Irving ISD Counseling @Counseling_IISD

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Day after day, week after week, month after month, you show up and make a difference.

• October 3rd-School Day ACT
• October 5th-Parent Conferences
• October 6th-9th Teacher Holiday
• October 8th-13th- Senior Transcript Swap Week
• October 11th-Counseling Advisory Meeting
• October 17th- Lead Counselor Meeting
• October 18th-New Counselor Meeting
• October 22nd-24th-LSSSCA Conference
• October 23nd-October 27th-Red Ribbon Week
• October 25th- TSCA CREST Awards Application Due
• October 27th-Counselor PLC Meeting
• October 28th-Go Irving Event

Go Irving will be done a little differently this year. Go Irving will be done at the 8 middle schools on Saturday, October 28th. The format will be like what has been done in the past, just at different locations simultaneously to give families in the neighborhoods an opportunity to get to a campus close to them. Counseling/College Readiness will be a featured table on the different campuses. For that reason, the Guidance and Counseling Department is reaching out for volunteers to help man the tables. We would like to have two people to each campus to be able to share our materials and goodies with families. We will provide the materials and goodies. The event will be from 9am to 1pm. Complete the Google Form for you to fill out if you are interested in helping on that day.

Go Irving Volunteer

Thank you to all that volunteered. Because of you, College Night was a success! Our students and families were able to connect with over 120 colleges. Thank you!

The Dallas County Promise Path form opened September 1st!

Over 1300 Irving ISD Class of 2024 seniors have completed the Dallas County Promise Path form which is the 1st step to free college tuition. Thank you to our CCMR Coaches, Dallas College reps, UNT Dallas College Advising Corp advisors, counselors, and teachers for making this happen!

The Dallas County Promise is a last dollar grant opportunity for Irving ISD students to have college tuition paid at Dallas College, University of Texas at Arlington and several other higher education institutions. Find out more: https://dallascountypromise.org/

Dallas County Promise 23-24 Resources google folder:

You can find it here. Please bookmark the link for future use.

Higher Education Partner Matrix

Nimitz, Irving and MacArthur high schools held their Class of 2024 Senior Parent Nights and they were a huge success! Topics included: senior graduation requirements, financial aid, Dallas County Promise, Texas College Bridge and more. Thank you to the CCMR coaches, counselors, admins, and college reps that made these events happen! Coming up next... Singley Senior Parent Night- October 10th.

All campuses are expected to have a Career Day this year. Remember to invite Julie Soberanis and Kimest Sanders to your Career Days.

The Irving ISD Transportation Department would love the opportunity to participate in Career Days for the early childhood centers and elementary campuses. They will send busses out with drivers and monitors that will talk to students about transportation jobs and the importance of bus safety. They will bring coloring/activity pages, pencils, stickers, etc. for students. If you would like to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, please contact:

Stephanie Meyer

smeyer@irvingisd.net

972-600-5673

Each counseling department must create 1 to 3 goals each year focusing attendance, discipline or achievement. These goals must be written in SMART goal format using the Annual Student Outcome Goal document.. Once goals are set the Closing the Gap Action Plan/Results is created for each goal. Counselors are intentional with how they are going to support students in Irving ISD.

• By April 12, 2024, students in 8th grade who had 3 or more unexcused absences from August 14, 2023-Sept. 8, 2023 who have less than 95% attendance will decrease the number of absences by 10% from 105 to 97. (Lamar Middle School)
  
• By December, 15 2023, Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grade students who have 12 or more absences in the 2022-2023 2nd semester will decrease the number of absences by 10% from 316 to 284. (Keyes Elementary)
  
• By 2024-01-22, 4th and 5th grade students who score (from their starting score) within the orange quintile for reading (RIT: 180-189 for 4th grade and 189 to 198 for 5th grade) on the 2022-2023 end-of-school-year Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) will decrease the number of students within the orange quintile for reading by 15% from 27 to 23. (Keyes Elementary)
  
• By December 2023 the students showing behavior challenges after the first 4 weeks of school will decrease the number of behavior outburst by 25% from 30 to 22. (Kinkeade EC)
  
• By April 5, 2024, students in 3rd to 5th grades who had more than 20 absences during the 2022 -2023 school year will decrease the number of absences by 10% from 1695 to 1526. (Barton Elementary)
  
• By April 5, 2024, students in 4rd and 5th grades who had more than 1 office referral during the 2022 -2023 school year will decrease by 30% from 29 to 20. (Barton Elementary)
  
• By April 20, 2024, Cohort 2026 who had 4 or more referrals from 2022-2023 school year will decrease the number of referrals by 10% from 252 to 227. (Irving High School)
  
