Regional Training Officers Meet to Discuss Basic Training Curricula Changes

TJJD hosted its annual Regional Training Officer (RTO) meeting in partnership with the Correctional Management Institute of Texas August 3-6, 2015 at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. This year, approximately 16 RTOs from around the state came together for this collaborative opportunity. The primary goal of this workgroup meeting is to ensure the content contained the current Juvenile Probation Officer Basic and Juvenile Supervision Officer Basic curricula is updated, relevant, applicable and written in a way so it can be consistently delivered statewide to officers. With the end of the 84th Texas Legislative session, it was also necessary to determine whether or not any legislative changes needed to be made to the Basic curricula.

In preparation for this workgroup meeting, TJJD solicited input via a survey for suggested changes to the curricula from participants attending TJJD’s Training Coordinators’ Conference that was held in June as well as sending the survey to all departments in July. In addition to the survey results, other topical areas of discussion included: feedback from previous Basic training evaluations; how Basic training is being provided locally; courses we may/can shift to e-learning modules; and defining ways to enhance existing Basic curricula. Each year, a significant amount of work goes into updating the Basic curricula. It is unequivocally the individual efforts of those attending that collectively make a difference in how incoming officers are trained statewide. The changes that are proposed during the workgroup meeting will be implemented November 1, 2015. An email will be sent to all departments when the curricula is available to be downloaded, however, all revised Basic curricula will be on the TJJD training portal website on or before this date.

We want to thank all of the RTOs that participated in this workgroup meeting. Their generous input and commitment made this a valuable experience for everyone that attended. In addition, we would also like to acknowledge Monique Holman with Correctional Management Institute of Texas. Monique continues to do a phenomenal job coordinating the RTO meetings and systematically helps prepare all materials for the RTOs. She remains our primary point of contact at CMIT with this group and is highly efficient, dedicated to her job and always goes the extra mile to provide the best level of customer service possible. Thank you, Monique!

If you have any questions or would like additional information regarding the RTO meeting, the RTO process or if you would like to become a Regional Training Officer and potentially serve on this workgroup, please contact Chris Ellison at 512.490.7245 or Kristy Almager at 512.490.7125.

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