Regional Special Education Conference Celebrates 15 Years of Partnership
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2004
CONTACT: Kathleen McPartland
Tel: 530-898-4260
Rita Mulholland, Special Education Programs
530-898-4850
Regional Special Education Conference
Celebrates 15 Years of Partnership
The Northeastern California Partnership for Special Education, in collaboration with the student chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children, is sponsoring a conference on Saturday, Oct. 23, that celebrates 15 years of special education partnership.
The partnership is an alliance of the California State University, Chico award-winning Special Education Program with 57 public school county and district offices spread across a 43,000-square-mile service region.
The daylong conference, which begins at 8:30 AM in the Bell Memorial Union and ends at 4 PM, will include presentations on best practices, school/ community/ parent partnerships, federal and state law updates, and pathways to special education credentialing.
Janet Canning, California Department of Education, Special Education Division, and Jan Jones Wadsworth, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, will be featured speakers.
The conference welcomes special education teachers, students, program graduates, parents, support providers and administrators. There will be opportunities throughout the conference for participants to meet and connect with others in their field.
The CSU, Chico Special Education Internship program, which prepares special education teachers for work primarily in this rural service area, has been named a 2004 exemplary program by the American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES). On-the-job trainees, their university instructors and on-site supervisors serve 2,000 pupils each year through the internship program.
The program has reduced the chronic and severe shortage of special educators in the vast Northern California region by attracting highly qualified candidates, providing accessible education and fashioning support structures for both the trainees and their mentor teachers.
The ACRES award especially recognizes faculty for their effective instruction and contributions to research in teacher education. Special education faculty sharing the honor are project co-directors Lisa Churchill and Michelle Cepello, evaluator Mary Jensen, and distance educators Rita Mulholland, Teresa Davis, Vicki Shadd, Mike Carroll and Joni Samples. Course instructors and on-site supervisors include Vern Milliken, Laurel Hill-Ward, Hsuying Ward, Jack Krause, Monica Diamond, Emily Davis, Gloria Prochaska and Judabeth Morse.
In addition to speakers, workshops and discussion, the conference will provide an opportunity for honoring these professors and the interns and teachers who are at the heart of the program.
For more information about the conference or the Special Education Internship Program, please contact Rita Mulholland at 530-898-4850.
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