success resource guide. Other acceptable documents can also include DFPS kinship kin kinship caregiver agreements court order naming DFPS as temporary or permanent imagining conservator for prek registration only DFPS issues a letter or other official documentations. Receiving and properly handling 2085s forms is critical for compliance and collaboration. It ensures that the right people are informed and involved in decisions that directly impact a child's education, helping schools provide stability and support for students in foster care. We do also have some examples of nonacceptable documentation. The following
016documents cannot be used to code students in foster care and pe. They are placement authorization forms or letters from child placement agencies, memorandums or letters on DFPS letterhead except for prek verification or home and community based services and that would be the form 8665. Students with these documents may or may not be in DFPS conservatorship. If they are, they will also have a 2085 form. Students with the following documents are not in DFPS managing conservatorship. These are authorization agreements for non-parent parent relatives or voluntary caregivers. agreements for parent child safety placement documents showing conservatorship under other parties court or legal paperwork naming somebody other than DFPS as a legal representative a custodial parent. This also includes documents from other states child welfare system. A reminder here, only students in the Texas DFPS management conservatorship should
017be coded as foster care and peace. And we have two scenarios for you here. The first scenario is if a student leaves foster care within the school year, do they remain coded for the remainder of the school year? The answer is yes. When a student receives the foster care PES indicator coding, the student will remain for the full year and the summer months. If a student remains in foster care, does the foster care indicator carry over to from year to year? The answer is no. The foster care indicator code does not carry from year to year. The students must be recoded at the beginning of the next year. It says schools need to ensure that there are processes in place to reidentif reidentify students who were in foster care in pe the previous year. If
018the student continues to be in foster care, the school will need to ensure the status is updated in PES at the beginning of the year. As a reminder, this is referenced in the foster care guide on page 81. We'll be dropping a link to this guide on the next slide. We provide many resources for foster care information and resources on on our foster care information resource web page. Some I would like to highlight are the foster care and student success guide. It's your go-to comprehensive resource for supporting the education for students in foster care. Additionally, we would like to highlight the school of origin determination one pager enrollment conferences and the ESSA foster care dispute resolution resource. We have provided a QR code which you may use to connect to our foster care information resource
019website to access these resources and I will be placing the link to this page in chat now. The next area we would like to talk about is pregnancy related services which include both compensatory education home instruction or CH high a required academic support for eligible students during prenatal or postnatal periods. a range of optional services such as counseling, health services, transportation, parenting educ and parenting education. These services are designated to address the unique challenges faced by parent uh pregnant and parenting students, ensuring they receive equitable access to education and resources they need to thrive. PRS services are delivered under the following circumstances. When a student is pregnant and attending classes on a district campus. When the pregnancy or prenatal period prevents the student from attending classes on a district campus. When postpartum recovery period prevents
020the students from attending on a district campus. PRS district participation and requirements. District may choose whether to offer PRS program. However, if the district elects to provide PRS, they must also include CHI as a required component. CHI is the only required service under PRS. A district may not code a student as PRS in attendance in the attendance accounting system unless CH high is provided. Optional support services may be offered in addition to CI but they cannot substitute for it. So for the PR purpose and impact pregnancy related services programs are designed to help students maintain academic process uh pro progress receive individualized instruction access support services and stay connected to school. Under Texas Education Code, a student can uh a student is considered at risk of dropping out if they are pregnant or parent. PRS
021addresses the risk through targeted inter interventions that keep students engaged and on track for graduation. PRS is more than a program. It's a system that ensures students facing these challenges have support, resources, and opportunities they need to succeed academically and personally. There we do have a PRS onampus waiver. This waiver allows school systems to offer C high for PRS on district campuses rather than in the home setting. Special education students who qualify for PRS may also receive homebound instruction on campus if the district has an approved onampus instruction waiver. PRS waivers assist school systems in meeting the unique needs of pregnant students while maintaining instructional continuity. By leveraging this option, stu school student schools can create a supportive environment that helps students engage and connect to their education. I will be placing the link to
