1. Welcome! LOSFA Professional School Counselor Webinar 2014 General Session

2. LOSFA Administered Programs
TOPS
START Saving Program
Louisiana’s 529 college savings program
TOPS Tech Early Start Program
provides up to $600/AY to eligible 11th or 12th grade public high school students to enroll in six credit hours per semester in a vocational course of study leading to an industry-based certification in a top demand occupation at a public college
Go Grant
Need based grant
$300 minimum yearly benefit for AY 2013/2014
$3000 maximum yearly benefit for AY 2013/2014

3. Rockefeller State Wildlife Scholarship
Forestry, Marine Science, Wildlife
$2,000/annually for undergraduates
$3,000/annually for graduate students
Competitively awarded for up to 5 years
Chafee Educational Training Voucher (ETV) Program
awards up to $5,000 annually during the academic year to qualified students who have been in the foster care system
Strategies to Empower People (STEP)
On behalf of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), LOSFA processes and makes payments for Adult Education and Vocational Education for the Strategies to Empower People (STEP) Program
John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program
provides for the payment of eligible educational loans for state and federal public defenders and state prosecutors employed in Louisiana

4. LOSFA Social Media Sites

5. LOSFA College Access and Outreach

6. New LOSFA Service Strategy:
Statewide Services
Concentrated Services
Intensive Services

7. 184 Unique High Schools Visited
Statewide Services
Outreach
Outreach
184 Unique High Schools Visited in
112 Unique High Schools Scheduled to visit through October Statewide Services are added on a weekly basis.
Disclaimer: Does not include presentations at: Colleges & Universities, Community and Faith-based sites.

8. 2014-2015 Concentrated Services
80 High Schools

9. INTENSIVE SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH LA GEAR UP
Our Student Events
College Kick-off Events
Area Leadership Programs
Louisiana College Application Month
College Goal Sunday
College Acceptance Day
Our Student Intensive Services
Financial Aid Awareness
Rewards for Success Scholarships
Academic-year Clubs
Advanced Placement
ACT Prep
Campus Field Trips
Dual Enrollment
Positive Behavior Support
Tutoring
Our Parent Support Services
High School and College Readiness Workshops
College and Financial Aid Workshops,
including College Goal Sunday
Social Support
Our Teacher and Counselor Support Services
Professional Development Opportunities
Academic and Curricular Support
LA GEAR UP SCHOOLS
* Services for High School Seniors

10. LOSFA Events Motivate, Instruct and Follow Through
Trailblazer Camp
College Kick-off
College Application Month
College Application Workshops
Counselor Webinars
TOPS Seminars
STS Workshops
College Goal Sunday
FAFSA Completion Workshops
Spring FLY Tour
College Acceptance Day

11. Developed by Sujuan W. Boutté, Ed.D.
LOSFA’S 5 Point Match
Aptitude, Skills, Interest Match
What’s your Career Path? How much
education do you need to get there?
Academic Match
Which programs are you
eligible for?
Cost of Choice Match
Which program results in
completion with the best income
to loan debt ratio?
Social and Emotional Match
Which environment works best for
you now? Online versus seat time?
Large campus, Urban Setting,
Small Campus, Rural/Suburban Setting?
Weekday, Weeknight or
Weekend Class Schedule?
Retention Match
Which program has the greatest success
rate with retaining students like you?
Developed by Sujuan W. Boutté, Ed.D.

12. Program Presentations
All LOSFA presentations can be personalized to fit the needs of a specific audience
TOPS
FAFSA
What is Financial Aid? – An overview of financial aid
State Aid Programs including TOPS
Federal Aid (Grant & Loan Programs)
Institutional Aid
Private Aid

13. Program Presentations
College Knowledge
FLY: Financial Literacy for You
FLY Tour 2015
START Saving Program

14. LOSFA Online Publication Resources

15. TOPS Opportunity, Performance and Honors Brochure

16. TOPS Tech Brochure

17. Don’t Blow Your TOPS Poster

18. Don’t Blow Your TOPS
Renewal Poster

19. TOPS Core Curriculum for High School Graduates 2014-2017

20. TOPS Tech Core Curriculum for High School Graduates 2014-2017

21. TOPS Core Curriculum for High School Graduates 2018 and thereafter

22. Social Media Sites Flyer

23. Surfing The Web for Financial Aid

24. TOPS Core Courses Approved by BESE and Board of Regents for Calculation on 5.00 Point Scale

25. START Brochure

26. How Do I Schedule A Presentation?
Call or Jerri Mack
(800)
(225)
LOSFA Representatives are available for day, night and weekend presentations
Request your date as early as possible
Please plan for adequate time for the presentation
Scheduling an event with LACRAO does not include LOSFA. Feel free to invite LOSFA to your LACRAO event.

