Click to view an updated list of 2020-21 professional development opportunities and workshops.

APPLICATION: Applications are now available and we encourage school counselors to start applying early using our new online application form. The deadline to submit a completed application is by 5 p.m. Dec. 4.

We are excited to announce that planning is underway for the 6th annual San Diego School Counselor Con 2021. The conference will be virtual and held over two days during National School Counseling Week. Registration is now open.

Call for Presenters — The application to submit a workshop proposal is now available: Call for Presenters — San Diego School Counselor Con 2021. We are looking for topics that support specific grade-level school counselors (K-5, 6-8, 9-12). Workshops will be provided in the following strands:

The deadline to submit a proposal is Dec. 18 and presenters will be notified early January. If your workshop is selected you will be entitled to FREE registration. Contact Tanya Bulette, conference coordinator, with questions.

SDCOE launched a searchable dashboard last week that can help parents and members of the community find out how many students and employees are currently learning and working on school campuses. Visitors to the site can look at trends across the county, search by school type (district, charter, and private), and drill down to individual school totals. They can also find contacts for COVID-19 response at the school and district level, if applicable.

Presenters: Dr. Trish Hatch, president/CEO, Hatching Results, and Whitney Triplett, director of professional development, Hatching Results

Guest speaker: Dr. Vanessa Gomez, coordinator of student, community, and personnel support, San Jacinto Unified School District

SDCOE will be partnering with Panorama Education to host a virtual learning series focused on Enhancing Equity with SEL. It's now more important than ever to focus on the racial inequities that exist within our school districts and learn how to actively fill the gaps.

If you would like to join us, please save your seat and register for each specific learning session that you would like to attend:

This three-part professional learning series will explore how educators and school staff members can create the conditions and environment necessary to support our most vulnerable students. Together, we'll explore reasons why Black, Latinx, and American Indian students are suspended at higher rates. Data from SDCOE Juvenile Court and Community Schools, as well as lessons from experts and researchers, will be used to give educators tools and actionable ways to pull in our most vulnerable students and help them feel valued and connected. Register to attend this series on Dec. 10, 16, and 17.

You've been doing the work. Reading, listening, learning, and examining your own biases. Put it all together at the Equity Conference on Jan. 19 to 22 and come away with renewed purpose and practices you can implement the next day.

Leaders from the California Association for School Counselors, the California Association for School Social Workers, and the California Association for School Psychologists, met to collaborate and create, Fostering the Whole Child: A Guide to School-Based Mental Health Professionals (SBMHP). This guide provides insight on how SBMHP work systematically to support and serve their school communities — from counseling, to assessment, research, outreach, program development, and even promoting social justice. In this guide, you will learn about the services each mental health specialization provides, how they coordinate with and support each other, best practices you can implement to make their efforts most effective, and how research supports those efforts. This guide will help you support the mental wellbeing of all students, enable your school to take full advantage of the credential-holding SBMHPs already on your team, and support and grow that team to the ultimate benefit of your students.

Online learning has exposed students to new vulnerabilities, especially those who have been impacted by trauma. The SDCOE Student Wellness and Positive School Climate department is providing a free, one-hour virtual training appropriate for all school site administrators, counselors, teachers, and anyone onsite who has a stake in the success of these student groups.

Pre-COVID-19, anxiety disorders will have affected one in four youth over their lifetime. It is the most prevalent mental health disorder among children and adolescents today. As the world deals with a global pandemic, anxiety has increased. This session will unpack

the layers of anxiety our youth are currently experiencing and provide evidence based coping strategies and tools to address anxiety. More information here.

The first San Diego County Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and California Dream Act Application (CADAA) Challenge kicked off in October 2019 at the fall California Student Aid Commission workshop for high school counselors. The challenge was initiated to encourage districts and high schools to set a goal to increase their completion rates. Many school counselors

took on the challenge and as a result San Diego County had an 8% increase.

As we head into 2021, we are excited to announce that the Race to Submit campaign will continue. Awards for schools and districts in San Diego County will be moved from the spring to the fall to celebrate and recognize schools and districts with the highest increase in FAFSA and CADAA completions to match the efforts of the statewide Race to Submit campaign. County awards will be determined based on the enrollment of each school's senior class.

There will also be two district awards for one small district and one large district with the highest increase in FAFSA and CADAA completions overall.

To support school counselors and educators, we have established a San Diego County Race to Submit committee of district leaders, school counselors, members of the California Student Aid Commission, the CARPE Network, CalSOAP, and community partners such as Students Without Limits and John Burton Advocates for Youth. Resources are being curated on the Race to Submit webpage on the SDCOE School Counselor website to include workshops and webinars, links to useful websites, and tools to assist with tracking and collecting data and monitoring results. The webpage will be available soon.

We understand the challenges that school counselors face in supporting students and families with completing the FAFSA and CADAA this year. What is exciting to see is that school counselors are finding unique ways get the message out and are not letting up on ensuring that all students understand that college is accessible and that the completing the FAFSA or CADAA is an important step in making that dream a reality.

The 2020 Counselor Conference: Counseling for Career Resilience, hosted by the San Diego and Imperial County Community Colleges Consortium, will be held virtually. New workshop topics include distance career counseling, career exploration tools, social and emotional development counseling, career pathway mapping tool update, labor market information, and in-demand jobs. The conference is free for all participants.