022our PRS web waiver page in chat. for onampus uh PRS waiver applications they must contain six components. Uh these are required components. The required components are transportation at home services if medically indicated. Uh student teacher ratios no more than 4:1 cannot be computer-based instruction. Students receiving special education services must be serviced by a specialed certified teacher. Additionally, the application must also include the board agenda, meeting or meeting notes where the PRS waiver was approved by the board. The waiver application must contain all needed components. If during the waiver review process any of these components are missing, the waiver application will be returned to the district staff member who submitted the application. If you need assistance with the application, please contact us through the PRS inbox and I will place those inbox uh emails here in
023just a second and I I am your contact that for that. So if you need any assistance with your PRS waiverss, I am here to assist you. >> John, there's some uh comments that the waiver link was not posted. So can you post the >> Yeah, it it there was a technical issue. I tried to post a couple seconds uh a couple times. I'm going to post it now. Thanks, Ann. >> No problem. >> We will get there. >> Okay. So, we do have uh a a couple of moments here. We see some questions that are coming in. Um as a reminder, if you do have questions, it is easier for us to see the questions in the Q&A function because there is a lot of chat um and comments and things like that. So,
024it kind of pushes everything up. Um, but we do have a couple questions. Uh, let's see. And >> and I also just posted our our emails in the chat. Ann? >> Yes. Okay. Um, there is a question from Tamara Henderson. There is a male student whose girlfriend is verified as pregnant. Should their at risk indicator be injured only once the baby is born? Can his indicator be entered prior to birth? I actually know this one, but I'm >> You get that one again? >> Do Can I get this one? >> Yes, of course you can. >> I just answered a technical assistance uh question regarding this. And um Okay. So, PRS uh indicator code only applies to the pregnant students. So it will only apply to female students. So the PRS coding is only for
025the female student who is pregnant. The at risk uh indicator um is for pregnant or a parent. So in this case the female student since she is pregnant um could be coded as an at risk with the indicator but the male student cannot be coded at risk until he becomes the father. So, the child has to be born and then the father can be coded as at risk. >> Did I do good, John? >> You did. You You said it perfectly. Uh, someone made a comment that the PRS waiver link is not working. No, it's not. I just checked it. I'm sorry. We are moving things around at TA. I'm going to post the correct link here momentarily. >> All right. Oh, I got some heart emojis. Emojis. I don't know if it's for me
026or you, John, but we'll take it. Right. >> That was you. That was you. Okay, there's a couple questions here. How can we ensure we have updated 2085 e forms? We have one from 2019 case workers stated we don't need to yearly. John, I'm going to let you have this one. >> Oh, that's that's a great question. And Ian and I can both let you know uh that we we do meet regular with DFPS and they should be providing you a new form annually. If they're not, uh, you should contact them. If you do need assistance, uh, with that, please, uh, email us at our foster care inbox. We can help assist with that. And also to the answer to that is if you do not have a new form that says that they are
027no longer in foster care, even a form that's from a previous year is still valid. But you should receive a new one every year. It's very important. All right, I am responding to that one in there. Okay. Um, there is, let's see, uh, John, this might need a collaboration with Christina Paige, but there is a question from Liz. uh are we able to hold the meeting prior to delivery when we find out the student is pregnant if we are only providing sea high >> so if if you're you're only required if you if you if you're coding the students as PRS and PES the only requirement is cy uh and you can hold the meeting and and I will Christina Paige works with us uh with our pregnancy related services But you can hold the
028meeting at any time uh that it's practical. Uh obviously if the student may be hospitalized, it may not be practical at that moment, but you you should hold it as soon as possible. >> Great. Okay. Um let's see if Oh, I just changed the page on there. >> And a quick reminder, I'm going to post the email uh email addresses again. Uh we will be fielding as many questions as we can today that are pertaining to the content we're presenting today. If we're not able to get to your questions, please email us. We will get back with you shortly. >> Um one more question from Annette. What do they need for proof of residence if they are foster care? Is it needed for immediate enrollment or can it be given the 30-day waiting period? We