27. PowerPoint Presentations
You may request copies of LOSFA PowerPoint presentations to use at your school
Jerri Mack

28. STS Training
Times and Dates To Be Determined

29. Trailblazer Leadership Conference
Redesign of Trailblazer Camp for 2015 making the Trailblazer experience available to more students representing more high schools
One-day Saturday conference in July at a few college campuses in the state
Students can apply directly with us to attend, with approval from a school official
Students will participate in a variety of activities at their high school in order to receive a letter of recommendation they can use for college admission purposes
Dates and more details will be available soon

30. 2014 Legislative Changes ACT 566 – TOPS & TOPS TECH:
2018 graduates & thereafter
Social Studies Requirement for Civics (1 unit)
Government, Civics, AP US Government & Politics: Comparative, or AP US Government & Politics: United States
Social Studies Elective (2 units)
Addition of: Economics, AP Macroeconomics & AP Microeconomics

31. ACT 733 – TOPS & TOPS TECH: 2018 graduates & thereafter
Adds certain honors, talented and articulated courses that will be converted to a five-point scale for calculating the TOPS Core GPA for TOPS eligibility
Makes LOSFA responsible for defining “skill or occupational training”
Adds “any training leading to an industry-based certification, a certificate of applied science, or a certificate of technical sciences approved by the Workforce Investment Council offered by a provider regognized by the Louisiana Workforce Commission” to the definition of “skill and occupational training”

32. ACT 737 – TOPS & TOPS TECH:
2015, 2016, 2017 graduates can use 1 Unit of Drafting to substitute for Fine Arts Survey
2018 graduates & thereafter can use 1 unit of Drafting to substitute for 1 Art Unit
Allows students to qualify for TOPS Tech using the TOPS OPH Core for 2018 graduates
Deletes the TOPS Tech Core requirement to earn 1 Unit of Chemistry or Applied Chemistry
Requires 2 Units of Science from the list of TOPS Tech science subjects and adds Chemistry and Applied Chemistry to the list

33. ACT 737 – TOPS TECH EARLY START:
Provides that the TOPS Tech Early Start Award can be used to enroll in programs to pursue certifications approved by the Workforce Investment Council
Deletes the graduation exit exam requirements
Allows nonpublic postsecondary education institutions offering courses leading to an Industry-Based Certification, a Certificate of Applied Science, and/or a Certificate of Technical Sciences in a top demand occupation to participate in the TOPS Tech Early Start program

34. ACT 837 – Personally Identifiable Information:
Provides policies and procedures for the collection, receipt, use, protection and destruction of personally identifiable information
These procedures include requirements for consent from a parent or guardian for the public schools to collect and disclose certain personally identifiable information related to grades 6-12 students to LOSFA to make it possible for the agency to determine eligibility for financial aid programs, including TOPS

35. Act 837 of the 2014 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature requires the governing authority of each school to provide a form to the parent or legal guardian of each student enrolled in grades eight through twelve which explains that the parent has the right to determine whether their child’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII) can be released to LOSFA and to the postsecondary education institution(s) to which their child applies.  The form must be provided every year, and at least one parent or legal guardian must sign that they either grant consent or deny consent.

36. PII includes the student’s full name, social security number, and transcript data. This information will be used by LOSFA to provide a TOPS Tracker to allow students and parents to track a student’s progress toward TOPS eligibility and to determine a student’s eligibility for a TOPS Award and other student financial aid. This information will also be used by postsecondary institutions to determine whether a student is eligible for admission.

37. The Consent Form included in this Bulletin is for use by the parents and guardians of students enrolled in the eighth through the twelfth grades. The parent or guardian must give consent or deny consent to the collection of their child’s PII and the distribution of the PII through the Louisiana Department of Education to LOSFA and through the Board of Regents to the postsecondary institutions.

38. We have also attached a cover letter to transmit the Consent Form to the parents and legal guardians.

39. A Consent Form for every student is required by the law to ensure that PII is disclosed only for those students whose parent or legal guardian has consented and that the parents who deny consent do so with full knowledge of the effect of denial of consent.

40. The Consent Form must be signed by the student rather than the parent or legal guardian if the student is 18 or is judicially emancipated or is emancipated by marriage.

41. The Consent Form is being provided at this time to allow schools to begin the process of having each parent or legal guardian consent or deny consent. Schools should immediately start the process of obtaining completed and signed Consent Forms. The forms should be maintained by each school for use in updating the students’ electronic records at the state level when the procedure for doing so is made available.

42. At this time The Louisiana Department of Education, the Board of Regents and the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance are working together to develop and implement the procedure for annotating student records with either consent given or consent denied. All schools will be notified when this procedure is in place and will be given the instructions necessary to follow the procedures.

43. Consent
Form

44. PII Cover
Letter

45. Louisiana Connect Update
ConnectEdu, the Boston-based vendor responsible for constructing and maintaining the Louisiana Connect College Access and Career Planning portal, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization on Monday, April 28, 2014.
In July of 2014, Graduation Alliance purchased certain assets of ConnectEdu including the Louisiana Connect contract.

46. Louisiana Connect Update
The Louisiana Connect portal has remained live and accessible, but no data has been updated since 2013.
Students who previously had active accounts may still log in and access information previously saved in the portal.
The information in the public pages including the college cost calculator and the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator remain available.

47. Louisiana Connect Update
No new data may be populated to the portal until:
Consent forms for sharing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) are collected and processed. The process of distributing and collecting consent forms may begin immediately.
A file format for the transfer of data between LDOE and Graduation Alliance is tested and implemented. This process is also underway.
LDOE has provided Graduation Alliance with a download of transcript data for all of academic year to close out the year. Because this data is for , all students that are currently in STS will be included in the data.

48. Louisiana Connect Update
After October’s STS harvest, and when the mechanism for flagging those STS student records that have given consent to share data has been activated, LDOE will provide Graduation Alliance with data for academic year This data will include new 9th grade students and any transfers. Only students for whom a consent form has been received will be included in this file transfer.
In the meantime, Graduation Alliance will be reviewing the data to map it to the Louisiana Connect portal.

49. 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday
Contact LOSFA
(225)
8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday