Council for Exceptional Children

Are you student teaching in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025? Join CEC's Teacher Candidate Support Network to get access to a community of peers and mentors to support you, weekly resources, a complimentary CEC Pre-Service Student membership, and so much more!

Learn more: https://exceptionalchildren.org/membership/student-membership/pre-service-student-membership/teacher-candidate-support

On Saturday, we celebrated 102 years since the founding of the Council for Exceptional Children. For over a century, we've been committed to enhancing the success of children and youth with disabilities and gifts and talents, as well as supporting the professionals who serve them. Here's to the next century of making a difference!

Explore CEC's history: https://exceptionalchildren.org/100/history

Project Bridges is a federally-funded program at the University of Central Florida that allows students to earn their master's degrees in exceptional student education at no charge in exchange for teaching students with disabilities for a minimum of four years.

Learn more: https://news.wfsu.org/state-news/2024-06-03/a-free-masters-degree-entices-future-special-ed-teachers-in-florida

CEC offers a wealth of resources on topics that special education professionals need to know, including twice exceptional individuals. Explore blogs, journals, and webinars about serving these populations, and check out our special interest division, CEC TAG -The Association for the Gifted.

https://exceptionalchildren.org/taxonomy/term/79

A new fact sheet from the Wisconsin State of Children's Mental Health talks about the intersection of mental health and disability for children, and highlights the importance of mental health care for children with disabilities.

https://www.wispolitics.com/2024/wisconsin-state-office-of-childrens-mental-health-highlights-the-mental-health-needs-of-children-with-disabilities-in-new-fact-sheet/

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based three-tiered framework for improving and integrating all of the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes every day. CEC's Exceptional Teacher Resource Repository offers educators resources to help implement this framework into their practice.

Explore this resource and more: https://exceptionalchildren.org/teacher-resources/search-results?query=%20&f%5B0%5D=topics_search_results%3A128

A recent ruling from the U.S. Department of Justice mandates that state and local governments supply equal opportunities for people with disabilities, including services in public schools, colleges, and universities. Learn more about how schools and governments will handle meeting the looming deadline: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-07-19-are-schools-and-edtech-companies-ready-for-the-digital-accessibility-deadline

is coming up sooner than you think! When you register with our In-Person PLUS package, you get access to both our in-person convention and virtual on-demand sessions, plus a ticket to the CEC Celebration, which will be held at the Maryland Science Center. We can't wait to welcome you to Baltimore from March 12 to 15, 2025.

Register today: https://cecconvention.org/

"Even when schools are aware of students’ accessibility needs, they often lack the knowledge, training, and services to follow through. This often leads to a delay in disabled students or parents getting needed materials."

A new USU program will help students with disabilities across the nation access the materials they need to succeed in school.

https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2024-06-26/usu-program-school-materials-accessible-disabled-students

Join us on August 20 for an exciting webinar that will help new and early-career special educators consider practical ways to consciously construct an invitational school/classroom climate and boost student engagement.

Register today: https://exceptionalchildren.org/events/cec-webinar-practical-strategies-create-positive-and-engaging-learning-environment

Special educators from across the nation joined CEC and CASE in DC last week to advocate for the field. Attendees met with their representatives to discuss educator shortages, appropriations, and mental health in schools. Read more about the Special Education Legislative Summit from K-12 Dive: https://www.k12dive.com/news/special-education-funding-mental-health-teacher-shortage/722871/

Join us for CEC's Fall PD Fair! This online event features over 20 live 1-hour sessions with content from CEC, our Special Interest Divisions, the PROGRESS Center, the IRIS Center, and Lead IDEA. All sessions will air live and will be recorded for registrants to view later. Registration opens soon! Want to be notified? Sign up here: https://cec1785.wufoo.com/forms/qoxvzf31tq6fkv

AI in hiring is causing significant discrimination against people with disabilities. As employers increasingly rely on AI tools, these systems can unintentionally screen out qualified candidates based on disabilities, perpetuating bias and exclusion.

