The SESC Regional Reach
September 2026
Happy October, and welcome to the SESC Regional Reach! đ Grab your coffee and take a few minutes to explore practical ideas, helpful resources, and good things happening across our region. We hope you find something worth trying, sharing, or saving for later!
And because reading has its rewards, we have someone to celebrate! đ Congratulations to Sarah Caddell from Oak Grove Elementary in Whitley County, this monthâs SESC Regional Reach Reader Reward winner! Sarah won a $25 Amazon gift card. Weâll leave the important âpractical purchase or little treat?â decision to her. đ
Want your name in the next drawing? Each month, one lucky Regional Reach reader will win a $25 Amazon gift card. Read the newsletter and complete the Reader Reward Google Form to enter. Itâs our way of saying thanks for spending a little of your busy day with us.
Congratulations, Sarah! Next month, we could be celebrating YOU!
A practical guide to engaging the brain instead of outsourcing the work
By: Jenniefer Siler, SESC Professional Growth Consultant
Chromebook or pencil? It sounds like a simple materials decision, but it raises a bigger instructional question: What do students gain from the way we ask them to work?
While a digital assignment makes it easier to access information, organize work, and receive feedback, writing by hand slows the process down, allowing students to physically map out their thoughts and connect with ideas more deeply. In either case, completing the assignment is only part of the goal. We want students to understand what they are doing and carry that learning into the next task.
The rise of generative AI introduces a new layer of cognitive & instructional complexities. Students can use these tools to explain concepts, brainstorm ideas, or even draft entire responsesâforcing us to ask one critical question: Who is actually doing the thinking? Before deciding where AI belongs in a lesson, we need to identify the thinking students need to master through practiceâand choose an AI role that helps them develop it.
Focus on What the Brain Needs
Learning involves more than simply encountering a correct answer; it requires active mental effort. When students connect a new concept to prior knowledge, explain why a solution works, or deliberately pull information back to mind, they are engaging in the exact cognitive processes that build lasting memory. Extensive research on self-explanation and retrieval practice confirms that true understanding is forged in these moments of productive struggle. [4,5]
This essential mental work looks different across grade levelsâit might be a first grader verbally explaining a math problem to a peer, or a high school senior structuring a complex written argument. While the format changes, the underlying need to independently make sense of content remains identical. Generative AI has the potential to scaffold and enhance this process, but it also introduces a dangerous shortcut: a ready-made response that allows students to bypass the thinking entirely. When AI does the heavy lifting, new research indicates the brain treats the information as temporary, short-circuiting the very process required to turn an assignment into long-term knowledge. [2]
Look Beyond a Finished Answer
This vulnerability is what drove Bill Gates to warn in Education Week that while AI can vastly expand access to learning, it simultaneously makes it easier to bypass the deep work that builds understanding. [1] When AI makes all the choices for them, a beautifully finished assignment can easily conceal a completely missed opportunity to learn.
Recent research highlights two major pitfalls when assignments are outsourced to a tool:
The Essay-Writing Retention Gap: An MIT study tracked participants using ChatGPT and found they reported significantly less ownership over their essays and struggled to recall or quote what they had just written. Passively receiving an explanation requires fundamentally different neural processing than actively constructing it. [2]
The Creativity Anchoring Trap: While studies show students can generate more varied ideas when partnering with AI, many report feeling stuck on the tool's initial suggestions. An AI suggestion can easily become a psychological anchorâthe easy answer a student settles on instead of exploring their own creative instincts. [3]
By: Karla Johnson, SESC Educational Consultant
What if we spent more time teaching the behaviors we want to see instead of simply responding to the behaviors we donât?
Thatâs the power of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)! When schools shift from a reactive approach to a proactive mindset, they create learning environments where students understand expectations, feel supported, and are empowered to succeed.
PBIS is more than a behavior management systemâitâs a framework for building a positive school culture. By explicitly teaching expectations, acknowledging appropriate behavior, and responding consistently when challenges arise, schools can reduce disruptions, strengthen relationships, and maximize instructional time.
Small, intentional actions can make a BIG difference! Greeting students at the door, practicing classroom routines, providing behavior-specific praise, and actively supervising students are just a few proactive strategies that help prevent challenging behaviors before they begin.
The goal isnât perfection. Itâs creating predictable, positive, and supportive environments where students and staff can thrive.
Ready to Strengthen Your Schoolâs Behavior Systems?
SESC is excited to offer upcoming opportunities designed to help educators explore practical strategies and strengthen proactive behavior supports!
PBIS Exploration | October 27 (In-Person) & October 28 (Virtual)
Curious about PBIS or considering implementation in your school or district? Join us at the SESC Cooperative for PBIS Exploration! This opportunity is designed to help school and district teams learn more about the PBIS framework, explore the benefits of proactive schoolwide systems, and discover how PBIS can support positive outcomes for students and staff.
Register hereâ> October 27 (Register) & October 28 (Register)
PBIS Classroom Practices Power Hour | October 28
Calling all Kindergarten and 1st Grade teachers! Our Classroom Practices Power Hour sessions focus on practical, age-appropriate PBIS strategies that can be implemented immediately. Discover ways to create supportive classroom environments, strengthen routines, encourage positive behavior, and keep our youngest learners engaged and successful.