• By January 31, 2024, 2nd - 5th grade students with more than 22 absences in the 2022-2023 school year will decrease the number of absences by 30% from 759 to 531. (Hanes Elementary)
  
• By December 21, 2023, 6th grade students with 4 or more absences the first 3-weeks of the 2023-2024 school year will decrease the number of absences by 25% from 72 to 54. (Travis Middle School)
  
• By December 23, 2023, Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade who were absent between 75% and 79% of the time during the Spring Semester 2023 school Year will decrease the number of absences by 10% from 287 days to 259 days. (De Zavala Middle School)
  
• By April 15, 2024, Students in 4th and 5th grade who had 17 or more absences during the 2022-23 school year will decrease the number of absences by 15% from 341 to 290. (Stipes Elementary)
  
• By January 25, 2024, Students in 4th and 5th grade with a MAP RIT score in the range of 185 to 203 in either reading and/or math will increase their score by 10% from 2332 to 2565. (Stipes Elementary)
  
• By 12-212023, 6th grade students with 4 or more absences the first 3-weeks of the 2023-2024 school year will decrease the number of absences by 25% from 72 to 54. (Travis Middle School)
  
• By April 12, 2024 Students in 3rd, 4th, & 5th grade who were absent 10 more times during the second semester of the 2022-2023 will decrease number absences by 25% from 557 to 417. (Brown Elementary)
  
• By April 12, 2024 4th/5th grade students who have 10 or more absences from the 2022- 2023 school year will decrease their absences by 10% from 362 to 324. (Townsell Elementary)
  
• By 2023-12-21, students showing behavior challenges identified by the counselor after the 2nd week of school will decrease the number of identified students 50% from 10 to 5. (Pierce Early Childhood Center)
  
• By April 12, 202, 4th and 5th grade students with 10 or more absences the 22-23 school year will decrease the number of absences by 3% from 541 to 532. (Johnston Elementary)
  
• By April 12, 2023, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students who received office referrals the 22-23 school year will decrease the number of referrals by 10% from 22 to 20. (Johnston Elementary)
  
• By 4/12/2024, 2025 cohort students who have less than 12 credits will decrease the number of students off-cohort by 75% from 33 to 9. (Nimitz High School)
  
• By December 21, 2023, 10th and 11th grade US History Dual Credit students will increase passing rate percentage by 15% from 87 to 95. (Nimitz High School)
  
• By 2024-04-15, 10th grade students with 25 or more absences of the 22-23 school year will decrease their absences by 20% from 2664 to 2132. (Singley Academy)
  
• By 2024-04-15, students in the 12th grade were not CCMR Met by May 31, 2023 will increase CCMR met status by 25% from 0 to 20. (Singley Academy)
  
• By 2023-12-21, students who had 5 or more absences during the first month of school will decrease the number of absences by 20% from 157 to 126. (Crockett Middle School)
  
• By April 26, 2024, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students with 25 or more absences accrued during the 2022-2023 school year will decrease by 25% from 444 to 333. (Davis Elementary)
  
• By April 12, 2024, current 8th grade students with attendance below 86% for the 2022-2023 school year will decrease the number of days absent by 5% from 717 to 681. (Bowie Middle School)
  
• By April 12, 2024, students with one or more drug, alcohol, or tobacco offenses will decrease the number of offenses by 50% from 28 to 14. (Bowie Middle School)
  
• By April 12, 2024 students in 2nd-5th grades with 20 or more absences in 2022-2023 school year will decrease the total number of absences by 30% from 1151 to 806. (Townley Elementary)
  

Many IISD counselors have goals written around attendance. Attendance Works is a website that has a lot of information regarding supporting families. They also provide several webinars in regards to attendance.

Attendance Works

Attendance Works Webinars

The Savvy School Counselor Blog blog provides several ideas to encourage good attendance.

Savvy School Counselor Blog

Download the template to an Attendance Matters Parent Workshop.

See the link below to see what counselors did last school year on each campus. Counselors are busy supporting students, parents and teachers. Great job!

In June, we awarded the Secondary Counselor of the Year Award and the Administrator Supporter of the Year Award. Congratulations Ms. Solis, Counselor at Jack E. Singley Academy and Mr. Miranda, Principal at Nimitz HS. Thank you both for your dedication to counseling in Irving ISD.

Administrators, you will be able to nominate your counselor/s for the EC/Elementary Counselor of the Year, Middle School Counselor of the Year and the High School Counselor of the Year for the 2023-2024 school year. Counselors, you will be able to nominate your administrators for the Administrator Supporter of Counselors of the Year as well.

