News
Texas Support for Homeless Education Program (TEXSHEP) 2007 Spring Training Conference
The TEXSHEP Spring Training Conference has exceeded capacity and registration is closed. No additional participants will be accepted, and there is no space for walk-in attendees.
If you have any questions, please contact the THEO office at 512-475-9709.
The 2007 Texas Homeless Education Spring Training Conference for TEXSHEP subgrantees, TMVBI subgrantees, and other interested school districts and homeless service providers will be held February 28 to March 2, 2007, in Austin, Texas at the Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown (currently the Capitol Place Hotel):
500 North IH-35, Austin, TX 78701, 512-480-8181, www.cpaustinhotel.com.
All subgrantee districts are required to send at least one person to all of the conference sessions. There is limited space available for non-subgrantee school districts and service providers on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are not a subgrantee district or service center and would like to attend the conference, please contact Barbara James at 512-475-8765 or via email at babawawa@mail.utexas.edu to make sure that there is space available for your district or agency to attend.
All conference participants must complete two steps in order to register for the 2007 Texas Homeless Education Spring Training Conference:
- Conference Registration
- Hotel Registration
Conference Registration
There is a $259 registration fee for all training conference participants. All conference participants must register for the conference on the Region 10 Education Service Center website at www.region10.org.
Once you are at the Region 10 website, complete the following steps to register for the conference:
- Click on the "login" button. For those that have not already created an account, please click create an account. For those that created an account for the fall conference, please click on login.
- Please note: Your username will be the email address you used when registering.
- Please follow the directions as listed. Please note: If your district is not listed, call Elizabeth Winford at 972-348-1592.
- Once you have created an account, please log into the system.
- Click on Register for a Class (middle of the page).
- Please search using only the following in the title line (no date is needed): TEXSHEP
- Click on TEXSHEP Spring Conference.
- In RED you will see Register for this Event, please click on this.
- Submit your request.
You should receive a confirmation via email within 24 hours. If, at any time, the system gives you trouble, please don't hesitate to email Elizabeth at Elizabeth.winford@region10.org or call at 972-348-1592.
Subgrantees, school districts and service providers are responsible for paying all costs associated with this training, including registration, hotel fees, food expenses, travel, taxi, parking, and other miscellaneous expenses. McKinney-Vento subgrantees may use grant funds for this purpose.
Registration must be completed online for this event.
Hotel Registration
All conference participants must also register individually for their own hotel rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown. The hotel website does not have instructions for registering for this conference. Reservations must be made by conference participants by calling the hotel directly at 1-800-684-7241 or 1-877-782-9444 and asking for the Reservation Department. When making the reservation, participants must identify themselves as having a group rate at the Capitol Place Hotel Austin (Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Austin) for the TEXSHEP Grantee Training; otherwise the reservation agent will be unable to confirm rate at the special rate.
The hotel room rate for the conference is $85.00/night for singles and $115.00/night for doubles.
Reservations must be received on or before the Cut-Off Date: Friday, February 9, 2007. After this date, the hotel may release any guestrooms that have not been reserved.
The hotel requires that all reservations be guaranteed. Reservations may be guaranteed by major credit card equal to one night's room and tax. Cancellations must be made seventy-two (72) hours prior to arrival in order to avoid a charge for the first night. Reservations can only be canceled by calling the hotel directly and obtaining a cancellation number. Cancellations after this time will result in applicable room rate and tax being charged to the credit card on file of the party that made the reservation.
All rooms shall be available for check-in no later than 3:00 PM with a check-out time of 12:00 PM.
Since the conference begins at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 28th, participants may want to consider arriving in Austin on the previous day, Tuesday, February 27.
Tentative Agenda
Wednesday and Thursday (February 28 and March 1) will be split into two half-day sessionsómorning and afternoon.
The Wednesday morning (February 28) session will be dedicated to working with the grantees on evaluation strategies for improving their programs, including measurement of objectives and using data for ongoing improvement. This will be facilitated by a person with a strong evaluation background but who has a great deal of experience in field work with social service agencies or programs as opposed to research or institutional evaluation programs.
The Wednesday afternoon session will focus on cultural competency in talk with adults and children experiencing homelessness. Our words affect our thinking; our thinking affects our talk. Understanding socially, mentally, and personally, how language shapes our attitudes, and those of our listeners, will support our abilities as effective, focused service and program designers and providers. Participants will learn about the role of language in homelessness work. Through interactive discussion, role-playing and group action, participants will develop specific linguistic and interactive strategies to maximize cultural competency, build rapport, and empower our communication.
Thursday morning (March 1) will focus on special education. When students experiencing homelessness have disabilities, the challenges to address the specialized needs of the child or youth while adhering to the intent of both the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004) and the McKinney-Vento Act can become extremely complex. This session will highlight the legal rights of students under McKinney-Vento and IDEA, including the 2004 amendments and up-dates regarding the U.S. Department of Education IDEA regulations. The workshop will offer participants an opportunity to share promising practices and identify resources that can assist educators and other service providers. Using a case study approach, participants will identify potential challenges and solutions, including actions, key collaborators, and resources for effective service provision to this unique subgroup of students and their families.
Thursday afternoon will focus on unaccompanied youth. There are procedural and legal issues that persistently create barriers for students who are homeless and are attempting to enroll in school--When can the school district require parent or guardian signatures--for enrollment, sports, field trips, assessments, other activities? What options are there when the youth is unaccompanied? When the youth is both unaccompanied and homeless? What are the options for obtaining authorization for medical care, for obtaining governement issued IDs, and for leasing or making housing arrangements? What about entitlement services for unaccompanied youth--SSI, food stamps, financial assistance of any kind? What services can a youth access without parental permission--Job Corps, mental/dental health, eye care, drug abuse treatment? What financial aid is available for college or post HS training without parental signature? Who assists unaccompanied youth with college and other program applications, including application fees? This session will be led by personnel from local Austin service providers, including LifeWorks and the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS).
Friday morning (March 2) will provide participants an opportunity for structured sharing focusing on best practices themes and also for them to share with other projects of similar size. This will also be a time for helping projects finalize their plans for the mid-year reviews.