It's All About You! LSSCA 2nd Annual Conference
By LSSCA | September 2017
LSSSCA is proud to present its 2nd Annual School Counselor Conference “It’s All About YOU!” November 5-7, 2017 in Frisco, TX. The event will offer more than 75 quality breakout sessions presented and designed for school counselors and more than 40 exhibitors eager to meet Texas school counselors. Register now at www.ncyi.org/lssscac or via our website, www.lonestarstateschoolcounselor.org.
Advocacy Update
By Wes Upton, LSSSCA Advocacy Chair
I hope summer has provided an opportunity for each of us to reflect, recharge, and refocus our efforts to be the best school counselors possible, while prioritizing self-care.
A great set of resources for school counselors to reference are the ASCA Position Statements. These statements are powerful advocacy tools for the role of the school counselor in conversing with administrators, parents, teachers, and community members on a range of common or difficult topics. Take a moment to review those that may be helpful for you and bookmark these for reference as need arises. Here is a link to the ASCA Position Statements: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/about-asca-(1)/position-statements
LSSSCA hosted its first Advocacy Day in April. A strong team of counselors enjoyed multiple meetings with our elected officials to promote the legislative priorities of school counselors in Austin. A special thank you goes out to Kathryn Everest and Dr. Selma Yznaga who helped prepare our attendees by providing a brief training in Austin prior to our visits with our legislators.
Governor Abbott called a special session following the wrap-up of the 85th Legislative Session, where he outlined 20 key items for the special session. In these 20, several items pertain specifically to education in Texas, including items related to school choice for special needs students. School finance reform and educator pay also are items specifically outlined by the governor.
We left Austin in April confident that legislation was not moving forward that might have diverted money from public education to fund vouchers, education saving accounts or other entities without providing accountability and services to all students. The opposition to this type of action is a key priority for LSSSCA and for several other teacher, parent, and administrator organizations.
Please monitor progress of the special session and reach out to your elected officials in Austin, their home offices, and through phone calls or letters to express your advocacy for our students and our profession. Please feel free to contact us at anytime with questions, ideas, or suggestions to support school counselors across Texas.
Lone Star State Awards
Are you ready to drive your counseling program to the next level? Show your stakeholders that you are committed to delivering a comprehensive and data-driven school counseling program: apply for the Lone Star State Award.
The Lone Star State Award recognizes effective and outstanding school counseling programs in Texas. The award has Bronze, Silver and Gold (coming in 2018) levels. Each is designed to prepare school counselors to apply for the national ASCA RAMP recognition.
Benefits of the Lone Star State Award:
For details on the simple, five-step electronic process, visit the LSSSCA website:
http://www.lonestarstateschoolcounselor.org/lone-star-awards.html
Bronze Applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/9zeIU5OX3OXYUgRV
Silver Applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/VS4PQoUuIEj703Qo2
| Keynote Speaker John Hodge Focused on student achievement and reduction of the achievement gap |
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| Pre-Conference & Featured Breakout Speakers Amie Dean PBIS - Behavior Interventions that Work |
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| Lisa King Coleman Teaching Growth Mindset in Schools |
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| Russ Sabella Enhancing Your DatAbility and Technology Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts for Counselors |
Advocacy Update
By Wes Upton, LSSSCA Advocacy Chair
I hope summer has provided an opportunity for each of us to reflect, recharge, and refocus our efforts to be the best school counselors possible, while prioritizing self-care.
A great set of resources for school counselors to reference are the ASCA Position Statements. These statements are powerful advocacy tools for the role of the school counselor in conversing with administrators, parents, teachers, and community members on a range of common or difficult topics. Take a moment to review those that may be helpful for you and bookmark these for reference as need arises. Here is a link to the ASCA Position Statements: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/about-asca-(1)/position-statements
LSSSCA hosted its first Advocacy Day in April. A strong team of counselors enjoyed multiple meetings with our elected officials to promote the legislative priorities of school counselors in Austin. A special thank you goes out to Kathryn Everest and Dr. Selma Yznaga who helped prepare our attendees by providing a brief training in Austin prior to our visits with our legislators.
Governor Abbott called a special session following the wrap-up of the 85th Legislative Session, where he outlined 20 key items for the special session. In these 20, several items pertain specifically to education in Texas, including items related to school choice for special needs students. School finance reform and educator pay also are items specifically outlined by the governor.
We left Austin in April confident that legislation was not moving forward that might have diverted money from public education to fund vouchers, education saving accounts or other entities without providing accountability and services to all students. The opposition to this type of action is a key priority for LSSSCA and for several other teacher, parent, and administrator organizations.
Please monitor progress of the special session and reach out to your elected officials in Austin, their home offices, and through phone calls or letters to express your advocacy for our students and our profession. Please feel free to contact us at anytime with questions, ideas, or suggestions to support school counselors across Texas.
Lone Star State Awards
Are you ready to drive your counseling program to the next level? Show your stakeholders that you are committed to delivering a comprehensive and data-driven school counseling program: apply for the Lone Star State Award.
The Lone Star State Award recognizes effective and outstanding school counseling programs in Texas. The award has Bronze, Silver and Gold (coming in 2018) levels. Each is designed to prepare school counselors to apply for the national ASCA RAMP recognition.
Benefits of the Lone Star State Award:
- Promotion your school counseling program proactively to all stakeholders
- Acknowledgment that your program is delivering services that support student achievement through the ASCA National Model components
- Advocacy for your school counseling program
- Recognition at LSSSCA’s Annual Conference in Frisco, Texas in November.
- A banner to display at your school.
For details on the simple, five-step electronic process, visit the LSSSCA website:
http://www.lonestarstateschoolcounselor.org/lone-star-awards.html
Bronze Applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/9zeIU5OX3OXYUgRV
Silver Applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/VS4PQoUuIEj703Qo2