I. Professional Development

• All staff must have sufficient training to be able to carry out their assigned duties and to help our students realize maximum achievement.
• Professional Development shall be used to acquire new learning to assist in attaining district/campus/department goals.  
• All professional development hours must be accrued in academic learning that is applicable to the participant’s current job description. 
• Test preparation/test review/administration sessions or sessions/courses for initial teacher certification, extra duties such as extracurricular or co-curricular duties, supervision of students, etc  do not count as district professional development.
• Professional Development activities listed in the electronic database are accrued from the employee’s hire date in GPISD.
• All registrations and out-of-district credits are for the current school year, and all records are closed out at the end of each school year.
• Certificates from previous years cannot be added nor can credits from one year be applied to another year.

II. Conferences/Out-of-District Sessions 

(The requested credit must be in the specific teaching area in which you are currently employed.)

• Any session taken out-of-district must be pre-approved by the appropriate central office administrator and the campus principal. 
• Certificate of completion with the SBEC number of the awarding organization must be submitted as stated on the pre-approval form within 30 days of completion.
• Total credits requested must be in one hour increments.
• Time spent in exhibits, meetings, lunch, social events, or breaks at conferences will not be added as professional development. 

III. Attendance/Credit

To ensure appropriate credit is awarded:

• Register through Edugence and sign in as requested at a session.
• Drop sessions by 4:00 PM on the work day PRIOR to the session.  In case of an emergency after this time, contact ext 3451 within 48 hours of session. 
• Any no-shows after this time will be counted as an absence.
• Participants may be requested to sign-in after lunch or sign-out at the end of the day by the facilitator.
• Legible signature MUST be on the official district sign-in sheet.
• A colleague may not sign-in for another participant.
• Late arrival to or early departure from the session will result in loss of credit for the session.
• Partial credit will NOT be granted.
    

Absences 

• Defined as registering for a session, failing to attend the full session and/or failing to drop from the roster by the deadline.
• Failure to sign in.
• Late arrival or early departure will result in a recorded absence.
   

Walk-in credit 

• Requires a completed walk-in certificate per specific instructions on the certificate.
• Legible signature MUST be on the official district sign-in sheet.
• Participation is not guaranteed; admission will be dependent on room capacity.

IV. Children

• Children are not permitted to attend professional development sessions.
• Children may not be left unattended in the building where professional learning is occurring.

V. School Courses

• Sessions entered and attendance recorded by campus administration. 
• Campus maintains records, agendas, sign-in sheets for all credits awarded for CPE credit for campus/school courses.
• Informational meetings e.g. faculty meeting "nuts and bolts"meetings are not eligible for CPE credit.

VI. Submitting District Sessions by District Facilitators

• Sessions are planned each semester by each department using the Professional Development Planning Form located on the GPISD website.
• Proposals are approved by supervisor and submitted by the designated deadline to the Professional Development office.
• Sessions should result in total credits in whole credit increments entered as Texas SBEC CPE.
• Instructional technology may be imbedded in training sessions as appropriate.
• Sessions must conform to the district, state, and national recommendations/standards for professional learning. Informational meetings e.g. faculty meeting or "nuts and bolts" meetings are not eligible for CPE credit.