Inclusive education is a powerful, even life-changing practice with proven benefits for students with disabilities, their typical peers, instruction, school culture, and the larger community beyond school.  All too often, we fail to experience these benefits because we define inclusion too narrowly and we see it as appropriate only for a specific group of students.  This webinar will explore how to realize the many benefits of inclusion by expanding the definition, and will introduce a tool for examining how IEPs can be implemented in inclusive classrooms for a broad range of students.

Cyndi Pitonyak brings with her to ACE over 30 years of experience as a special educator.  She has teaching experience at both elementary and secondary levels in inclusive, self-contained and residential settings, as well as special education administration experience at the school and district level.  Cyndi has been invited to testify before the United States Senate HELP Committee and interviewed by ProPublica and National Public Radio regarding her work in inclusive education.  She has provided technical assistance and training to school divisions nationally and internationally and has taught at the college level in undergraduate and graduate level special education teacher preparation programs.