BUILDING SCHOOL CAPACITY THROUGH FOCUSED LEARNING

Great educators devote time to their own learning. We love working with schools to improve their knowledge and practice around services for students with special needs. Our preference is to work with schools over an extended period of time to help build capacity, however, we can occasionally be talked into providing shorter term professional development.

All of our services are customized for the needs of of individual client schools. That said, our experience leads us to believe that schools truly benefit from some of our favorite topics:

• Special Education Law - We help schools and teachers to better understand the legal side of special education. This isn't job about the law, this session uses current legal requirements to help teachers improve their practice. (This topic lends itself to a one-time seminar.)
• Inclusion - We start with the idea that the term 'inclusion' is no longer appropriate. How can we truly create the conditions where the vast majority of students can learn together? What do teachers need to know and do? What supports do they need? How can we improve upon the traditional division of labor between regular and special education teachers? The questions are endless. If your school is serious about improving upon how you do 'inclusion' then we'd love the opportunity to work with you. (This work is hard. It requires buy-in and lots of work. We'll likely need to work together for at least a year.)
• The IEP Process - Can we acknowledge that IEP meetings rarely fulfill the spirit of the law? Let's create a better process together. The end result will be better for students, teachers, and parents...and it might possibly take less time than what you're doing now!