029can both answer that one. >> When when a student is in foster care, very often they will not have the needed paperwork. They should receive immediate enrollment. Yes, you do have uh 30 days uh if needed. uh but you should uh obtain the paperwork as soon as possible. But if you get the the form from the guardian, it will actually specify uh that that that's why it's critically important for you to get the proper paperwork when a student's enrolling. But yes, you do you do not it is not required. It is not required in enrollment to have >> Yes, provisional enrollment applies in this case. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. Um if we weren't able to address your questions, uh we do apologize. Um, John did drop the email addresses. We do check our
030email addresses regularly. So, um, we will, um, be able to give more time um, and thoughtfulness into responding to your questions if you send it into our inbox. But, thank you so much for the questions. Um, I'm going to go ahead and let John take over on the next portion. >> Thank you, Ann. So, we would like to now share some updates in our TEI program. We did just have our NIC conference. NIC brought together over 3,000 education professionals from across the country for a 4-day event that included inspirational keynotes. We had an address from our very own OSPS deputy commissioner Christine Maguire and over 100 breakout sessions and network opportunities. If you were able to go to the H conference, could you give us an emoji or put it in chat? Let us know
031who all here was able to attend the conference this year. I was there and Ann was also there. Oh, look. We have a lot. Yay. >> I know. Look at all these emojis. Way to represent the state of Texas, guys. >> It it it was amazing to be there and see all the states that came to Texas. There were so many participants and a lot of conferences have kind of dropped in attendance. This one did not and there was also an online uh conference available. >> Um if you attended virtually give us an emoji. I attended virtually last year and I was able to attend in person this year and it was a complete difference. And so I do encourage you if you are able to for the future to attend this conference in person.
032It is a very unique experience and it's such a great opportunity just to network um within your state but also across the state. John and I had the honor of sitting with Virginia and West Virginia to get to know what they were doing in their state and it was just just an amazing opportunity >> and I thought it was really for for me and it was really um individuals from all areas of the United States and and the common challenges that we face and and seeing how they were able to overcome those challenges for their students. I I thought that was the the best part for me. And it's not just the topics didn't just uh highlight homelessness. Uh if you wear multiple hats, there were um presentations on foster care, uh migrant, like just
033all all types of atrisisk student population. So, it's such a great mix. All right, I'm I'm not going to interrupt you anymore, John. You go ahead. So on our next slide, we're going to be looking at uh November is National Homeless uh Youth Awareness Month. National Humanist Awareness Month is a great opportunity to engage and promote awareness within your school and communities to support students and families experience homelessness. Could anybody if you are doing anything for n November National Homeless Awareness Month, could you put it in chat for us so that we can share it with our colleagues uh to give them ideas on what they maybe could bring to their communities because we have great things that are happening around the state of Texas. And one of the the best opportunities when we have
034these meetings is sharing them so that we can actually spread that throughout state. I see gift card drive. Uh the the worn out welcome mat show the worn out welcome mat Texas. Um today they're having a few distribution for local uh at the local mall. Uh canned food drives are always great. Holiday food drives. I see that we have people that are hosting food drive events. A lot of food drive events. Is anybody doing anything that's addressing uh housing stability or awareness of it? Awesome. A lot of food drives. Very good. Which actually brings us to our next slide. Uh addressing food indic uh insecurity strategies. As we know, we're all educators. Uh Ann is from the school system. I'm from the school system. I was in the school system for 24 years as a
035teacher and administrator. Uh our breaks that we have over Thanksgiving and Christmas can be very difficult for our students who are experiencing uh food insecurity. Some ideas that we have that will help these students because a lot of these students their main access to uh proper nutrition is the food that they receive on our campuses. So, we do have a lot of people already said our food drive. A recommendation is having student volunteers that can help sort food that you receive into piles. Some of our campus might have food pantries or bags of groceries that they can distribute at the district or communities and we we have a lot of those coming in still. Van, >> yeah, before we get into the next part, I saw uh some simulation on homelessness. That's always a very
