INTERNAL PD OPPORTUNITY: The Power of Strengths-Based IEPs

Special Education Directors,

The following is a free professional learning opportunity available to you and your staff.

The Power of Strengths-Based IEPs with Carol Kosnitsky

Thursday, March 3, 2022, 3:30–4:30 p.m.

The dilemma: how do you write an appropriate IEP that provides both insights into the student’s disability and needs as well as the student’s strengths, interests, preferences, and personal accomplishments? It’s hard to look at many IEP requirements and not to think that the focus is on deficits. We can remain true to IEP requirements and incorporate all we have learned about the power of language, high expectations, growth mindsets, and Universal Design for Learning.  Rarely do these big ideas make their way into students’ IEPs, but you can change that! This session will explore some of the self-defeating and student-limiting practices common in IEP writing and provide alternative strengths-based models that can change our conversations, our expectations, and our IEPs.

Carol Kosnitsky is the nationally recognized and popular author of IEP Goals That Make a Difference: An Administrator’s Guide to Improving the Process (2018, LRP Publications). This book is used widely by teachers as well as administrators. As a distinguished special education consultant with more than 35 years in the field, Carol provides consultation and professional development services across the country, traveling from her home base in New England.

Her work focuses on improving outcomes for students with disabilities through increased access to the general education curriculum.

She is particularly sought after for her expertise regarding the development of relevant and measurable IEPs, the aligning of IEPs with the Common Core, and the collaboration between general and special education to improve education for all students. Ms. Kosnitsky was a special education director for 20 years in New Hampshire, served as President of the New Hampshire Association for Special Education Administrators, and developed the New Hampshire Academy for Special Education Directors.

Register in advance for this event.

If you are a special education teacher or related service provider, the presenter requests that you bring a current IEP with you to the training. Please be ready to examine your own IEP in relation to the content of the session and remember that all student information needs to remain confidential. This session is for training purposes and does not replace the technical assistance provided by the ADE.

Questions regarding this professional learning opportunity can be sent to the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox.