Navigating Employee Passing: Key HR Considerations and Steps

When an employee passes away, it’s crucial for school administration to navigate the situation with both compassion and professionalism. Often, the responsibility for coordination of these activities falls heavily on school HR professionals. This involves offering sincere condolences to the grieving family, colleagues, and students, managing administrative tasks such as updating records and processing final … Read More

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

It’s that time of year again!  Time to begin planning for the upcoming school year.  Local Education Agencies (LEAs) across the state are currently working with their campuses on planning for the 2024-2025 school year.  To begin this process, campuses must first look at where they are now and use that as a guide to … Read More

FLSA Overtime Rule Has Been Updated – Significant Changes

On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor announced an updated, final rule for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Changes to minimum salary threshold are scheduled to go into effect in a series of stages, with the first change effective July 1, 2024, then January 1, 2025, then every 3 … Read More

Random Validations for Federal Program Compliance – Phase 2

Phase I of random validations for federal program compliance monitoring ended on Oct 23rd. If you dodged that bullet (yee haw!), take heed — there is another round that begins Nov 28! For charters, this mainly concerns two areas of compliance: the Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO) and the Title I Ed Flex waiver. CSS … Read More

Dyslexia Law Updates

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the recent changes to the dyslexia laws? If so, you are not alone! On June 10, 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3928 which prompted many changes to the way we approach dyslexia evaluation, identification, and instruction. At this time, the Student Board of Education (SBOE) is in the … Read More

Random Validations Begin – Title I, II, IV, and SNS

You could be the lucky winner in the random validation drawing this month! Unfortunately, the prize is sending TEA a bunch of paperwork! TEA will select districts for phase 1 of random validations for Title I, II, and IV. You can rest easy that if you are selected for validation, you do have time and … Read More

Defining Your PTO and Leave Policies

Charters have a lot of options and opportunity to exercise creativity when it comes to defining PTO and local leave policies for their organization. A thoughtful and robust leave policy can be a critical part of the charter’s enticing total rewards and benefits package, which can impact recruitment, retention, and morale as it speaks to … Read More

Federal End of Year Activities for Charter Districts

Welcome to our handy end of year checklist! It contains all things federal that you need to finish up the activities for year! The purpose of this document is to keep you informed of all the documents that are required this time of year and the deadlines that they are due to TEA. This will … Read More

Collaborative Comprehensive Needs Assessment for 2023-24 (CCNA)

While you were relaxing during Spring Break, you might have had thoughts about next year pop in your head, and hopefully you set them aside until this week! Now is the time to start writing down your ideas because it is almost time to start the needs assessment process that is required before you can … Read More