During the 85th Texas legislative session, funds were appropriated to reimburse local educational agencies (LEAs), which includes school districts and open-enrollment charter schools, for costs related to professional development for blended learning offered by approved providers.
Upon the conclusion of a request for qualifications (RFQ) process, the following providers were selected as the qualified providers for this blended learning professional development program:
ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ and the approved providers have determined that the following process will be used to determine which districts will be eligible for the reimbursement of program/enrollment costs related to blended learning professional development for their educators.
1) The LEA will contact one of the approved providers to determine availability.
2) The provider will use screening tools to determine whether the LEA, campus, and educator possess the basic technical readiness to implement blended learning pedagogy.
3) The provider will submit to ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ a list of enrolled educators for pre-approval for reimbursement.
4) ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ will determine approval based on availability of funds and number of requests per district and campus.
5) Pre-approval will be communicated to enrollees by the provider.
6) Provider will submit to ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ verification of those educators who complete the professional development course.
7) ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ will contact the LEA to inform them of their reimbursement amount.
8) ÁñÁ«ÊÓÆÁ will submit a reimbursement payment to the LEA.
Reimbursements are limited by the amount of funds appropriated for this program, which is $2 million through August 31, 2019.
LEA costs are only eligible for reimbursement if:
Enrollment costs paid to one of the approved professional development providers are eligible for reimbursement through this program.
For additional information or assistance, please contact Blair Claussen at Blair.Claussen@tea.texas.gov.