Session Resources

Do you feel like progress monitoring is a weak link when it comes to improving outcomes for your students with disabilities? If so, be sure to join this session. As an administrator, you’ll walk away with concrete strategies to expand your district’s capacity to track student growth and use data to improve student outcomes. After this session, you’ll be able to:

• Identify barriers to effective progress monitoring and tools to assess your district’s capacity
• Identify strategies to address tools and time
• Train and coach staff toward more effective progress monitoring

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Could you benefit from having more vetted strategies for handling “difficult” special education cases in your district — including those where a formal complaint has (or may soon be) filed? If so, register for this session where you’ll learn:

• Practical knowledge about potential “pitfalls” that can derail a special education case (and how to avoid them)
• Best practices for parent communication, record keeping, and procedural compliance
• Insights into important nuisances in the formal compliant mechanisms under IDEA
• How to strengthen data collection and record-keeping to best support the district’s case and demonstrate the provision of a free appropriate public education
• Tips and tricks for working with your district’s legal counsel

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The legal standard changed years ago, but is there an opportunity to further shift teacher practice and mindset to create more appropriately ambitious goals?

We can certainly help teachers create appropriately ambitious goals, but what qualifies as “appropriately ambitious,” and how do we know if we’re meeting the mark?

The answer lies in the evaluation team report (ETR), and in this session, we’ll explore how you can train staff members to leverage the ETR data to develop appropriately ambitious goals and data collection processes that will create a more comprehensive and impactful plan to address student needs.

You’ll learn how to:

• Conduct truly comprehensive evaluations that clearly identify student needs
• Turn student needs into measurable goals that foster student success
• Leverage the vital link between evaluation, needs, goals, and progress monitoring

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Too often, the typical structure of an IEP meeting misses some of the needs of a diverse student population, and it’s likely having a negative impact on the way your students are served in your schools. In this session, we’ll explore the new way of conducting IEP meetings which ensure each meeting is inclusive, culturally responsive, and engaging for both the learners and their families. You’ll learn how to:

• Evaluate and challenge the traditional format of IEP meetings
• Design student- and family-centered meeting experiences with principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Igniting student agency and input within the IEP development phase

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Are you looking for a proven system to continually improve the quality of services your district provides for students with disabilities in a systemic and sustainable way? If so, register for this session where you’ll learn how to do that as well as:

• How to develop a measurable and continuous improvement plan based on needs
• How to implement, monitor, and evaluate the plan
• How systems and processes can lead to shared responsibility and accountability of stakeholders and staff

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Do you feel like your district’s FBA and BIP process could benefit from research-based practices around high-quality assessments, intervention design, and progress monitoring?

If so, this session is for you. Join us to discuss the best practices and concrete steps you can take back to your staff to transform assessments and support plans from all-too-often vague and subjective exercises to effective components of the IEP. You’ll learn: 

• The research supporting best practices in moving from FBA to BIP
• Best practices for the major functional assessment methods
• How to implement reliable, valid, and feasible progress monitoring and data-based decision-making practices
• How to generate an effective support plan from FBA summary statements
• And more!

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As a Director of Special Education, designing instruction for students with needs is one thing, but getting your general education counterparts to collaboratively implement services and instructional supports aligned to the student’s IEP often presents a high hurdle. In this session, we’ll discuss how you can facilitate conversations with your general education counterparts at the leadership level to better support all students with special needs in the LRE.

Key takeaways from this session include:

• An enhanced understanding of how Universal Design fits into a Multi-Tiered System of Support to meet the needs of all learners
• How to help shift mindsets and support colleagues with systems change to ensure all students’ needs are met
• The importance of using PLCs and data meetings to help facilitate change in the classroom

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If you’re looking for effective ways your teachers can foster genuinely equitable and inclusive learning environments, then this session is for you. We’ll explore how equitable and inclusive learning environments are built on the choices of individuals and how your teachers and providers can leverage antiracism and Universal Design for Learning to invite all students to powerful positions. You’ll learn:

• The definitions of honor and power in a K–12 context
• How to evaluate power-filled choices and examine the implications of power in equitable access to learning
• How to create a community of educators and providers who are conscious of how to use power to honor all learners

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Do you want more inclusive practices that are consistent and effective across all of your schools? In this session, we’ll explore innovative ways to create a district-wide system that saves you time while improving student outcomes. You’ll learn how to:

• Create an infrastructure of supports and practices that benefit students in a proactive and preventative manner
• Strategically support all schools based on their data 
• Collaboratively develop support plans to ensure each school receives the help it needs in a timely and personalized way

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As an administrator, have you ever wondered what other options you have when a student with disabilities presents dangerous or disruptive behavior? If so, attend this session to gain new strategies for managing dangerous and/or severely disruptive students with disabilities. You’ll learn:

• Non-disciplinary strategies you can use to address dangerous and/or severely disruptive behaviors
• Interim alternative educational settings for students exhibiting dangerous or severely disruptive behaviors
• When IDEA’s “special circumstances” exist (which allows removal of a student)

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Inclusive practices are more than the physical placement of our students. Students with special needs are required to spend as much time as possible in the general education classroom, which begs the question: “How can we design general education in a way where students with moderate to severe support needs can have access to grade-level instruction in relevant, authentic, and meaningful ways?” We’ll answer that question in this session. 

Key takeaways from this session include:

• A deeper understanding of how Universal Design for Learning helps us meet the needs of all learners in an inclusive classroom
• How implementing UDL in the general education classroom reduces barriers for students with IEPs, allowing them to reach grade-level rigorous standards
• How Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction are different and where they are most useful 

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Discover new approaches to increase teacher capacity and develop higher-quality IEPs by avoiding substance and content errors, including how to use a simple but powerful two-pronged model that improves teacher self-efficacy in identifying IEP compliance issues. You’ll learn:

• The top IEP mistakes that special education teachers and providers should avoid
• The most common legal challenges made to IEP content (and how courts are ruling concerning those challenges)
• Strategies for avoiding the most common substantive and content mistakes to ensure IEP defensibility

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If you want to shift teacher and parent mindsets from deficit- to strengths-based IEPs, then this session is for you. Join us to discuss the self-defeating practices common in IEP writing and gain fresh strategies to change conversations with teachers and parents so that you can move towards more effective strength-based IEPs. You’ll learn:

• The current research and literature on teacher efficacy, mindsets, and UDL that underpin strengths-based IEPs
• Strategies to change the IEP conversation and content from deficit- to strengths-based language
• Helpful tools and models to support changes in practice (before, during, and after the IEP meeting)

Register today to save your seat!