036powerful strategy to bring awareness. So, kudos. Galveastston ISD co-sponsors an annual holiday food drive with ABC13. Oh my goodness, what an outreach. Um, we have student council members helping with food drive, presenting to principal, superintendent, assistant superintendent. Yes. Get in front of our executive leadership and the district leadership to spread the awareness and the importance of the work that you guys do. I love that you you've got to get in front of your administrators. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, I'm gonna take it over on Teti um a little bit on um our TEI student success and behavior support guide. Got a little judging up on the title there, but on October 1st, TEA re-released uh the discipline uh toolkit. That was the original name. It is now Teti student success and behavior support guide. This
037guide has been updated in light of House Bill 6 and serves to support educators and support staff in addressing behavioral challenges for students experiencing homelessness. If you have already accessed um this updated tool, please give me an emoji to let me know. Um and if you haven't, don't worry, John's dropping the link so that you can download your copy today. Um it Oh, look at all those emojis. Oh my goodness. Yes. Um, it includes practical strategies and collaboration tips for working with families and community members. You can access the guide anytime. We encourage you to download it, share it with your team, and integrate these strategies into your daily practice. On top of this, um, during the NAI conference, uh, Dr. Vamantes, Mary Scott from the discipline team, and myself, we did a presentation there
038on this toolkit. Um and um you can actually access the deck on our TETI web portal, the resource library, and we can drop that link um to you um as soon as John is able to grab it. Um but even if you weren't able to attend the NAI conference, you can still access the deck of our presentation on this toolkit. So, just really excited about the updates that have been made in alignment to um the legislative updates and just how important and impactful this guide can be in supporting our students um who are experiencing homelessness. Oh, I am just popping away. Okay. So, why does discipline in Mckin Vento matter? Just at large youths experiencing homelessness are most commonly referred to these exclusionary discipline. We have our inschool suspension, we have our out school out
039of school suspension and disciplinary alternative education program or DAE. But you um just really alarmingly it's they are experiencing these uh suspensions due to violations of student code of conducts which are the lowest level of disciplinary violations. Now, what does the data say? According to PE's summer 2025, students experiencing homelessness are 2.8 times more likely to be suspended out of school, two times more likely to receive inschool suspension, and five times more likely to be referred to DAE. And if you want to learn more about the PES coding and additional data points, it is in the guide on page nine. All right, at this time let us check to see if there are any questions uh related to Teti here. Nope. No questions. No questions on that. All right, >> we have one from Angie
040in um it's quite lengthy. Angie, can you email this to us and we will get right back with you? >> We I would love to answer this email your question, Angie. So, email it. I'm going to drop our emails again. Please email it to the homeless education inbox. >> Ivonne has a comment. Um, all ass codes were dropped from allowable OSS. in terms of PE's code and chapter 37 uh we would recommend you reach out to the discipline team um and we can coordinate uh that email address with you so that you can um ask uh technical assistance questions related to that. Uh thank you for the update guide. Yes, thank you Jennifer for accessing um the guide and your support. Okay. Okay. So, we are a little ahead of schedule, which is okay because
041as soon as we get through all of our content, if we have any time left, what we'd like to do is, uh, stop the recording after our webinar and hang back and just answer some questions for those who are able to hang back. But, um, if we finish early, we're going to give you the time back, um, because you we know that you are busy and you wear so many hats. So, Oh, Clara Clara says, "John Dobbins is great." Yes, he is. He is. He is wonderful. >> I try. I try. >> Thank you. >> Um, now let's shift our focus to military connected student programs with some updates and insights on how we can continue to support our military connected students across Texas. So, as we move through November, we want to recognize that
042this month is National Veterans and Military Family Appreciation Month. Schools play a vital role in honoring and supporting military connected students and their families, not just on campus, but throughout the broader community. Whether it's through assemblies, care packages, classroom activities, or community partnerships, your efforts matter. So, let's take a moment to celebrate and share. Drop a heart if your school has something planned. Give a thumbs up if you've already host an event or share in the chat what your school, your district or your ESC has done to honor November. We'd love to spotlight your ideas and celebrate the inc Oh my goodness. I can't look at all these emojis. This is so amazing. Um but to to tie that off, we'd love to be able to see uh what you guys are doing across the
