This year’s conference is designed to provide an environment of inclusiveness, research, and best practice.  The aim is to enable educators to maximize student potential, while still leaving room for individuals to shine.  Keynoter Thomas Armstrong will make a provocative case for reorienting special education around a stronger appreciation of neurodiversity, that is, the full range in which human intelligence expresses itself as opposed to the deficit-based approach that currently predominates.  Friday Keynoter Christian Moore will tell his compelling story of growing up as a special ed identified student and what he suggests for today’s educators to improve success.   Sessions will provide practical classroom strategies as well as models for system wide improvement.

Featured Speakers:

• Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., Executive Director, American Institute for Learning and Human Development - Bio  "The Myth of the ADHD Child:  6 Reasons for America’s ADHD Epidemic and 10 Classroom Strategies to Help Empower ADHD-Diagnosed Students" -  The presentation will begin by discussing 6 reasons for the huge increase in the number of children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD over the past twenty years, including:  we don’t let kids be kids anymore, we don’t let boys be boys, we disempower kids at school, we pass our stress onto our kids, we let kids consume too much junk media (and junk food), and we focus too much on disabilities and not enough on abilities.  The remainder of the presentation will focus on 10 classroom strategies to empower kids with this diagnosis including the use of wiggle furniture, focusing techniques, self-monitoring, strength-based learning, learning through movement, positive time out, peer learning, universal design for learning, role models, and teaching with novelty.  

  He is the author of sixteen books including:

  • The Myth of the A.D.H.D. Child: 101 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels, or Coercion
  • The Power of the Adolescent Brain:  Strategies for Teaching Middle and High School Students;
  • Neurodiversity in the Classroom:  Strength-Based Strategies to Help Students with Special Needs Achieve Success in School and Life;
  • Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom 3rd edition;
  • In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Multiple Intelligences;
  • 7 Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligences;
  • The Power of Neurodiversity:  Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain;
  • The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice;
  • ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom; and
  • Awakening Genius in the Classroom.
• Christian Moore, WhyTry Founder, LCSW - Bio  "Resilience" - Christian Moore is an internationally-renowned author, keynote speaker, and the founder of the WhyTry Program. His highly-acclaimed keynote demonstrates to audiences how resilience is something we’re all born with – from the most struggling students in our classrooms to the Harvard business grad. Most of us just haven’t learned how to access what’s already inside us. In his presentation, Christian Moore draws on his work as a learning-disabled social worker from an inner-city neighborhood to explain what it takes for a person to thrive in the face of any challenge. This engaging presentation will empower you to teach the vital skills of resilience to students of any background and learning style, enabling them to thrive not only in school, but in life.

Wednesday Pre-Conference

Youth Mental Health First Aid Training (8:00-5:00) - Youth Mental Health First Aid is an eight-hour course to train parents, school staff, and other adults who interact with adolescents on a regular basis.

A Comprehensive System for Threat Assessment and Management in Schools (8:30-4:30) - The presentation will highlight the Salem-Keizer model for assessing and managing student threats, providing an overview that includes the details of a comprehensive multi-disciplinary, multi-agency system.  Additionally, the presentation will provide summary details drawn from a three day training used to implement the system in districts of any size.   The Salem Threat Assessment Model will be discussed at a 50,000 foot focusing on the preventative aspects of a Threat Assessment Team.  The discussion will include a comprehensive overview of what the 3 day training consists of and the how’s and why’s for its development.  The presentation will additionally highlight parallel threat response protocols that address sexual misconduct, suicidal thinking, and behavior, and inappropriate fire-related behavior. The other complimentary assessment models will be discussed on how they are implemented within/around the Threat Assessment model.

Dyslexia Institute (8:00-5:00) - From a review of recent legislation to the demonstration of best practices, this full day training is delivered in short segments by a varied team of professionals.  Attendees will leave with research-based information on the what, why, and how of supporting students with dyslexia.  This is an approved (ODE) Understanding and Recognition of Dyslexia (URD) training – which is one of the 3 required trainings for Dyslexia Advisor that every K-5 school must have this year.  

Main Conference Session Topics
Thursday-Friday

Click here to view session descriptions.

Click here to download session materials.

• 2017 Legislative Update
• Accessibility to Grade-Level Content
• Accommodations and Modifications: 201
• Administrators' Conversations w/ODE
• An Initial Look at using RTI for SLD identification: A focus on the legal components
• Be the One to Make a Difference: A Mental Health First Aid Approach in Schools
• Budgeting 101 for Special Ed
• Build alignment, not isolation, through data teams
• Building Infrastructure for Specific Learning Disability (SLD) Decision Making
• Collaboration with Vocational Rehabilitation on Pre-Employment Transition Services
• Collaborative EI/ECSE Evaluation Process
• Comprehensive Sex Ed, Sexual Health Promotion is Sexual Violence Prevention
• Creating a Trauma-Informed School
• Cultural Humility
• Developing a Comprehensive Program for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Developing and Implementing High-Quality IEPs for Students Who Are English Language Learners and Eligible for Special Education Services
• Dyslexia 101 for Administrators
• Engaged Parents + Shared Vision = Greater Student Outcomes
• Equity and Inclusion - A Journey for all students to succeed
• ESSA: Educational Stability for Students in Foster Care
• Foundations of Education Equity
• From Bars To Bridges – Wraparound Service for Students Reentering School from Juvenile Detention
• Hearing Impairment: New Criteria, New Technology
• Improving the Productivity of Special Education Systems
• Introducing a New Family Resource: Oregon Family to Family Health Information Center
• Introduction to Integrating Interventions: Creating a Continuum of Behavioral Services
• Legal Lessons Learned
• Legal Trends and Lessons Learned:  Updates on recent legal issues and challenges in Special Education
• Local Strategies for Improving Student Attendance
• Manifestation Determinations
• Moving the Dial of Inclusive Practice
• Multi-Year Database Tutorial Part I: A Gateway to Ten Years of Oregon Special Education Data
• Multi-Year Database Tutorial Part II: A Gateway to Ten Years of Oregon Special Education Data
• Networking with ODE Staff and Peers
• Non-Categorical Service Delivery: Debunking the Myths of a Multi-Tiered System of Support Framework
• Oregon's Extended Assessment: Update
• Practice­-Based Coaching for EC PBIS: Using Data Driven Coaching to Improve Classroom Practices
• Promising Practices for Serving Dual Identified Students
• Recently Arrived English Learners with Interrupted Formal Education -   Now what do we do?
• Restorative Practices in Education
• School Health Services, Updates regarding school nursing and Medicaid billing in Education
• Section 504, the ADA (Title II) & Students with Disabilities in Public Schools: Lessons Learned
• SPR&I 101: Getting Started
• STEPSS: Data-based Decision-making Model for Transition
• Student Threat Assessment (STAT) and Responding to Student Sexual Misconduct (SIRC): A Tiered Intervention Model
• Student with Disability – YES and Potential EL(English Learner)-  Now What? 
• Supporting Students with Special Needs in the Online Environment
• Supporting Transgender Students in the IEP/504 Process
• Teachers' Conversations w/ODE
• The Inclusive Preschool: The LEAP Model
• The Intersection between IDEA and Section 504/ADA Title II
• The Missing Link for Student Success: Building Executive Functions in our Schools
• The SLD Toolbox:  Taking a student from start to finish! 
• The Transition Technical Assistance Network: Who we are and how we can provide support and resources in your community
• Transportation 101
• Transportation Perspectives on Special Needs
• Trauma - It's Not a Disability!
• Universal Design for Learning: Pathway to More Inclusive Practice
• Using RTI for determining Initial Specific Learning Disability Eligibility