IU13 Announces 29th Annual Education Conference

The 29th annual Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 Education Conference will be held Thursday, June 12, at Conestoga Valley High School, 2110 Horseshoe Road, Lancaster.

“We want people to be aware of what we offer, but we also want to give them evidence-based practices to use with students,” said Chanda Telleen, who is an associate program director and supervisor of the training and consultation team for the IU13. “People are coming to our conference as a way to enhance their professional learning. We have presenters from our partner PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network). We have presenters from institutes of higher education. We have practitioners presenting. We try to expose our audience to the latest evidence-based practices to support our students.”

Registration and a continental breakfast will run from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m., followed by a welcome and opening remarks. Participants should bring confirmation of registration. Room assignments and the conference day agenda will be available.

At 8:40 a.m., keynote speaker Nikole Hollins-Sims will deliver her presentation, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes – Building Belonging From Birth On.”

Hollins-Sims is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and educational consultant specializing in equity and positive behavior interventions. She is the senior consultant for Hollins-Sims Consultation and has held roles such as technical assistance coordinator for the Midwest Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Network and special assistant to the secretary of education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. A Pennsylvania-certified school psychologist, she has researched family-school partnerships, particularly involving caregivers of children with incarcerated parents. She is the lead author of “Creating Equitable Practices in PBIS.”

There will be sessions for participants to break into smaller groups during the morning and afternoon. Participants should preregister for one morning session (10 a.m. to noon) and one afternoon session (1 to 3 p.m.).

“We do have specific presentations that we think might be interesting to a specific group,” Telleen said. “We have certain sessions that we think might be interesting to nurses or to parents.”

The final activity will run from 3 to 3:30 p.m., when attendees will be able to complete evaluations and visit sponsors’ tables.

“The conference is open to everyone. From parents to superintendents, we invite you to come,” said Telleen. “We invite teachers, special education teachers, and administrators to come to our conference. We have a wide range of topics.”

Go to http://www.iu13.org/event/education-conference to register. Preregistration is required for both morning and afternoon breakout sessions, but not the keynote speech. The registration deadline is Friday, May 23.

“We want people to register early and get the early-bird discount,” said Telleen. “We want to get as many people there as possible, but space is limited to approximately 400 people. We’d like to get our registration in as early as possible.”

Telleen said the IU13 is thankful for support from vendors and business sponsors. The conference will also serve as a recruitment tool. “We are highlighting some students,” Telleen said. “There are some interns who will be at our conference. This is another opportunity for us to attract young people to the field of education and specifically working with students with disabilities.” She noted the importance of interesting young people in teaching to address teacher shortages.

The IU13 supports students with disabilities from birth to graduation and beyond, Telleen said. “We work with families. We work with our 22 member districts to provide training and technical assistance and special programming for students with disabilities,” she added.

There is a wide variety of programs that offer support. “My team offers training and technical assistance,” said Telleen. “We do go out to the various districts, but we also host training or job groups here at Burle (Corporate Park) in our conference center. We also have programs within districts for children with disabilities, supporting students with multiple disabilities or autism.”