Dr. Melissa Chavez is the associate vice president and the superintendent of the University of Texas Charter School System (UT-UCS) in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. She has more than 20 years of experience in pre-K-12 education and higher education. She currently sits on the Children’s Commission work group which is charged with creating a Best Practices/Implementation Guide on the education of children and youth placed in residential treatment.

Dr. Chavez will discuss the importance and role of education in residential programs as well as the core principles of education of students in residential treatment facilities. She will also talk about challenges students in residential facilities face and trauma-informed care and TBRI (trust-based relational interventions).

The University of Texas Charter School System is made up of two separate open-enrollment charter school districts. The first district is the University of Texas-University Charter School (UT-UCS), which specializes in serving students with special needs in unique settings such as psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment centers. UT-UCS currently serves students in 23 locations in the Central Texas and the Houston areas. The second school district is the University of Texas Elementary School, an open-enrollment charter serving 304 students in pre-kindergarten through the fifth grade. Both districts are supported by East Austin residents, community partners, donors, volunteers, UT faculty, staff and students.