Professional Learning and Sustainability

Special Education Directors,The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) will hold its annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 1–4. Thousands of special educators and related service providers will attend this event. It also will draw large numbers of students enrolled in special education teacher preparation programs.

Greetings,Writing better goals and effectively monitoring student progress towards those goals are foundational skills for Related Service Providers. Positive student outcomes can only be achieved when school-based therapists are able to do both consistently. Good data on good goals leads to effective interventions and allows therapists to write better progress reports in less time. And we know that “time spent on paperwork” is a leading cause of therapist burnout. For all of these reasons, we are very excited about the next presentation in our series of Related Service Provider Seminars: Creating Goals that Are Easy to Monitor and a Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool with Carlo Vialu, PT, MBA, and Peggy Morris, OTD, OTR/L, BCP. This workshop is designed for Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and Speech-Language Pathologists and will convey ASHA, APTA, and AOTA CEUs. Please share with your staff.Creating Goals That Are Easy to Monitor and A Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool

Special Education Directors,The ADE/ESS Professional Learning and Sustainability unit is pleased to announce two “grow your own” opportunities for educators in Arizona public schools.The General Education Teacher to Special Education Teacher (GETSET) program provides tuition reimbursement to certified general education teachers who want to pursue a career change to become certified in an area of special education. The Special Education Teacher Tuition Assistance (SETTA) program provides tuition reimbursement to paraprofessionals and educational interpreters that leads to special education teaching certification.

Special Education Directors,Please share the following math professional learning opportunities with general and special education teachers who teach mathematics.Virtual Professional Learning Opportunities:The following virtual sessions are being offered via Zoom and are free to attend.

Special Education Directors,The Arizona Education Job Fair & Career Expo will take place on February 4, 2023, from 8:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Phoenix Glendale Hotel & Conference Center.The Job Fair and Career Expo is an excellent opportunity for you to recruit new employees to your school community.

Looking for self-paced professional learning on current special education topics of interest?Special Education Learning Experiences for Competency in Teaching (SELECT) is a federally funded program sponsored by ADE/ESS and offered through the Institute for Human Development at Northern Arizona University. SELECT courses are recommended for special and general education teachers, administrators, related service personnel, paraeducators, and other interested individuals.Certified school personnel can take SELECT classes for renewal hours.

Special Education Directors,Are you looking for Speech-Language Pathologists or Speech-Language Pathology Assistants?From November 17–19, 2022, ADE/ESS will staff a recruitment booth on behalf of all public education agencies in Arizona at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (AHSA) annual national convention. Over 20,000 SLPs and graduate students attend ASHA’s convention each year.

Special Education Directors,ESS collects data each year through the Teacher Attrition Survey to make informed decisions about recruitment and retention efforts in Arizona. Participation in the survey is mandatory for all public education agencies in Arizona.The survey is open now and will close on January 31, 2023. Please see this memo for further details. Answers to frequently asked questions regarding the survey can be located online. If you have additional questions, please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox.

Special Education Directors,Project EASEL, in partnership with ADE/ESS, would like to invite you to tune into the Exploring Strategies for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) fall and spring professional learning series. We plan to share various information and strategies to support your understanding and implementation of assertiveness, self-efficacy, and self-regulation.

Special Education Directors,ADE/ESS is acutely aware of the shortage of qualified special education teachers and related service providers across Arizona. ESS has multiple activities and programs to support PEAs to confront this shortage every school year. The ESS Recruitment and Retention team has created Developing a Grow Your Own Program: A Guide for Special Education Administrators as a reference as you consider developing and implementing a Grow Your Own program as part of your own recruitment and retention efforts.