Tale from the Field: Providing Professional Learning to Colleagues

NYSTEACHs.org
May 5
2 min read

Providing Training in the McKinney-Vento Act to Colleagues

One of the roles of the McKinney-Vento Liaison, as outlined in McKinney-Vento Liaison Roles and Responsibilities, is to provide training to colleagues. Liaisons sometimes feel unprepared to deliver this training. They call the NYS-TEACHS helpline to seek resources when they have been asked to provide professional learning (PL) to colleagues on the McKinney-Vento Act and students' rights in temporary housing. They want to ensure they provide accurate and comprehensive information to other staff.

The Tale

A McKinney-Vento liaison has been asked by her assistant superintendent to provide training on the McKinney-Vento Act to 100 district staff members. She wants to share accurate information with her colleagues about the requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act, but she doesn’t know where to start, what to cover in the professional learning session, or how to provide the content in a visually appealing and succinct way.

Questions to Consider:

Does the McKinney-Vento Act require homeless liaisons to provide training to their colleagues?
What materials are available to help McKinney-Vento liaisons to deliver this training?
What else can a McKinney-Vento Liaison do to ensure they are up to date with the latest information?

Answers:

Yes, A NYSED field memo on Mandatory McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act training indicated that McKinney-Vento liaisons are also responsible for ensuring that LEA personnel providing McKinney-Vento services (e.g., superintendents, registrars, transportation directors, CSE chairs, school counselors, school social workers, principals, school attorneys, and Title I directors, teachers) receive professional development. Liaisons can do this by either providing the training to staff themselves or by ensuring that LEA staff participate in one of the trainings offered by NYS-TEACHS.

Train registration staff, teachers, counselors, and other key staff on McKinney-Vento eligibility. Introduction to the McKinney-Vento Act is a resource available for you to use to conduct training. There is a Facilitator's Guide.

NYS-TEACHS has developed a brief slide deck, Introduction to the McKinney-Vento Act that can be used to deliver an overview of the McKinney-Vento Act. The accompanying Facilitator's Guide provides helpful notes and segues connecting content from one slide to the next.
There are other actions you can take to ensure that you have the most up to date information to share with your colleagues. Visit our website at NYS-TEACHS frequently to review what we are offering next. Subscribe to our mailing list. You can also review slide decks for past webinars and/or watch recordings from the most recent time we offered that webinar in the Professional Learning tab. In addition, you may want to visit the NCHE and SchoolHouse Connection websites for more information.