National News and Info for School Counselors

New & Noteworthy

National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week: National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW) is an annual, community level program that takes place March 20-26, 2016 to highlight understanding and education around inhalant abuse prevention and poison prevention. Learn more about this week. NSHSS Conference Grant Offering: NSHSS, in collaboration with ASCA, is pleased to offer three $1,000 grants to enable ASCA members to attend the 2016 annual conference in New Orleans, July 9-12. The funds may be used to defray the costs of conference registration, travel and accommodations. Applications will be accepted through March 31, 2016. To apply, register as an educator online. Click the Grants link at the top of your dashboard after you log in. If you are already registered as an educator with NSHSS, log in to your dashboard to apply for the grant. Grant recipients will be announced in April. FAFSA Completion Challenge: NCAN is delighted to announce the FAFSA Completion Challenge, an opportunity for 20 U.S. cities to receive grants of $55,000 to lead a cross-sector FAFSA completion strategy and raise FAFSA completion rates for the high school senior class of 2017. The grant application deadline is April 15. For full details, click here. Office of Minority Health Grant Opportunities: The Office of Minority Health (OMH) administers grant programs to support projects that implement innovative models to improve minority health and reduce health disparities. OMH currently has two funding opportunity announcements for which applications are being accepted. Communities Addressing Childhood Trauma (ACT) Program and Re-Entry Community Linkages (RE-LINK) program.  Learn more. Global Youth Service Day: Established in 1988, Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is April 15-17, 2016, and celebrates and mobilizes the millions of young people who improve their communities through service. GYSD is the largest service event in the world and the only one dedicated to the contributions that children and youth make 365 days of the year. Learn how you can get involved. College Signing Day: Two years ago, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her Reach Higher Initiative to encourage students to complete their education beyond high school. On April 26, 2016, she will celebrate Reach Higher’s anniversary and wants you to wear your college gear all day to support National College Signing Day. Share pictures of you, your office, your schools and your friends representing your alma maters with the hashtags #ReachHigher and #BetterMakeRoom. Click here to learn how you can host your own signing day event. Dermatology Scholarship Opportunity: Valeant Dermatology Scholarship Program will award scholarships of up to $10,000 each to nine individual students who will be attending an undergraduate or graduate education program during the 2016-2017 school year. Learn more or apply. Free Tools to Keep Students Healthy: ACE is helping kick germs out of the classroom with free resources like an animated video, teacher-created lessons and more to help keep students healthy.Watch the full video, lesson plans, workshops, and get more information. Connecting Kids to Coverage Campaign: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Connecting Kids to Coverage Campaign is a national initiative to reach and enroll families with eligible children and teens in free or low-cost health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The campaign provides resources to raise awareness of these programs such as customizable print materials, outreach videos, webinars and social media communications tools you can use to to help you organize and conduct successful outreach activities in your community. Learn more or get involved. Bring Computer Science into your K-12 Classroom with Code.org: Your students are already glued to computers, games, and apps. If you want the skills to teach how tech works and how to take part in building it, you can introduce computer science to your classroom with Code.org curriculum and professional learning for educators of all backgrounds.  Access curriculum and learn more about in-person workshops. Tips for Student-Athletes and Their Families: From registering with eligibility centers to signing a letter of intent, the college application process is different for student-athletes.  The "Get in the Game" brochure breaks down the process into 10 steps to help student-athletes identify a college where they can pursue both their athletic and academic interests.  Read it here. 11 Million Hispanic Children in Need: Meeting the needs of the growing Hispanic population requires an understanding of the lives of the 11.1 million U.S. Latino children living in, or near, poverty. A new brief from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families examines the number and household circumstances of these children, noting the proportion who are served by some of the social service programs intended for them. An infographic highlights these findings.  Restorative Justice Practices and Bullying Prevention: States and districts are increasingly in support of policies and practices that shift school discipline away from zero tolerance, such as suspension and expulsion, to discipline that is focused on teaching and engagement. To this effort, districts and states are rethinking discipline and adopting both restorative justice practices (RJP) and bullying prevention (BP) as schoolwide efforts to provide school staff with a set of preventative and responsive strategies to supporting positive student behaviors. Click here to read more. School Safety: Highly publicized incidents of school-related violence capture our attention, but the bigger picture is decidedly more complex. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released their 17th annual report on school crime and safety. In general, school environments are becoming safer for children. Read more. 2016 National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week: As national events continue to illuminate the critical need for mental health care reform in this country, it becomes more important to increase efforts to educate the nation about the importance of prevention and early identification of mental health challenges. Please join the national dialogue and complete the event submission form with information about the events and activities you will be holding in your community for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week (May 1- May 7, 2016). Your event details will be posted on the website and social media outlets to share with thousands of families and mental health advocates across the nation. Submit your event here.