7/21/11

At the federal level, Congress eliminated all funding for the Title II, Part D - Enhancing Education Through Technology program of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also referred to as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Accordingly, the Texas Education Agency recently announced changes to several programs that rely on Title II, Part D technical assistance funding. The TEA is working to continue various programs connected to Title II, Part D, including:

• The Technology Applications Teacher Network (TATN) event in conjunction with the Texas Computer Education Association’s (TCEA) may be affected.  TEA is in discussions with TCEA about the future of this event.
• The TATN website will be maintained by the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) Division of Instructional Materials and Educational Technology (IMET) in the future.
• The STaR Chart system is moving into Project Share, and has a new URL –www.starchart.epsilen.com (website was not active at the time this Business News article was posted).
• ePlan will be completed by school districts as they have previously, and ePlan information will be available on the TEA website. 
• E-Rate technical assistance support and oversight will be moved to TEA. TEA's recent announcement stated, "...support and oversight of the program will be handled by TEA – including the function of Texas E-Rate Coordinator; interactions with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), which administers the program for the FCC, including serving as intermediary between USAC and Texas public schools; maintaining an E-Rate listserv; providing National School Lunch Program (NSLP) data for applicants and USAC; statewide training; communications with the FCC and USAC Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) and school districts; and other questions that may arise concerning the program."  Region 12 Education Service Center will provide E-Rate consulting as a fee for service.

To access the July 15, 2011 TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED letter on these topics, click on the link below.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/stanprog071511.html