10.20.23

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Middle School Counselor PLC

If you missed the PLC on Tuesday, please check out the slide deck from the productive morning.

The biggest outcome that came from this time together was agreements for the Tier 1 Franchised Lesson Agreements

Franchised Lesson #1:  SchooLinks Onboarding and Find Your Path for All Grades

Franchised Lesson #2 and #3:  Students will complete Would You Rather Activity and Top Skills Assessment ( Choose at least one grade level).

Lynne and Jess will work on the Slide Deck and Lesson Plans for those as soon as possible.

Reminder, these lessons are Aligned district “Big Picture”: Passion, Purpose and Plan, so you can use them as your Tier 1 goal.

Measurement/Data from that we can collect from SchooLinks:  

  • Student Use
  • Career Favorites
  • # Students with Career Goal
  • # of Students College Goal identified 
  • Student Favorited Careers
  • Student Goals Summary (Career, Post Secondary)

ASIST

Suicide prevention trainings: 

ASIST: The November session is full.

Winter ASIST is January 18th and 19th, and Spring ASIST will be May 16 and 17th. Questions? Reach out to Jamie Gunter ([email protected]) 

DBT Skills Training

There has been some school counselor interest in the DBT Skills in Schools training.

If you would like to join, please register for Applied DBT (10/25 or 10/26) for the Elementary session (10/25) and let her know your lunch preferences ASAP. REGISTRATION LINK

Applied DBT Skills RegistrationJoin Dr. Amy Yillik with Culture of Care in partnership with COREN to dive into the application of Dialectical Behavior Therapy ‘s (DBT) four Skill Sets. Dates: Elementary: 10/25/23 (8am – 3pm) Location: Environmental Center Secondary: 10/26/23 (8am – 3pm) Location: Boardroom (BEC) Participants: Bend LaPine SSC Staff Incentives: Breakfast & Lunch Provided Registration required for all participants.forms.gle

The College Backlash is Going Too Far

Getting a four-year degree is still a good investment.

Interesting article shared with us this week!

Financial Aid Night SlideDeck

Here is a copy of the slide deck from Financial Aid Night. Please make sure this gets linked on your counseling websites!

College Now Funding Support

This is just a quick heads up that College Now registration will open tomorrow, Wednesday, 10/18, for Semester 1 courses. College Now instructors have been sent the information they need in order to extend the opportunity to students and to facilitate registration. Below is some additional information, in particular, please read the payment section highlighted in yellow – we have an exciting funding opportunity this year!

Timeline

Registration Opens: Wednesday, 10/18

Registration Closes/Drop Deadline: Friday, 1/19

Withdraw Deadline: Wednesday before the last week of class

All of our College Now dates/deadlines are posted here for your reference. There are a few courses that follow a unique set of deadlines, and those instructors are aware of the nuances.

Process

  • The online registration form for students can be found on your school’s College Now webpage once registration opens (select your school and look for a  blue button at the top of the webpage).
  • Many instructors find it helpful to provide students with an opportunity to complete the registration in class. The online form takes students less than 5 minutes to complete.
  • Students will receive an email confirmation when they submit the registration form and another confirmation along with payment instructions once their registration has been processed (1-2 business days).

Payment

  • The cost of COCC’s College Now courses is $25/credit. Typically, this course fee is paid by the student/parent unless the high school has funding to cover the cost or a portion of the cost on behalf of the student.
  • In addition to the funding the high school may have available to support students, COCC is in a unique position this year to provide some financial support. For this year only, COCC was able to secure a Career Connected Learning (CCL) grant to support eligible students taking eligible College Now courses. Below are the eligibility requirements:
    • Students must qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch as determined by the district in order to be eligible.
    • The College Now course must be one of those on the attached list of approved CTE courses and related instruction in order to be eligible.
  • Once registration closes for Semester 1 courses (1/19), our team will send each high school a list of students registered in one or more College Now courses. For each College Now course on our list of courses approved for CCL grant funds, the high school will identify which students qualify for Free and Reduced lunch and return the list to our team so that we are able to adjust students accounts.
  • Please communicate to students that if they qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch and are in an eligible College Now course, they should hold off on paying their College Now course fee as it is likely to be covered by this grant.
  • CCL grant funds are available until they have been exhausted. We ask that you would please use our CCL grant funds before utilizing funds that your district may have available. If you would like to provide financial support for a student or course that does not meet eligibility requirements for the CCL grant funds, you are welcome to use your own district funds to support them. There will be an opportunity to indicate this information via the list we send once registration closes as well.

Please reach out with any questions. We are excited to kick-off another great year!

COCC College Now Team

OSCA Conference

The OSCA Schedule with Sessions is up! Check it out.

Reminder: Student Conference Data Input

We will be running preliminary data in just a couple of weeks, so please make sure you are using the Student Conference Data input. Here is a refersher of information:

  • Updated Dropdowns
    • Tracking school counseling domains and programming
    • For all Student Conference Documentations, remember to input:
      • Date
      • Description
      • Staff (your name)
      • Service Type
      • Brief Comment.  Do not use private comments. Only Counselors, Admin have access to this screen. 
  • This input into Synergy is not for thorough notes, rather basic and short input for data collection and accountability
    • No Case Notes, reminder that is not in our scope as a school counselor!
  • SUPPORT/CHEAT SHEET (linked here).  It is also linked in the Synergy Help Tab as well as BLS Counselor Toolkit
  • Better reports coming from IT!