Join live or receive a link to the recording and earn a CE certificate
Learning Loss vs. Disability: Navigating Special Education Identification in the Post-Pandemic Classroom
Wednesday, October 23, 2024 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer, National Center for Learning Disabilities; Bonnie Contreras, Senior Director Clinical Solution Engineering, Presence; and Robin Lake, Director, Center on Reinventing Public Education
Moderated by Kara Arundel, Senior Reporter, K-12 Dive
Sponsored by Presence
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Among the many responsibilities of educators is to identify and recommend students for special education evaluations. But in the wake of the pandemic, more students are showing signs they need specialized support, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between temporary academic setbacks and deeper learning needs. How can we ensure all students receive the targeted resources they need, regardless of the underlying cause?
Join us for an expert-led edLeader Panel on navigating special education identification in the post-pandemic era. Attendees will:
- Understand the current landscape of special education assessment and evaluation
- Learn strategies to help schools differentiate pandemic-related struggles from long-term learning needs and effectively distribute resources
- Discover innovative, scalable approaches to conducting comprehensive evaluations drawing from real-world district examples
- Understand family perspectives throughout the assessment process
Leave equipped with actionable strategies to lead your school or district in meeting diverse student needs effectively and equitably. This edLeader Panel will be of interest to PreK-12 school leaders, district leaders, directors of special education, special education administrators, and student services officers. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
About the Presenters
Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez serves as the Chief Executive Officer at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, where she leads a team at the forefront of the learning disabilities rights movement. Her unwavering passion for promoting learning accessibility and equitable assessments drives the Center’s efforts in developing impactful strategies, forging partnerships, making policy recommendations, and conducting research to improve the lives of individuals with learning disabilities and attention disorders. As an esteemed educator and professor, Dr. Rodriguez has taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, and served as a special education faculty member at the School of Education at William & Mary. Dr. Rodriguez has prepared countless educators in equity-driven assessment practices and progress monitoring based on each student’s individual needs. At NCLD, Dr. Rodriguez continues to passionately advocate for increased access to high-quality education and policies that support diverse and exceptional learners.
Bonnie Contreras, Ed.S., NCSP currently serves as the Senior Director Clinical Solution Engineering at Presence, a leading provider of remote assessments and teletherapy for K-12 schools. Bonnie began her career in education as an elementary school counselor, holding additional positions as a school psychologist. Joining Presence in 2019, Bonnie provides education on the implementation of tele-assessment and teletherapy services to support districts’ special education and mental health needs. She has presented at national and state conferences on remote assessment and virtual counseling supports. Bonnie has also engaged in legislative advocacy seeking increases for school-based mental health funding. Bonnie received her Ed.S. in school psychology from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. She holds the National Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential.
Robin Lake is Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), a non-partisan research and policy analysis organization at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. CRPE’s mission is developing transformative, evidence-based solutions for K–12 public education. Her research focuses on U.S. public school system reforms, including public school choice and charter schools; innovation and scale; portfolio management; and effective state and local public oversight practices.
About the Moderator
Kara Arundel has worked as a reporter for 20-plus years covering local, state, and national education issues and local government for newspapers and online publications. For K-12 Dive, she focuses on special education, early childhood education, and Congress. In 2020, Kara authored the booklet Recruit and Retain Special Educators With Real-Life Lessons From Local, District, and State Initiatives (LRP Publications).
Join the Supporting Students with Special Needs community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
Presence is a leading provider of remote evaluations and online therapy solutions for children with diverse needs. At the heart of the company is a purpose-built therapy platform, designed by clinicians for clinicians, that allows school teams to serve children both in and out of school. Presence’s national network of more than 2,000 highly skilled and licensed speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals helps schools to extend their teams and reach more students. To date, Presence has delivered more than 6 million remote evaluations and therapy sessions to schools and districts in every region of the U.S. Presence is supported by Spectrum Equity, TPG’s The Rise Fund, Bain Capital Double Impact, and Catalyst Investors. For more information, visit presence.com.