Click the MTSS picture below to review the MTSS Process for 2023-202. Roles and responsibilities a for Irving ISD Counselors. Counselors are invited to attend MTSS meetings when they are providing behavior or SEL interventions.

MTSS Toolkit Link

To get a better understanding you can complete the 2023-2024 MTSS Course Training for Elementary, Middle School or High School in MobileMind. MobileMind is located in your LaunchPad.

Remember counselors should be documenting your time every day. Counselors should only be tracking their contracted hours.

SB 179 stipulates a counselor must spend at least 80% of their total work time on duties that are components of a counseling program (Guidance Curriculum, Individual Student Planning, Responsive Services, System Support).

Refer to the Use of Time Cheat Sheet to guide you on where you would document a task. It is updated often as counselors ask questions.

• Consultation can also be Individual Planning, Responsive Services or System Support. For Individual Planning and Responsive Services, put an X under the type of consultation it is in those 2 categories.

Just a reminder that when you are not working (sick day or personal day) there is a column to check off not working when you return to campus. When you are part of a PD day, then you would submit System support as attending Professional Development. Although you did sign-in, this just verifies that you were at the meeting. The sign-in sheet is not attached to each spreadsheet.

The LSSSCA Conference held on October 22-24, 2023 in Frisco, Texas. You may want to apply for an Irving Schools Foundation Grant or speak with your principal about paying for you.

Lone Star State School Counselor Association Annual Conference

The TSCA Professional School Counselor Conference will be held on Feb. 4-6, 2024 in San Antonio , Texas. . You may want to apply for an Irving Schools Foundation Grant or speak with your principal about paying for you.

TSCA Professional School Counselor Conference Info

***Administrators can attend free with their counselor's registration.***

Congratulations to the following counselors as they have been selected to serve on the Counseling Advisory Council. They will be providing input to the Guidance and Counseling Department, supporting counselors, and be an advocate for our community. The first meeting will be October 11, 2023 at 2:00 PM.

• Sandra Silva-Keyes Elementary
• Jennifer Mitchell-Irving High School
• Alicia Rowland-Schulze Elementary
• Trevida McGlothen-Houston Middle School
• Twila Williams-MacArthur High School
• Rachel Chamberlain-Johnson Middle School
• Juan Herrera-Singley Academy
• Danielle Johnson-Lively Elementary
• Kelli Frazier-Bowie Middle School

To MacArthur High School Counseling Team from Aisha Carr, MacArthur Counselor-I would like to say thanks to the MacArthur HS Counseling Team! They bring great ideas on how we can serve our students, parents, and staff. The workload for the first couple of weeks was hard and non-stop, however, you guys showed great teamwork and it doesn't go unnoticed. I appreciate all that you do and love having each one of you on this awesome counseling team!

To McKenzie Masey, Jack E. Singley Academy Student Advocate Counselor, from Shannon Davidson, Jack E. Singley Academy Counselor-Thank you Ms. Masey for taking such great care of our students and always making yourself available whenever we need you. Our team and our students appreciate you.

To Tamara Whitfield and the entire Nimitz Counseling Department from Alejandra Gonzalez, Nimitz High School Counselor-Thank you so much for all your help and support as I am getting acclimated to Nimitz. You are all amazing and I hope to make you proud.

To Iris Hill, Irving HS CCMR Coach, from Jerica Brown, Irving HS Counselor-She has started off strong with getting students to complete their Dallas County Promise!!

To Holly Holden, Nimitz HS Counselor, from Debbie Simmons, Student Reassignment Counselor-Spent many hours with a senior student and parent getting him the mental health care he needed

To Paty Juarez, Lively Counselor, from Gabriela Gonzalez, Barton Counselor-She very empathetic and understanding and always willing to give a hand. She is awesome !!!!

To Carlos Sepulveda-Prosper & Mayra Hernandez, At-Risk Bilingual Counselors, from Twila Williams, MacArthur HS Counselor-They are always there and willing to assist us with whatever.

To Aisha Carr, Jillian Simpson, Stephanie Satcher, Rachel Batchelor, Carmela Perez, & Stephanie Harris, MacArthur HS Counselors, from Twila Williams, MacArthur HS Counselor-They are THE best team ever!!! :)

To Irving HS Counselors, from Iris Hill Irving HS CCMR Coach-They are AMAZING at providing support! Thank you for always showing up and supporting my ideas and events!

To Kaniesha McEwen, Singley Academy Counselor, from Solis, Singley Academy Counselor-Shoutout to McEwen for keeping out team afloat! Thank you McEwen!

To Singley Counseling Team, from Shannon Davidson, Singley Counselor-Shout out to the amazing team at Singley for successfully administering our first round of TSI testing.

