Featured Speakers
Julie J. Weatherly, Esq.
Julie J. Weatherly, Esq. is the owner of Resolutions in Special Education, Inc., a special education law and consulting firm in Alabama. Julie is a member of the State Bars of Alabama and Georgia and for thirty-nine years continues to provide consultation and legal representation to school agencies across the country in the area of educating students with disabilities. She is also a member of the faculty for many national and state legal Institutes and is a frequent speaker at special education Law Conferences. Julie has developed a number of professional development and training programs (in-person and virtual) that support special education legal compliance and has been published nationally as a part of her trainings, workshops, and seminars. In June of 1996, Julie appeared on CBS news program “60 Minutes” to discuss the cost of meeting the legal requirements of IDEA. In 1998, she was honored by Georgia’s CEC as the Individual who had Contributed Most to Students with Disabilities, and in April 2012, Julie received the Award for Outstanding Service from the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE). Julie devotes a good bit of her time consulting and providing professional development sessions for CASE and other state and local school agencies and associations. Source: www.specialresolutions.com
| Date and Time | Session Title and Description |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, March 10, 2027 9am – 4pm | Legally Defensible IEPsThe U.S. Supreme Court has recently referred to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) as the “centerpiece” of the IDEA’s education delivery system for students with disabilities. In accordance with the Court’s updated two-pronged test for determining whether an IEP is appropriate, hearing officers and courts will look to both the procedural and substantive components of the IEP. We will examine common pitfalls that educators must avoid—both procedurally and substantively—to ensure that IEPs are legally defensible. |
Jessica Sprick, M.S.
Jessica Sprick has a M.S. in Special Education. She is an education consultant, co-owner, and Director of Development for Safe & Civil Schools and an author for Ancora Publishing, ASCD and Jossey-Bass Wiley. Jessica is a former special education teacher for students with intensive behavioral needs and Dean of Students at the middle school level. She is an author/co-author of numerous educational resources including The School Leader’s Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges, CHAMPS: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management (3rd ed.), Foundations: A Proactive and Positive Behavior Support System (3rd ed.), Bullying Solutions: Universal and Individual Strategies, and Interventions: Support for Individual Students with Behavior Challenges (3rded.), among others.
| Date and Time | Session Title and Description |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, March 10, 2027 9am – 12pm | Building a culture of attendance: PreK–12 strategies to prevent chronic absenteeismThe strategies presented in this session will help educators understand variables that they can manipulate to improve student attendance through universal prevention at the school and classroom level. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of the critical importance of regular attendance for all students and concrete strategies for communicating this message to staff, students, families, and community. This session will provide a range of strategies such as ways to increase student and parent awareness about the critical importance of regular attendance, motivation and reinforcement strategies to encourage regular attendance, and preliminary understanding of ways to assess and intervene with common causes of absenteeism. Session attendees can expect to leave with a variety of examples from real schools and districts who have applied this approach with great success, using practical universal and intervention strategies to improve students' attendance. |
| Wednesday, March 10, 2027 1pm – 4pm | Essentials of Classroom Management (PreK–12)In this session, participants will learn best practice strategies for building a positive and proactive classroom setting that sets the foundation for appropriate student behavior. Whether you are a general or special education teacher with one or more students with severe and chronic misbehavior, or you work in a specialized setting with a focus on behavioral supports, this session will provide practical ways to help students meet behavioral expectations and succeed in the classroom. If you support teachers as an administrator, coach, or other staff member, this session will provide ideas on ways to support your teachers in implementing effective management plans. From increasing the organization and orchestration of classroom routines, to structured approaches to reinforce expected behavior and correct misbehavior, this session will broaden your toolkit of management strategies. |