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4576649-ai-is-causing-massive-hiring-discrimination-based-on-disability/

CEC is proud to recognize children and youth with exceptionalities who have demonstrated their determination and achievements in multiple ways. The Yes I Can awards are accepting nominations until September 27th. Take the time to recognize the exceptional child or youth in your life.

https://exceptionalchildren.org/awards/yes-i-can-awards-cec-national

Meet CEC's Partner of the Month: WPS - Western Psychological Services! WPS develops assessments and companion intervention resources that assist classroom teachers, reading specialists, counselors, administrators, special educators, certified academic language therapists, school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, educational diagnosticians, and occupational therapists in helping school-aged children make academic, social, emotional, and behavioral progress.

www.wpspublish.com/

is an amazing opportunity for educators of all experience levels in all settings. Connect with thousands of your special educators and elevate your practice.

Register today: https://cecconvention.org/

Last month, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona attended a Washington Post Live talk about disability rights in U.S. schools. Secretary Cardona highlighted the teacher shortage and emphasized the importance of providing competitive salaries, better working conditions, and professional growth opportunities to attract and retain teachers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2024/06/20/transcript-disability-rights-us-schools/

Advocates at are learning about the issues facing school districts and special education learners this week, like shortages of special educators, lack of mental health resources in schools, and funding. Follow along and familiarize yourself with the issues.

https://specialeducationlegislativesummit.org/events/special-education-legislative-summit-2024/issue-briefs

Students with disabilities face barriers in the education system, especially with the ongoing shortage of special educators—those who are learning English experience additional challenges in accessing high-quality K-12 education.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/a-unique-challenge-what-english-learners-with-disabilities-need/2024/05

Today's the day! kicks off today. Follow along on our social media to learn more about the issues special educators are advocating for in our nation's capital.

https://specialeducationlegislativesummit.org/events/special-education-legislative-summit-2024/issue-briefs

Today marks the 34th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA protects the civil rights of people with disabilities, with wide-reaching impacts for employment, transportation, communications, and so much more. Take time today to learn more about the ADA: https://www.ada.gov/topics/intro-to-ada/

School is almost back in session and it's time to start planning for the school year ahead. Planning on attending ? Use our Justification Toolkit to help make your case for support of travel,
funding, and time off to join us in Baltimore.
https://cecconvention.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/CEC%202025%20Justification%20Toolkit.pdf

Get the support you need during your semester of student teaching! CEC is offering student teachers complimentary pre-service student membership, access to resources to assist your semester teacher, an online community with your peers, and more!

Learn more and sign up today: https://exceptionalchildren.org/membership/student-membership/pre-service-student-membership/teacher-candidate-support

A New Orleans-based SLP explores how alternative and augmentative communication devices can be utilized in schools to help students with communication disorders and differences.

Read more: https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/q-a-communication-devices-a-game-changer-for-autistic-students

"When kids have a better understanding of the condition that affects their learning, they tend to have a better self-concept, and they are more likely to feel empowered and motivated to self-advocate."

Scientific American column, The Science of Parenting, dives into the impact of helping children understand how their brains work: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neurodivergent-kids-flourish-when-theyre-taught-how-their-brains-work/

Co-teaching benefits all students and is a common method of delivering specially designed instruction (SDI) to students with disabilities in the least-restrictive environment. CEC offers a wealth of resources, journals, and information on co-teaching to help improve your practice.

https://exceptionalchildren.org/topics/co-teaching

“A lot of the principles that go into disability inclusion can also just be applied to general simplification of design. It’s important to make sure that you’re not creating things that are insanely hard to use for anybody,” Bleeker said."

Read more: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/may/13/in-teaching-disability-inclusive-engineering-whitw/

"As designers, we often fall into the trap of designing solutions that work for ourselves, mistakenly assuming all users share our abilities and experiences. But our users are diverse, each with varying levels of ability and expertise, necessitating designs that accommodate a wide range of needs."

Read more: https://builtin.com/articles/designing-users-disabilities-ux

Members get access to the CECommunity, where thousands of your special education colleagues share tips, tricks, information, resources research, and so much more! Join CEC to access this exclusive online space and connect with CEC members to enhance your practice.

https://exceptionalchildren.org/engage/cecommunity-all-member-forum