Course to College

If you haven't signed up your school for Course to College - there is still time!!! This is one of the greatest initiatives out there!!! 

Course to College is a program that consists of five initiatives - Application Campaign, FAFSA Completion, Decision Day, Summer Transition and Early Awareness. For this, Iowa College Aid hosts a weekly call on various topics throughout the school year and sends out a weekly update email with links in it that lead to other resources, webinars, etc. The call schedule is every Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this great program, you can sign up at any time during the year! Registration Link

Spread the Word!

Counselors - Please share this information with your students!! A great opportunity to learn and share!!

RISE!! An innovative education conference, RISE provides a stage to the voice of our students with the support of our educators. This student leadership conference includes a variety of sessions including keynotes from educators and leaders from all over the country and is followed by breakout sessions in the afternoon. We welcome students of all ages throughout Iowa to come and make their voice heard in this annual student education conference.

IowaSLI's RISE Student Leadership Conference will take place from 9:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, November 10th. Register now for free. Students, educators, and community members welcome.

CCR Academy - New course!

Our first class ended up with over 80 folks enrolled - if you missed it - here's your shot!!!

October 18, 2018

Fall college & career readiness course expanded Due to high demand, the Iowa College & Career Readiness Academy has added an additional session of 101: Foundations of College and Career Readiness in Iowa. The course runs November 12 through December 30 and provides an overview of the current state of college and career readiness in Iowa. 101 is a prerequisite for all other Academy classes. Register today! The Iowa College & Career Readiness Academy is the state’s premier college and career readiness training program. Iowa College Aid offers the Academy in partnership with AEA Iowa, the Iowa Department of Education and the Iowa School Counselor Association. This suite of facilitated online courses is perfect for administrators, school counselors and college access professionals. Participants can earn professional certification as well as license renewal or graduate credit. Find more information, including course descriptions, here.

Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention Training Available

New Module Now Available: Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention

As of yesterday, the Training System features a new module on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.  This module meets the requirement set forth in Senate File 2113, requiring all districts to provide a one-hour training in this area to faculty starting July 1 of 2019.  More specifically, the code states: By July 1, 2019, the board of directors of a school district shall require annual, evidence-based training at least one hour in length on suicide prevention and postvention for all school personnel who hold a license, certificate, authorization, or statement of recognition issued by the board of educational examiners and who have regular contact with students in kindergarten through grade twelve. Participants can find the training by searching the catalog for any of the terms in the title: While the training is live, more formal information about the training provided by the statewide team--who developed the training--will be forthcoming in November.  A big thank you to the work that group did in preparing a high-quality training well before the code-mandated deadline. Reminder: District Pages This is another great opportunity to mention our district page feature, since that is an item on the new Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention training.  Within our system, you can customize any statewide training with your own district-specific information.  You will specifically want to do so for this training. To do so, the person doing the customization must have Developer access, and thus see the DEV tab at the top, next to the ADMIN tab.  Please contact us at support@aealearningonline.org if you need to have that access added to your account. With this access, you will search for the course you are customizing and click the District Page button.  On the next page, you will select the district page you want to edit (there currently is only page 35 in the training).  You will then have a chance to edit that page.  Whatever you put in there, all employees of your district--and your district only--will see that content instead of the generic disclaimer that normally appears on page 35.  And much like Bloodborne Pathogens, you can either type in directly or link out to an external document the information that is specific to your district, including any contact people for the district. But, what if you want to add information in a different location in the training, and there isn't a district page there?  No problem.  Just contact us at our support email and we can add that district page wherever you would like. For more information, please check out page 5 of our Developer Tutorial at http://bit.ly/developertutorial.  Also, feel free to contact us at support@aealearningonline.org for additional questions.

Children's Mental Health Listening Posts

Iowans Invited to Give Input on Children's Mental Health Services in October

Iowans are invited to provide input on children’s mental health needs at regional listening posts scheduled statewide beginning Oct. 2. 

The listening posts will be hosted by Iowa’s Area Education Agencies on behalf of the Children’s System State Board established by Gov. Kim Reynolds through Executive Order 2 in April. The board is co-chaired by Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven and Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise. Board members will review information gathered from the listening posts as part of their charge to develop recommendations to create a children’s mental health system. The recommendations are due to the legislature on Nov. 15. 

Listening post details are as follows: 

Oct. 2, 2018 
6 - 7:30 p.m.

Northwest AEA 

940 Lincoln St. SW, LeMars 

Oct. 3, 2018 
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Prairie Lakes AEA 

500 NE 6th St., Pocahontas 

Oct. 8, 2018 
5:30 to 7 p.m.

Heartland AEA 

6500 Corporate Dr., Johnston 

Oct. 8, 2018 
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Fairfield Arts & Convention Center (Great Prairie AEA)

200 North Main St., Fairfield 

Oct. 10, 2018 
5:30 to 7 p.m.

Green Hills AEA 

257 Swan St., Creston 

Oct. 10, 2018 
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Carrie Lee Elementary Auditorium (Keystone AEA)

210 Vernon St., Decorah 

Oct. 10, 2018 
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Central Rivers AEA 

9184 265th St., Suite B, Clear Lake 

Oct. 11, 2018 
6 to 7:30 p.m.

Grant Wood AEA 

4401 6th St. SW, Cedar Rapids 

Oct. 11, 2018 
5:30 to 7 p.m.

Mississippi Bend AEA 

729 21st St., Bettendorf 

Iowa families who are unable to participate in the listening posts may provide input online in the following ways: 

• An online survey. The survey deadline is Oct. 12. 
• An online listening post will run from noon to 1 p.m. on Oct. 4. 
To join from a computer, visit: https://zoom.us/j/290354386 
To join by phone, call 1-646-876-9923. When prompted, enter meeting code 290-354-386. 

For more information about the Children’s System State Board, visit the Iowa Department of Human Services’ website.

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Many of you have heard great things about YMHFA. This is a fantastic opportunity to refine your skills!! Please mark your calendars and plan to attend a session at Heartland!
Dates available:

10/18   8-4:30 Course number DL022692111902

12/6     8-4:30 Course number to come

1/28     8-4:30 Course number to come

2/5       8-4:30 Course number to come

3/1       8-4:30 Course number to come

4/9       8-4:30 Course number to come

For more information, see this document and for talking points about YMHFA, click here.