Finding Support to Attend

The 93rd NCSS Annual Conference will provide the most comprehensive professional development available, an investment in your career well worth the time and expense, but we know that school money is very tight. NCSS strives to make our professional development opportunities not only the best and most comprehensive, but also the most cost effective. We have suggestions on where to look for financial support to attend, and ways to save:

Funding Suggestions

• Check with your principal or department chair to see if there is any professional development money available. You may be pleasantly surprised. Attending a national conference with all of its sessions, workshops, and many other opportunities for education often qualifies as professional development training.
• Use literacy and Common Core in your request to attend. The 2013 NCSS Annual Conference will feature many sessions designed to help districts, schools, and teachers integrate Common Core Standards into student instruction, including presentations by literacy experts on using social studies content to teach literacy.
• If professional development funds are not available, ask about Title I funds. These are often more available and you can usually write the application to fit social studies.
• If your district has one of the last Teaching American History grants, you may find funds available there. There are more than 100 U.S. History sessions ideally suited for TAH grantees.
• Take advantage of the $250 educator expense deduction on your federal taxes to help cover out-of-pocket professional development costs.
• Join an NCSS committee. Districts will often see participation in association governance as a positive.
• Volunteer to work at the conference. You can exchange hours work for attendance, and discounted registration rates are available to volunteers.
• Ask your PTA, religious institution, or fraternal organization of which you may be a member to help defray the cost of your attendance.
• Talk to the Kiwanis or Rotary Clubs.
• If you live in Missouri or Illinois and have never attended the NCSS Annual Conference, apply for a first timer's scholarship, which covers registration and one-year NCSS membership.

Ways to Save

• Check for Membership. Before you register check to see if you are an Individual Member or if your school has an institutional membership. Every type of NCSS member--Regular, Comprehensive, Student, Retired--can register at the discounted member rate.
• Become an NCSS Member. Membership rates start at just $66 for a full year, and the benefits extend well past the conference. Ask your school to take an institutional membership so three teachers can take advantage of the NCSS membership, all for as little as $115 annually.
• Take Advantage of Travel Discounts. We've negotiated exclusive discounted rates at the four closest hotels to the Cervantes Convention Center, at the lowest rates in eight years. Click here for details.
• Register for a Day. One-day registration rates are available, if you are unable to leave the class for a day or more, so come for one day of premium and intense learning.
• Encourage two or three friends to come and share expenses.