This training will provide you with practical information for helping learners successfully transition from The Picture Exchange Communication System® (PECS®) to Speech Generating Devices (SGDs). After mastering vital communication skills such as initiation, persistence in relaying messages, picture discrimination and basic sentence structure, learners often have large repertoires of pictures stored in their communication book. To accommodate larger vocabularies and allow for continued language development, the team may next explore a transition to a dedicated Speech Generating Device (SGD) or tablet with communication app. During this training, we will show your team how to assess current PECS skills and analyze the features of available apps and SGDs in order to make the selection best suited to your learner's needs, ensuring a rapid transfer of existing communication skills. Once we've considered relevant options for device or app selection, we will guide you in the detailed lesson planning necessary to teach use of the new device as a functional communication system to ensure SGD users maintain effective communication skills! Whether you are just getting started or you want to enhance your approach to teaching with an SGD already in place, this workshop will give you evidence-based teaching strategies and insights to maximize your learner's transition to and use of an SGD. *Please bring a Speech Generating Device (SGD) or a tablet with an AAC app to the training to use during a variety of activities. EILA and CEUs will be available for this in-person session. Please Note: This Training Has An 8:00am Start Time

This professional learning series is designed for district and school leaders responsible for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Through a sequence of collaborative sessions, participants will explore how to effectively implement and maximize their High-Quality Instructional Resources (HQIRs) to drive improved student outcomes.

Using the Curriculum Implementation Framework as a guide, leaders will learn how to develop and refine a local curriculum document, utilize the Pedagogical Practices Mapping Tool, and align learning targets, standards, lessons, and assessments to ensure coherence across their instructional system.

Each session will balance learning, reflection, and collaboration, providing opportunities for participants to:
- Examine tools and processes that strengthen curriculum implementation;
- Apply learning to their own district or school context;
- Engage in meaningful discussion and problem-solving with peers; and
- Hear from other districts about their implementation successes and challenges.

By the end of the series, participants will leave with actionable tools, aligned curriculum structures, and strategies to ensure improved teaching and learning across classrooms.

A great classroom starts long before students walk through the door. In this session, you'll dig into Danielson's Domain 1 and explore what it really means to plan with intention — not just have a lesson plan, but design for learning outcomes. You'll use backwards design to align your standards, assessments, and instruction, and you'll learn how to use student data, prior records, and community context to know your learners before day one.

Whether you're a veteran who needs to shake off autopilot, a new teacher building your framework from scratch, or an alternatively certified teacher filling in the gaps your training didn't cover, this session meets you where you are. You'll get hands-on time to deconstruct lesson plans, collaborate with peers, and build a personalized first-week plan rooted in routines that set the tone for the entire year. Walk away with planning templates, a resource audit checklist, and a Domain 1 self-assessment you can revisit all year long.

As AI shows up in classrooms, planning periods, and district conversations, the question isn't whether to engage with it, but how to do it well. The AI Empowered Teacher Cadre is a standing community for educators who want to build real skill with AI tools and collaboratively figure out what responsible and effective use looks like in K-12 schools.

This cadre will meet monthly on the third Thursday to build AI literacy and skills, think together, integrate AI into instruction, and streamline workflows. An hour of PD credit will be provided for each session attended.

Build the knowledge and confidence to effectively lead Admission and Release Committee (ARC) meetings. This interactive workshop covers the roles and responsibilities of the ARC chair, special education timelines, procedural safeguards, meeting facilitation, documentation, and legal compliance. Through real-world scenarios and guided practice, participants will strengthen their leadership skills and leave with practical tools to conduct efficient, student-centered, and compliant ARC meetings.

This 2-day workshop develops the knowledge and skill required to provide immediate mental health crisis interventions to the students, staff, and school community members who have been simultaneously exposed to an acute traumatic stressor. The PREPaRE model emphasizes:
-Preventing and preparing for crises;
-Reaffirming physical health and welfare, and perceptions of safety and security;
-Evaluating psychological trauma risk;
-Providing interventions;
-Responding to mental health needs;
-Examining the effectiveness of crisis preparedness.

NOTE: Registration Deadline is Friday, August 14 at 4:00 pm ET.

Participants must attend the entire day and stay through the end of the day on both days to take the post-test in order to receive a certificate of completion.

This training is offered at no cost by the KDE Stronger Connections Grant! However, due to having to purchase seat licenses ahead of time, anyone who cancels registration after Friday, August 14, 2026 will be billed for the license fee.

6.5 Hours of EILA will be available each day.

The Math SDI Toolkit is a set of resources designed by the math consultants of the KY Special Education Cooperative Network. The purpose of the Toolkit is to improve the quality and selection of specially designed instruction (SDI) while strengthening the connection across IEP goals, progress monitoring and KY Academic Standards. This 2-hour online, virtual training is designed for those who will be using the toolkit and selecting SDI to support students. It will include deepening understanding of SDI and application of the toolkit.

Writing High-Quality IEPs
6-Hour Professional Learning

Develop IEPs that are both legally compliant and meaningful for students. This interactive workshop walks participants through each component of the IEP, including Present Levels, measurable annual goals, specially designed instruction (SDI), accommodations, supplementary aids and services, and progress monitoring. Through real-world examples and hands-on practice, participants will strengthen their IEP writing skills and leave with practical tools they can immediately apply in their work.

What if the very first thing students did in a science lesson was notice something, and then ask why? In this session, K-12 science teachers will step into the role of learner and experience firsthand how a well-chosen phenomenon or problem can spark genuine curiosity, surface prior knowledge, and set the stage for an entire learning sequence. Rather than talking about phenomena-driven instruction, we'll engage with one together, then unpack what made it work.

You'll leave with a clear understanding of what makes a phenomenon or problem effective, criteria for evaluating phenomena in your own curriculum, and dedicated time to plan how you'll bring this into an upcoming lesson with support from colleagues across the region. 

Note: This is the first session of a four-session series running throughout the year. Sessions may be attended individually or as a full series — choose what works best for you!

6 Hours of PD/EILA credit 

This 3-day session equips teachers with easy-to-use tools to improve student writing in any subject at any grade level. Based on Judith Hochman's The Writing Revolution, this session covers clear, step-by-step methods for building sentence and paragraph writing skills. Teachers will learn ways to help students express ideas clearly, understand content better, and gain confidence in their writing. By the end of the session, participants will have a toolkit of effective, research-based strategies to transform writing instruction and boost student success. The registration fee provides each participant with a copy of The Writing Revolution 2.0.

This day is for all CKEC Crisis Response Team leads and other school/district team members who wish to join. The day will be focused on strategies, best practices, table top exercises, rehearsals, networking, and planning. CKEC Regional Crisis Response Team members are encouraged to bring others from their district/school teams to this meeting. Cadre meeting dates: August 31, 2026 (Harrodsburg); January 11, 2027 (Lexington). 6 hours of EILA.