Here's this week's education news wrap-up from ATPE:

• TRS news
• Hurricane Harvey resources
• Next week's SBOE meetings

Significant changes are coming soon for participants in the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) healthcare program. In case you missed our coverage during Hurricane Harvey, the TRS Board of Trustees met last week to adopt changes to the TRS-Care health insurance plan for retirees. Read more about the changes here. Video of the Sept. 1 TRS board meeting is also available for viewing here. TRS staff have also announced a schedule of workshops to help retirees understand the changes coming in January to TRS-Care. Learn more in today's blog post from ATPE Lobbyist Monty Exter.  

ATPE members and other educators affected by Hurricane Harvey are encouraged to check out our Hurricane Harvey resources page for answers to questions and links to additional information. This week, Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced that certain schools and districts within the disaster areas would be granted an extension of time to file appeals to 2017 academic and financial accountability ratings. Find additional information on the TEA website here.  

The State Board of Education (SBOE) is scheduled to meet next week in Austin. Click here for the agenda for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday meetings of the board and its committees. Ahead of that meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 12, will be the first meeting for the newly announced SBOE Long-Range Plan Steering Committee. The committee will discuss the purpose and scope of the long-range plan and look at sample plans during the initial meeting. Learn more about the steering committee here. The ATPE lobby team will have coverage of all these meetings here on Teach the Vote and on Twitter next week.