Yes We Can! An Unprecedented Opportunity
to Improve Special Education Outcomes

Little Rock, Arkansas | November 3–4, 2026

Venue

Solution Tree Arkansas Training Center
425 W Capitol, Suite 1300
Little Rock , AR 72201
Directions

Shuttle and Parking

DoubleTree by Hilton Shuttle: Guests staying at the DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Little Rock may take the complimentary shuttle to the Arkansas Training Center. Please arrange shuttle service at the hotel's front desk.

Parking and Directions to the Training Center: Self-parking is available in the Simmons Tower Parking Deck at 607 S Spring St, Little Rock.

After parking in a non-reserved space, follow these directions to the training center:

Take the parking deck elevator to the third floor.
Cross the skybridge and take the escalator down. An elevator is also available to the right of the escalator.
Enter Simmons Tower and proceed to the elevators marked Floors 1–15.
Take the elevator to the 13th floor. Follow the directional signage to the meeting space.
Parking Validation: Solution Tree will validate your parking fee. Please bring your parking stub to the workshop to receive validation.

Workshop Overview

State adoption of more rigorous academic standards underscores the sense of urgency for schools to determine how to ensure all students learn at the highest levels—including multilingual learners, children with special needs, children from poverty, and children facing trauma. During this hands-on training designed for school or districtwide teams, general and special educators will discover how to utilize PLC best practices to develop collaborative partnerships and identify high-leverage structures and strategies that will level the playing field, accelerate learning, and support success for all students.

Learning Outcomes

Learn strategies for building a school culture that believes all students can succeed.
Examine collaborative structures to support high levels of learning.
Explore the essential elements of a guaranteed and viable curriculum.
Understand how to design what a balanced and coherent system of assessment looks like.
Discover a protocol for unpacking and prioritizing units at the team level, including scaffolding instruction.
Know what it means to design standards-aligned instruction with a focus on tailoring learning based on data.
Realize the connections among response to intervention (RTI), professional learning communities (PLCs), and special education and how they all work together in a continuum of service.
Identify individualized education program (IEP) goals specific to student areas of deficit and aligned to priority standards.
Recognize what is important in developing systems for efficiently and formatively monitoring student progress toward learning goals.
Develop a plan for site-based next steps.

Julie A. Schmidt

Julie A. Schmidt has served as a school psychologist, director of student services, and associate superintendent of student services at Kildeer Countryside CCSD 96 in Illinois. She recently retired after serving as Kildeer's superintendent of schools for 13 years. The district began its PLC journey 25 years ago, and all seven schools have been recognized as Model PLC at Work® schools. She is passionate about ensuring all students have an opportunity to thrive and reach their goals.

Evaluate Your Presenter!

We value your feedback. Please take a moment to fill out this quick evaluation at the end of Day 2.

Supporting Documents

Materials are copyrighted. Workshop participants may print these pages for personal use and note-taking during the event. Additionally, pages marked “Reproducible” can be reproduced freely without permission as long as they are not reprinted in a formal book that is published and sold; copyright lines on Reproducible pages must remain intact. Otherwise, no part of these materials may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of Solution Tree. Please contact pubs@SolutionTree.com for permission to duplicate any materials.