To Anne Lantey and Rachel Chamberlain, Johnson MS Counselors, from Kylie Fyfe, Johnson MS Counselor-I am grateful to work with the best counseling team!

To Iris Hill, Irving HS CCMR Coach, from Jennifer Mitchell, Irving HS Counselor-Standing ovation to Mrs. Hill for her work with the students and parents here at IHS! Our Senior Parent meeting was a huge success!!

To Sofia Lopez, At Risk & Responsive Services Director, from Monica Becerra, Houston MS Counselor-Thank you Sofia for your support anytime I needed it - I really really appreciate it!!

To Kristen Biggins, Student Advocate Counselor, from Monica Becerra, Houston MS Counselor-Kristen you have been such a great support when you are on our campus and share so much knowledge. Thank you and I appreciate you!

To Trevida McGlothen, Houston MS Counselor, from Monica Becerra, Houston MS Counselor-I have been so blessed to work on such an amazing team with you and Hammond! Thank you for being such a great mentor and leader.

To Frank Hammond, Houston MS Counselor, from Monica Becerra, Houston MS Counselor-Thank you for providing so much wisdom as my mentor and comedic relief! You are appreciated and I am grateful to work with you and McGlothen.

To Andrea Delgado, Irving HS Counselor, from Jerica Brown, Irving HS Counselor-She helped me on a crisis with a student and she even followed up with and shared good news about the student with me! Thank you!!

To Aisha Carr, MacArthur HS Counselor, from Carmela Perez, MacArthur HS Counselor-She is a great leader, keeps our department on track, offers support, great motivator

📌If you would like to give someone a shout out, click here.

📷We would like to spotlight what you are doing. Please click here to add pictures so that we can spotlight what you are doing on campus. As you are uploading pictures, place them in the correct folder and put your school's name as part of the title. We can't wait to see all that you are doing.

Ms. Lalani, counselor at Kinkeade Early Childhood Center has created a sensory room for her students to use when they need a moment to reset.

"Our team at the University of Connecticut partnered to provide a unique solution through a collaboration between the Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH) and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. We created Feel Your Best Self (FYBS), a freely available toolkit that includes 12 simple and evidence-informed emotion-focused coping strategies. When used regularly, these sorts of coping skills can promote emotional well-being. FYBS strategies, although targeted toward a pre-K and elementary-aged audience, are important life skills for all ages that can be used to navigate different situations and, ultimately, help us feel our best."

Full article is below along with the link to the toolkit.

If you are a member of ASCA, there are a few free webinars coming.

Region 10 has a newsletter, Counselor Conversations, that it sends out monthly. If you would like to receive information from Region 10 in regards to Counselor initiatives as well as the newsletter, click here to fill out the Listserv.

📌Click here for a list of their Counselor Offerings for the Fall. Per T-SCESS we are to attend at least 2 Region 10 trainings each year.

We all should be applying for both of these awards. You are doing the work, let's get recognized.

🏆 Lone Star State School Counselor Association (LSSSCA)

📌Bronze Award: Click HERE to see what was needed for you to apply for the LSSSCA Bronze Award.

📌For all of the LSSSCA Awards click HERE.

🏆 Texas School Counselor Association

📌To apply for the CREST Award, click HERE and HERE to get prepared to apply next year.

📌Click HERE for examples of CREST Award applications.

🏆 Lone Star State School Counselor Association (LSSSCA)

Recognizing that professional school counselors devote their careers to serving as advocates for Texas students and ensuring student success, the Lone Star State School Counselor Association (LSSSCA) School Counselor of the Year (SCOY) Award honors outstanding professional school counselors in Texas. Through an extensive outreach process, school counselors, teachers, administrators, and others are encouraged to nominate professional school counselors who run exemplary school counseling programs.

📌For criteria and to nominate a counselor, click HERE.

🏆 Texas School Counselor Association

The Rhosine Fleming Award was established in memory of Rhosine DuBose Fleming, who was a counselor for Richardson ISD when she died in 1971. Rhosine was instrumental in the organization of Texas School Counselor Association (TSCA) in 1966 and served as TSCA Secretary. This award is given each year to an outstanding school counselor at each level and stands as a living memorial to Rhosines dedication, professional involvement, and growth.

📌For criteria and to nominate a counselor, click HERE.

⭐⭐⭐T-SCESS evaluates the counseling program not the individual counselor.⭐⭐⭐

Click HERE for T-SCESS Rubric.

Click HERE for T-SCESS Sample Artifacts.

Click HERE for T-SCESS Suggested Upload Schedule

If you need help with T-SCESS contact Kimest Sanders at kisanders@irvingisd.net to set up a time to meet.