ODSS

Andrea Kunkel, CCOSA General Counsel & ODSS Executive Director

ODSS has a packed learning event schedule for school year 2023-24.

The First-Year Special Education Directors Project, which ODSS operates under a contract between CCOSA and the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Services (OSDE-SES), has 91 new director participants—the highest number in its 11 years of operation. The First-Year group met in person and via Zoom on September 1, and additional sessions will follow on the first Fridays of October, November, and December. If your district has a first-time director who isn’t currently participating, contact Andrea Kunkel at kunkel@ccosa.org for more information.

The 2023 ODSS Best Practices Conference is fast approaching on October 25-26 at the J.D. McCarty Center in Norman. Beverley Johns will be with us for a portion of each day with practical presentations about Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and other hot topics. Johns also presented about ODD at the May LRP Conference and February Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders, and ODSS members in attendance highly recommend her. OSDE-SES has approved the Best Practices Conference for Project 613 reimbursement for registration, travel, lodging, and substitutes. Registration is open at https://ccosa.my.site.com/events/s/communityevent?id=a1mDn000000htvG.

TeleSPED, a joint project of CCOSA/ODSS, the OSU Center for Health Sciences Project ECHO, and OSU-Tulsa, is back for its fifth year. Each one-hour virtual session includes a brief didactic and a “real-life” case study focused on special education issues. TeleSPED is uniquely designed to provide an appropriate and accessible means of support and professional development for Oklahoma administrators, educators, and related service providers interested in a research-based process to improve their personal, school, and district capacity to address special education issues more effectively. Sessions run from noon to 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of most months beginning in September and ending in April. To participate, complete the one-time registration for TeleSPED at https:// medicine.okstate.edu/echo/tele-sped.html

Regional meetings of the Tulsa Area Directors of Special Services (TADSS) and Metro ODSS groups begin in September and continue through the end of the school year. TADSS meets in person with a virtual option in the afternoon on the second Thursday of September, November, December, January, February, April, and May. Metro ODSS meets in person with a virtual option in the morning on September 15, November 10, January 19, February 16, and April 12. To request inclusion on the TADSS email list, contact TADSS leader Julie Geiger at jgeiger@claremore.k12.ok.us. For Metro ODSS, contact Metro ODSS leader Scott McCall at smccall@ putnamcityschools.org. For information about other regional directors’ groups, contact Andrea Kunkel at kunkel@ccosa.org ■