043state of Texas celebrating those incredible work that's happening. And so please feel free if you have the time email us any pictures, any news clippings, any flyers that you would like to share. Um, and if you are planning to apply for the 2627 Purple Star Campus designation, remember to keep a folder folder of these artifacts because you can use these as evidence. All right. On this slide, we've highlighted highlighted a few engagement ideas that can help you honor and support our military connected students and families in the community. These uh strategies align beautifully with module five of the purple star rise course and the military initiative resource that John will be dropping in the chat. These offer even more uh resources and tools and inspiration for your campus or the district. If you have taken
044and completed Purple Star Rise, um again, let us know by giving us an emoji. Um whether you're partnering with your local chamber of commerce or hosting events with veter veteran organizations, these efforts that foster connection, appreciation, and a deeper sense of belonging are so important for our military families. And here um is our exciting new resource. Uh let us know if you have seen this resource. Uh it is our national veterans and military families appreciation month toolkit. So we actually released this toolkit um in early October so that it would give an opportunity for our school systems and our uh community partners to be able to uh curate some social media promotions as you are preparing for month of November. And so it includes readytouse social media promotions, graphics and messaging to help schools and
045districts honor military connected students and families throughout November. So, Texas Education Agency in partnership with MSE created this resource to make it easier for educators and communities to engage meaningfully during the this important month. So, I'm going to um give you guys a moment. You can uh access the link that John dropped or you can scan the QR code. It will take you to that toolkit. Um what you will see is for this brand new resource um and we we already know that it's being used across the state. Uh we've seen some social media promotions that are using the templates that we have um recommended and it's very person uh you can personalize it with your school. Um there's some hashtags so that you can see what other schools are doing uh across our state
046of Texas. But we did send out a reminder announcement on October 24th with the links to this toolkit. So this slide previews a few of the toolkits pages. So um what you can see here is the instructions on how to use that tool. Um and then we also have a sample graphics with and without branding and customizable scripts and tags for social media, emails, and newsletters. Again, these tools are designed to make it easy for campuses and districts to promote appreciation efforts in a way that's both meaningful and visible. So, let's hear from you guys. Send us an emoji if you've already used one of our social media promotions from this toolkit. Or drop a note in the chat. We'd love to hear what your campus, your district, or ESC is doing to amplify outreach
047and celebrate military families. Bernice says, "We hosted Veterans Day celebration where we had the military families come in for an assembly and a video presentation of certificates. We also had refreshments, tamales for families to participate in with their children. all classrooms created posters and banners to show appreciation for our military families. Bernice, if you have uh photos of this, we would love to see it. This seems like such an amazing event. Um Lisa shared our interns, one of our military vet, partnered with our noon exchange club and provided flags, stickers, and flyers to all elementary military connected students. They were handd delivered to each principal and delivered to students by Veterans Day. Love this. We have uh Alma, Veterans Video and Veterans Bulletin boards with pictures of our campus family veterans. V uh Annette says
048VRM chapter gave an award to veteran coach to our new Purple Star designated school. Oh, and I also well John shared it with me. ESC2 Gabriel um and all of ESC2 who are in the audience today did a um Veterans Day assembly. Is that what it is? Um, and you were recognizing veterans and there was uh recognition for the Purple Star campus uh that was there, John. Is that right? I got a thumbs up. >> You're you're correct. Yes. Yes, that was ESC2 honoring their veterans and also their campuses work uh through the Purple Star campus as a nation to help support military connected students. And and it's critically important. I know Ann and speaks of it quite a bit. Uh what one of the biggest um factors that will help a family because it
049is a family stay in the military is how their students are welcomed into your community. Uh that if if they if if military members feel that their students are welcomed and well taken care of and receiving an amazing education, they are more likely to continue their service in the military. It is critically important for our nation. It's also important for me. I I've shared it before. I am a veteran. I serve in the United States Army and three of my four children have served in the army and two of them are currently serving and one does have a young daughter and uh so he my granddaughter is a military connected students a student and I just I can't wait if they do have the opportunity to rejoin us in Texas and receive the amazing welcome
