Counselor LIFE-Line

-Simon Sinek

March madness is here and it is "go, go, go" time. Counselors are juggling a range of critical student support activities such as registration, intervention, scholarships, crisis management, financial aid support, and so much more. While it can be described as a stressful season, it is better described as a season of passionate efforts to support all students.

Check out our counselors in action! Whether it's guiding students and parents through mindful exercises, delivering SEL lessons, or collaborating with MHS for parent education nights, our counselors are rocking it!

UC Extends Temporary Waiver: UC has agreed to extend through the summer 2021 term the temporary waiver of the letter grade requirement for high school coursework. Therefore, UC will allow Pass (P) or Credit (CR) grades in A-G courses completed in fall 2020 and spring and summer 2021 for any student enrolled in high school during the 2020–21 academic year. This is an extension of the prior letter grade waiver for winter, spring, and summer 2020.

We recognize that the use of pass/no pass or credit/no credit grades remains a local high school decision, and our campus admission offices are mindful of the many obstacles students and schools alike are currently facing. Nonetheless, UC strongly encourages potential applicants to take, whenever possible, A-G courses for letter grades, especially those in English and mathematics, as well as those in prospective major fields.

As a reminder, UC will continue to calculate the GPA for freshman applicants using letter grades earned in A-G coursework completed in the 10th and 11th grade, with additional grade points for grades of A, B, and C in UC-approved honors coursework.

CSU Freshman Admissions Update: CSU's put out new guidance related to "CR" earned for A-G coursework. They will now accept "CR" for summer of 2021 to satisfy A-G coursework for students in grades 9-11. This will not be factored into the GPA and students must still earn a minimum GPA of 2.5 to be eligible for Freshman admissions. For more info and updates, please click here.

Foster and MV FAFSA Completion: A BIG thank you to all our counseling teams and your hard work in supporting your students with FAFSA completions. FAFSA workshops have been conducted both district and school wide! Thanks to you we have been able to support a huge number of students with the FAFSA process. Let’s keep the momentum going and reach our goal of getting 100% of our FY & MV to complete the FAFSA app. Please send confirmations of FY Seniors who have completed the FAFSA/Dream Act app to Sarah Haase, shaase@tustin.k12.ca.us. For MV Seniors who have completed the FAFSA, confirmations can be sent to Alex Albelo, aalbelo@tustin.k12.ca.us.

If you're looking for more support to guide FY and MV students through the FAFSA process, check out the presentation provided by OCC in partnership with TUSD. Additional OCDE resources can be found here.

Dual Enrollment: For students who plan to take an out of bell community college course and request for it be placed on their high school transcripts, please remember to use the alternate course credit request form.

Big Future Days College Fair: Collegeboard is offering virtual college fairs this spring. The Southwest and West region college fair is on 3/30/21. Students can sign up for the college fair here.

ACTE's National and Iowa's Annual Hybrid WBL Conference: Giving today’s students quality experiences for informed futures. Learn about best practices in work-based learning from across the country. Over 40 WBL topics presented live over zoom to virtual participants. All taking place 4/29-4/30.

• Conference will include the ACTE WBL Policy meeting, Committee meetings, and Regional Work-Based Learning Receptions

• 2021 Schedule at a Glance

• Registration Link

CTE Distance Learning Quarterly Newsletter: This issue focuses on the virtual work-based learning (WBL) landscape, offer the best of past publications, and draws attention to top resources from across the state and nation. To join the email list for this publication, send a blank email to: subscribe-cctd-updates@mlist.cde.ca.gov

Middle Schools: Please be sure to link your presentations and other resources here. Also, if you were unable to attend the March 4th Aeries Course Selection Refresh training, the recording of the training will be sent out to you by next week.

Greater Good – The Basics of SEL mini course : 1.5 hours, self-paced course that covers SEL basics, history of SEL, research, implementation ideas, and challenges. This is a free training resource from Greater Good Science Center.

OCDE SEL School Launch – March 10th & 24th, 3 – 4:30pm. This two-part live virtual training with Keeth Matheny, provides school teams with a planning guide for implementing transformative SEL.

OCDE Prepare Your School for Systemic SEL Implementation – Free virtual sessions highlighting CASEL’s guide to school-wide SEL.

Adult Social Emotional Learning – March 11th * 18th, 3 – 4:30pm, A virtual training for school staff on promoting care for the caregivers .

Edutopia’s Parent Resource Guide to Social Emotional Learning - A curated list of articles and videos for parents about fostering skills like kindness, empathy, resilience, perseverance, and focus in children

Edsurge – 10 Ways Parents can Bring Social Emotional Learning Home: 10 Tips Families Can Follow.