In order to serve the numerous individual school districts and charter schools in Texas, Texas Education Agency (TEA) is divided into 20 regions, each containing an Educational Service Center, or ESC. These are also sometimes called Regional Service Centers, or RSC. The ESC's serve as a liaison between the districts and TEA headquarters, providing support to the districts such as conducting workshops and technical assistance. The ESC's do not have any regulatory authority to monitor the districts (this is reserved for TEA headquarters).