050uh great transition programs that everybody's doing uh for my own granddaughter and also their families. I love our comments about how they're including the families because we need our transition to welcome our family military families into the communities also which is the purpose of this month. Sorry, I'll steal it if you >> No, I love it. Um and uh it's also resonated across all these other comments. Francisco hosted Veterans Day celebration. Beno Veterans Day celebration classrooms send care kit to deployed personnel. I love this model. >> Awesome. Uh Debbie Walker, all campuses had Veterans Day programs and recognized all military branches. Oh, I love all this. Yes, we had a video. Dena says, "We had a video with all veterans who wanted to be a part of the video and some veterans show up food
051uh children performance." Um they Jesse Turner did a national anthem, they helped with food. All campuses had Veterans Day events in a parade. I love this. Okay. Um well, we are super excited. This is our MSE Global Training Summit uh recap. This was held in Austin and just wanted to share and shout out Texas leads the way. Um we did not just show up, we showed out. Um everyone just truly amazing. Just wow. Texas truly showed up in a big way. On September 26, we had an incredible opportunity to showcase the strength, dedication, and innovation that's happening across our state in support of our military connected students success. Um, this event was hosted um at the University of Texas campus in Austin. Uh, and this global training summit brought together leaders from across the nation
052and state, including our proud partners at the Military Child Education Coalition, or what you've heard me been referring to as MSE, and also our wonderful ESC Military Champions. This energizing day of learning focused on how technology can be leveraged to better support students in today's fast-paced world. A key highlight was the inspiring address by Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morra, who reaffirmed our state's unwavering commitment to the military connected students and their families. Texas continues to lead the way nationally, and it's all because of you. We cannot do this work without your passion, your partnership, and the belief in what's possible. And you'll see a few uh images here with our commissioner and our leaders uh from MSE and also from our TEA. And um it was such an inspiring event. But on top of
053that, we made uh available a um specialized pre-conference professional development day the day before this event. So September 25th um in we had our newly formed network of voluntary ESC military connected champions. So these champions that you see here um on the screen are dedicated to advancing support for military connected students across Texas and their collaboration is helping shape resilient wellsupported learning environments statewide. This effort showcase Texas's leadership in innovative partnerships and meaningful change. a true model for the nation. Do you know who your ESC military champion is? And if you do or um send us an emoji or put a heart if you are one of our ESC military champions that's in the audience today. I see a heart. I see a thumbs up. Some more hearts. Yes. Let's celebrate the leadership and dedication
054of these champions who are helping Texas lead the way. If you have questions about services, strategies, supports for our military connected students, we have such an amazing group of ESC military champions who are eager to help you and we work very closely with them. So, uh, if you have Oh, yes. Ida said Tanya Ray. Yes, she she >> Tanya is amazing. They are a wonderful group and we are so blessed to be able to have such strong leadership in Texas for military connected students. >> We also saw Gabriel here earlier. >> Oh, I Gabriel was there. We love Gabriel and Angie was also in our audience. Okay, so on this screen micro video series supporting military connected students. Okay, so much celebration already and there's even more celebrations to share. We're excited to unveil brand
055new four-part micro video series designed to support both educators and families in understanding and meeting the needs of military connected students. These short, impactful videos offer practical strategies and insights across four key areas: military culture and lifestyles, military families relocating to Texas, military connected students with exceptional and special needs, and supporting military families. This is a powerful outreach tool you can share with your stakeholders to build awareness and strengthen support systems. We'll be dropping the link in the chat so you can explore the series and share it widely. And you can also scan the QR code here as well. And um when we say four topics, uh just to clarify each of these four topics, there is going to be two videos. one that's geared for educators and one that's geared for families. So, they're
056getting the perspective on both ends. And I would encourage you to even view the family videos if you are an educator. Um, having perspectives of both sides of it helps to really support the whole child. Thank you, Amada, for joining. She's got to jump off. Okay, as a quick reminder, our Purple Star Campus Support PLC series is in full swing. So far, we've covered Purple Star designated what's next and also identifying military connected students. The recordings and slide decks for these sessions are available on the TEA website. Upcoming sessions include developing a purple star advisory committee, and this is coming up next week, guys, November 19th. Um, and then we have two that's in the spring, activities and event planning and also preparing for redesignation. Be sure to register and join us. We're here to