Register hereâ> October 28 (Register)
Your Next Step Starts Here!
Whether youâre beginning your PBIS journey or looking to strengthen the practices already in place, SESC is here to support you.
Remember: Positive behavior doesnât happen by chance. It happens by design!
All registration opportunities are also available through the SESC website.
By Dr. Brandi Bray, SESC Director of Special Education
For students with autism, navigating a classroom can involve much more than learning the lesson. Transitions, unclear directions, and uncertainty about what comes next can make participation difficult, even when a student has the skills to complete the work.
A student struggles to leave a preferred activity. Another waits for an adult to explain every step. Someone repeatedly asks, âWhat happens next?â An assignment sits untouched because the student isnât sure where to begin.
Sound familiar?
Structured TEACCHing offers a practical approach designed specifically to support autistic learners. It helps make classroom spaces, routines, and expectations understandable so students can participate with greater confidence and independence.
What Is Structured TEACCHing?
Developed by the University of North Carolinaâs TEACCH Autism Program, Structured TEACCHing combines classroom organization with individualized visual supports. It builds on each studentâs strengths, interests, and needs to help them understand their environment and what is expected.
The approach focuses on four connected components:
Physical organization: Clearly defined spaces help students understand where activities happen and where materials belong.
Individualized schedules: Objects, photographs, pictures, or words show what is happening now and what comes next.
Work systems: Students can see what to do, how much work is expected, how to recognize completion, and what happens afterward.
Visual structure: Organized materials and visual directions make task steps easier to follow.
Why Can It Be a Great Option for Students with Autism?
Structured TEACCHing makes information available in a clear, consistent form that students can return to throughout an activity. For autistic students who benefit from visual information and predictability, this can help reduce uncertainty and support independence. Supports are matched to the individual; students with autism do not all need the same schedule, materials, or classroom arrangement.
Think about handing a student a stack of worksheets and saying, âGet started.â The student may still be wondering: Which one first? How many? Where do finished papers go? What happens afterward?
A work system makes those answers visible. A visual schedule helps students anticipate transitions. Organized materials make it easier to begin and follow a task. These supports can help address difficulties with starting activities, completing work, and relying on repeated adult directions.
Greater clarity may also ease frustration related to confusing expectations. Supports should be explicitly taught and used alongside appropriate instruction, communication supports, and individualized behavior planning.
The goal is to help students with autism understand expectations, access support, and do more for themselves.
Join Us to Make Classrooms Click!
SESC is offering Structured TEACCHING: Making Classrooms Click, a two-day workshop with Dr. Amanda Bell, TEACCH Certified Practitioner and NKCES Autism & Low-Incidence Consultant.
Participants will explore autism-specific learning needs, classroom organization, visual schedules, independent work systems, and strategies for responding to challenging behaviors. The in-person workshop also includes a make-and-take component to help participants build classroom supports.
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November 11â12, 2026 | Virtual
8:00 a.m.â2:00 p.m. ET each day
Register for the November workshop
Registration closes November 10.
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March 16â17, 2027 | In person
8:30 a.m.â3:30 p.m. ET each day
Register for the March In-Person workshop
Bring your classroom questions! Weâd love to help you build practical supports that make learning more accessible for your students with autism. đ
An informational article for principals, district administrators, and directors of special education
By Kristy Stuber, Educational ConsultantA schoolâs response to dyslexia depends on decisions made across classrooms, school offices, and district departments. Administrators influence when concerns are recognized, whether teachers have the knowledge to respond, and how consistently students receive instruction. Principals and directors of special education share responsibility for building a system that connects early identification to effective teaching and monitors whether students are learning.
Understanding dyslexia through current research
The International Dyslexia Association adopted a revised definition in October 2025. A 2026 article in Annals of Dyslexia explains that dyslexia involves persistent difficulties in word reading and/or spelling, affecting accuracy, speed, or both. These difficulties vary in severity and may continue despite instruction that is effective for peers. Causes involve interacting genetic, neurobiological, and environmental influences. Phonological processing difficulties are common, but they are not universal. [1]
For administrators, this means that students may have different profiles of need. A student who reads words accurately but very slowly may still require attention. Identification should consider valid measures of word reading and spelling alongside instructional history and other relevant information. Research does not support relying on an IQâreading discrepancy to identify dyslexia. The updated definition guides professional understanding; it does not independently change special education eligibility rules or state law. [1]
Connecting screening to a timely response
Screening helps schools identify students who may need closer assessment and support. It does not replace a comprehensive evaluation for special education eligibility. Leaders should establish who reviews results, how families receive information, and when instructional teams meet to act on concerns. A screening calendar is useful only when it leads to a clear response. [2, 3]
A multi-tiered system of supports can organize instruction and intervention, but it must not become a waiting period for evaluation. Federal guidance states that response to intervention cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation when a disability is suspected. Principals and special education directors should review referral procedures together and remove any blanket requirement that a student complete every intervention tier before an evaluation can be considered. [4]
As if practical resources, regional success stories, and ideas you can actually use were not enough, weâre adding prizes to the mix.
Each month, readers of the SESC Regional Reach will have the opportunity to enter our prize drawing. Simply read, explore, and complete the short form below to add your name to the virtual hat.
Complete the form below to enter this monthâs prize drawing. Winners will be notified by email by Novemer 14th. Good luck!
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