Behavioral Threat Assessments Training

 School Behavioral Threat Assessments: Train-the-Educator Training Coming in May

The Iowa Department of Education in collaboration with the Iowa School Safety Alliance will be hosting school behavioral threat assessment training that is part of developing comprehensive school emergency operations plans. The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, is offering a one day Train-the-Educator training designed to familiarize schools and school districts with school behavioral threat assessments in preventing and reducing targeted violence at K-12 schools.

Topics covered include how a threat assessment team can be integrated into the broader framework of school safety, security, emergency management and preparedness put forth in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans.

The intended audiences for this training are school administrators, teachers, counselors, support staff, community partners such as law enforcement and school resource officers, and representatives from community groups.

This is a great way to improve safety efforts in your school. The course is FREE and will be held on May 1, 2018 at Heartland AEA, 6500 Corporate Drive in Johnston from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Due to limited seating, it is important to register soon. Registration closes on April 24. Register for this training session online at this link.

Great learning opportunity!

Connecting standards to students' future success
Join us for this opportunity to discover your role in advancing Future Ready Iowa. This one-day event will set the stage for future work aimed at connecting careers and civic life to instruction of the Iowa Academic Standards. It is designed for curriculum leaders including members of statewide leadership teams, administrators, curriculum directors, teacher leaders, and teachers. Future Ready Learning is on June 13 at the FFA Center on the DMACC Ankeny Campus from 9:00-3:30. Register today.
The workplace Iowa’s students will enter will be very different from today’s workplace. The Des Moines Register’s David Chivers will kick-off the day asking and answering the question, “Why is future ready learning important for Iowa’s students and educators?” National keynote Joe Fuller from Harvard Business School will discuss current labor statistics and coming trends. In addition, Gary Beach from the Wall St. Journal will moderate a panel of business and community leaders about future skills and market needs. At the Iowa Business Council Educator Career Fair, business representatives will share career options and what Iowa’s top employers will be looking for when they hire. Participants will collaborate in teams to connect academic standards to opportunities for students in business and community life. Finally, educators connecting careers and civic life to academic standards will share their secrets of success.
For more information, contact Erika Cook at erika.cook@iowa.gov or (515) 240-3103 or Rita Martens at rita.martens@iowa.gov or (515) 281-3145.

Iowa Youth Survey Registration is open

College Signing Day is coming up!!!

College Signing Day 2018  As many of you may know, May 1st is the date by which many high school seniors have to let colleges know where they plan to attend in the fall. For the fifth year, Reach Higher is encouraging schools and communities to host College Signing Day to recognize students’ hard work. College Signing Day will be widely celebrated this year during the first week of May! Check out our website, and download our College Signing Day toolkit for helpful information on how to host your College Signing Day event. We’ve also provided a webinar to assist you in planning your celebration.   Through the support of the College Football Playoff Foundation, we will be giving away $100,000 in microgrants to public school teachers. Teachers must (1) register their College Signing Day event on www.bettermakeroom.org/college-signing-day/; (2) create a College Signing Day project on DonorsChoose.org; and (3) email the link to their College Signing Day project on DonorsChoose.org to reachhigher@civicnation.org to be eligible for a microgrant to support their event. Last year, we had more than 1,500 registered events nationwide. This year, we hope that even more partners will join the movement to shine a spotlight on those students who make a commitment to pursue a postsecondary education. Register at bettermakeroom.org to let us know about your event and to receive information that will help make this your best College Signing Day yet. Make sure to follow @ReachHigher and @BetterMakeRoom for more updates, and don’t forget to use #CollegeSigningDay, #ReachHigher, and #BetterMakeRoom in your social media posts! We can’t wait to celebrate your students this spring.

We're hosting a Twitter chat with the American College Application Campaign on March 20th at 3:00 pm EST /12:00 pm PST. We'll be discussing College Signing Day preparation. We'd love for you to join the conversation! Hosts: Better Make Room (@BetterMakeRoom), Reach Higher (@ReachHigher), and American College Application Campaign (@American_CAC) Hashtag: #SigningDayChat Topic: Tips for Hosting a College Signing Day Event Many schools and communities will host a College Signing Day (or Decision Day) event on or around May 1 to celebrate seniors selecting which college they will attend. The goal of the #SigningDayChat is to share best practices for planning and organizing an event. Learn from fellow college access professionals and national partners who have successfully organized events to celebrate their seniors. Target audience/purpose: School counselors, college access professionals, college advisers, and program directors at youth-serving organizations. To help practitioners prepare as they celebrate students taking this critical step. Want the #SigningDayChat questions in advance? Send us an email at bettermakeroom@civicnation.org. Introducing swampED For eight years, President Obama made the White House a place that brought people together -- incredible students, parents, principals, district leaders, school counselors, teachers, college presidents, professors, business leaders, and more. And after January 2017, the inspiring stories we heard and the incredible people we met no longer had a place to share their experiences and ideas with folks across the country. Now they do, thanks to the new education podcast swampED, hosted by three former Obama White House staffers, Eric Waldo, Stephanie Sprow Owens, and Kyle Lierman. These stories constantly remind and inspire us of people’s commitment to education. It is the ultimate bedrock of our society, one that people are passionately fighting to make better. At the White House, we were fortunate to get to shine a spotlight on some of those incredible education advocates. We want to continue to shine that spotlight and talk about what’s working and how others can get involved, and hopefully be inspired along the way. We hope you’ll join us. Guests include former Secretary of Education, John B. King, Jr; the 2018 School Counselor of the Year, Kirsten Perry; chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Catherine Lhamon; and the CEO of College Advising Corps, Nicole Hurd. swampED is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. Subscribe, download, and rate it today. Follow @swampEDpod on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Note: This podcast is not formally affiliated with Reach Higher, Better Make Room, or Civic Nation.

Anti-Bullying Investigations

The Iowa Department of Education has developed a document designed to assist schools in meeting their obligation to respond to bullying allegations in a prompt, thorough, and effective manner. Districts and nonpublic schools can access the document to determine how their processes and procedures align with expectations.

Bullying Checklist - District

Investigation Training available at AEA Learning Online coming soon.