057support your journey every step of the way. And John just dropped the uh link to the flyer where you can find the registration link. Oh, there's the title. It just m it was missing there for a second. Okay. Um All right. Similarly, we have had great turnouts for our military professional developments in the fall. We had our supporting military children through school transitions um the foundations of it. That was um in end of August. And then we recently held our collegebound financial aid and college preparations for military families. And that was early um this month. Um we have two left that's upcoming in the spring. Um we serve two national guard and reserve children that's coming up uh in February and then we have when military service ends supporting the children of veterans. So that's
058going to be at the end of March and John if you're able to drop uh the link uh to that. >> I will. Yes. >> Okay. All right. So, moving forward, lastly, I'm excited to share an incredible opportunity for uh you guys. This is the first ever statewide military connected student support summit. That was a mouthful. Um it is a free full day event. Uh it's going to take place Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at Region 20 ESC, San Antonio, Texas. The summit is designed to bring together educators, administrators, and stakeholders from across the state to share best practices, explore innovative strategies, and strengthen support systems for military connected youth. We hope you'll be able to save the date and plan to join us for this inaugural gathering as we work together to elevate support for
059our military families. And John's going to drop the um the summit marketing flyer into the chat for you where you'll be able to go and read more about the sessions that are planned um for this and um also the registration link. Um Darcy uh was the collegebound PD recorded? No, unfortunately um the PD uh sessions they are not recorded. Um but there is a link to the Padlet um in which all the links that was shared during that um that webinar uh we can share that with you. So John, can you make a note for me to send that to Darcy? >> Yes, I will. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Uh moment of reflection. So let's see if we have any questions. No questions in there. Do we have any questions in the chat on
060military or >> We don't have any questions in chat currently. >> Okay. All right. Well, we'll have an opportunity at the end. We are ahead of schedule, so we anticipate we'll be able to hang on a little bit after. So, I'm going to go ahead and we are going to go into our last section of our webinar, but please remember to stay on until the very end. Our CPE certificates will only be provided to those who attended live and complete the end of the webinar survey. So, at this time, I'm going to hand it over to John for some reminders and then we'll get to the survey link. >> Thank you, Ann. Uh, as we go on to our last session of webinar, please Oh, you already got that one, Dan. Thank you. Uh, we
061want to remind you to access the HMAR program event calendar for the 20 2025 2026 school year so that you don't miss any of our upcoming webinars. I'm going to be dropping the link to this now. And as we see our next one will be February 5th. So sign up and also share that with anybody who you think would like to join us. We also have on the same site we have program event calendars for TEI foster care and military connected services uh students. Please share all four of these calendars with relevant staff members so that they can attend the trainings also. And and don't forget if you're here, any staff member that you think would gain information from our webinars, please send them uh this information. Finally, we would like to remind you to
062subscribe to uh to receive updates. You can receive updates for at risk and highly mobile student programs, also foster care and student support, uh, McKenna Vento homeless education, military connected students, and also pregnancy programs. On this slide, we do have a QR code if you want to access our emails that we are posting a lot because we love to get we love to get your emails to help support you. Uh so please do email us with any questions. We do have four email inboxes that you can email to. We have for homeless education, foster care, military connected and also pregnancy related services. >> Okay. >> And I'm posting those again. >> Yep. As John is posting that um we are here at the very end of our webinar. We shared a lot of information, lots
063of links, lots of tools. So, we wanted to have an opportunity to just wrap up everything, summarize it in a key takeaway sort of list. So, as a reminder, um, for HMER, ensure your school system is making plans to support HMR students during the holiday season. For our atrisisk resource, ensure that staff have the training and resources need to accurately code PES so students and foster care receive stability and supports needed. and also PRS waiver applications need all the required information and documentation for approval for our TETI. Remember that November is National Homeless Youth Awareness Month for military professional development opportunities including PLC's and purple star rise TA learn course and also our spring 2026 military connected student support summit for our resource our HME promotional video. We have our foster care essa tools promotional
064video. We had our updated TETI student success and behavior support guide and for military our national veterans and military families appreciation toolkit and our eight military micro videos. So at this time I'm going to