Hello friends,
The 2025 graduation dates are here! If you want to start preparing and organizing now, check out the dates and times.
Tomorrow morning (Friday Sept. 20th) the district is hosting a press conference with regional school districts and local law enforcement on school safety. Watch live starting at 9:45 a.m. on our YouTube channel or the Austin ISD Facebook page.
Reminder: The 2024 Hispanic Heritage Talent Show call for entries is open until September 30. Submit videos of yourself or your children dancing, playing music or singing, as well as photos of drawings or paintings that celebrate Hispanic culture, for more than $4,000 in prizes! The award ceremony will take place Saturday, Oct. 12.
Now, let's get started…
Austin ISD has now completed nearly two-thirds of the priorities outlined in the Texas Education Agency Special Education Agreed Order.
Why it matters: This marks a significant milestone in ongoing efforts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.
Background: Austin ISD and TEA signed an Agreed Order to work with TEA-appointed monitors to transform the special education experience for families. This order outlines 99 specific steps Austin ISD must take to enhance the Special Education program and ensure compliance with state and federal regulations. The district has completed 66 of the 99 priorities outlined in the order.
What’s happening:
Since September of 2023 when the Agreed Order was signed, Austin ISD has focused on the delivery, completion, and tracking of professional learning for staff and the development of systems to ensure compliance and implementation of high-quality services to support students with disabilities.
By September 2024, all of the corrective action plans that were initially open were successfully closed.
The Special Education Family Advisory Committee (SEFAC) met twice in the Spring of 2024 and will meet for the first time this school year on Sept. 23. Meetings are open to the public.
Collaboration continues with TEA-appointed monitors who oversee our progress and ensure the district meets the order’s requirements.
What’s next:
Expansion of professional development efforts, with over 5,000 teachers—both general and special education—completing training to improve student outcomes.
The district will submit the process for implementing a monitoring process to check the quality and fidelity of implementation (FOI) of special education services on September 30, 2024.
Principals and special education department staff will conduct audits of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) using an adapted TEA rubric.
To mark the organization’s 50th anniversary, the Assistance League of Austin visited Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Sept. 13 to present the grant that will help provide healthy meals to students, regardless of account balances.
Why it matters: This donation supports families by eliminating the district’s lunch debt, which last year averaged $15,000 a month.
Background: For the 2024-25 school year, 77 Austin ISD schools provide free meals for all students through a federally funded program.
Learn more about how to support the lunch debt.
Every day we hear stories about how our staff members are embracing Austin ISD Joy and celebrating what it means to support students, families, and each other! In the Sparks of Joy series, we’ll meet teachers and staff from around Austin ISD who exemplify how joy centers our work and shapes our purpose.
We spoke to two amazing teachers in their first year at Langford Elementary School—Shelby Rooker and Bianca Jimenez—about where they’re seeing Austin ISD Joy show up in their work. They see it in the moments where there are breakthrough connections with students, in the way they all support each other as a campus community, and in the feeling of knowing they are right where they belong.
Can you tell us about a joyful moment you’ve experienced this year?
“I have a deck of flashcards for one of my little guys [to help us communicate]. He spoke to me for the first time yesterday. I couldn’t believe it. It feels like he heard me for the first time. It was just kind of a breakthrough moment for me,” said Rooker, who teaches Kindergarten. “It’s so satisfying at the end of the day to know you’ve made a connection. That’s why I started doing this.”
Bianca Jimenez, Langford's Art teacher, agrees. “Seeing my students feel proud of something they’ve created and start to believe in themselves, learn that it’s okay to make mistakes…they remind me that I’m doing something right. I’m on the right path. I’m helping them create art and I’m creating art with them.”
How has your campus community shown up for one another during this transition? (Langford is currently undergoing a full modernization as part of the 2022 Bond.)
“I’ve had such a team of support around me. They validate feelings first, but we’re not just going to sit in that bad feeling together. We’re going to work through it. We celebrate every chance we can. We take a lot of time to brag about little things that happen,” said Rooker.
“I’ve seen the teachers here give so much support—not just teacher-to-teacher, but teacher-to-student. The strength of our teachers and how they offer so much guidance and support to someone who is new to our campus has been wonderful to see,” said Jimenez.
What is it about the joy in teaching that made you choose this profession?
“Joy in teaching art is witnessing children become artists themselves. I feel like I have a reason to be here, exactly here. I had to meet all of these children. It was planned out that way. I’m so happy to be their art teacher this year,” said Jimenez.
Shout out to the students at Akins High School who held a voter registration drive to give their school community a chance to register to vote on National Voter Registration Day.
Be sure you’re registered to make your voice heard!
Where can I register to vote? Next Wednesday, September 25, we’ll be having a voter registration drive from 7:30 - 11 a.m. or 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. at Austin ISD Central Office.
You can also register by mailing a completed form to your local voter registrar, or by picking up a paper application at your local library or post office. You can also register when renewing your Texas driver's license.
Additionally, you can check your registration status online.
-JJ
For questions or comments you may email me at jorge.maldonado@austinisd.org
This document has been translated using an AI-powered machine translation tool through Thrillshare. As a result, it may contain inaccuracies, errors, or inconsistencies that do not reflect the original content accurately. Austin ISD strives for high-quality translations and has a dedicated translation team, but sometimes we might have to use AI tools for critical or time-sensitive communications.
