Here are some of the big topics attendees learned about during this year’s Every Child Counts Symposium.

Student voice: Greg Fry, Sarah Notch and Mason Henricks from the San Mateo County Office of Education presented on the county office’s Launch Institute, a camp-like retreat where educators learn how to better support students from the students themselves. The session gave ideas for connecting with students in order to design better interventions to meet their needs. “We don’t often stop to think, who is the individual we are building this system for?” Fry said.

Social media: Colleen Villarreal from Perry & Villarreal, LLP, shared the many benefits of social media, particularly for special education students who may find online platforms more accessible. But social media can also be detrimental to student safety. Villarreal shared that students with disabilities are twice as likely to experience cyberbullying and 1.5 times as likely to be the perpetrator. Villarreal suggested strategies like having a cyberbullying response plan and teaching students the etiquette of posting online through role play. “Whatever you say or type should be something you should be willing to say to someone’s face,” she said.

Executive functioning: Jenny Ponzuric, Sandi Killackey and Kassie McOmber presented on executive functioning support needs for special education students. For problematic behaviors, like students who talk out of turn, Ponzuric said we need to make a distinction: “Is it a skill deficit or a performance deficit?” she said. “We want to make sure we’ve gathered enough data ... to really figure out, what is the actual skill deficit here, if there is one, or if this is a performance problem in which I need accommodations, reinforcements, reminders.”

Cell phone policies: DeAnna Glass with SPG Therapy and Education presented strategies for cell phone policies aimed at reducing distractions in the classroom. Attendees shared their struggles: verbal aggression from students, inconsistent policies across a school site, parents who text their children during school, and students who pull out a “back-up” phone when their first one gets confiscated. Glass suggested attendees use a combination of three different approaches — regulatory (full or partial bans), behavioral interventions (students are taught to manage their impulses) and collaborative/restorative (students are part of co-creating the rules and infractions are restorative). “Students are more likely to adhere when they are part of the process and co-creating the rules,” she said.

Artificial intelligence: Presenters Megan Hsu, Jason Hsu and Jenn Taylor showed attendees how AI can be the “robot sidekick” for special educators inundated with caseload management duties, e-mails and IEP meetings. Megan Hsu walked attendees through the process on how to use automation tools like Make.com to send IEP e-mail reminders with attachments. She urged educators to start using it now. “AI is happening. It’s not going away,” she said. “So the little bit you can learn at a time it will benefit you. It will benefit your students and the people that you work with.”

Homeless and foster youth: Presenter Felecia Tolliver asked attendees to “look past the hurt” to understand the unique needs of homeless and foster youth in schools. Tolliver said that when these students fall asleep in class or get into fights at school, “Their behaviors don’t tell the full story.” They may not have eaten, they may have gotten jumped on the way to school, or they may be on their fifth home placement in two years. She recommended ways to support these youth, including displaying awareness of their situation.

SPED burnout: Grace Fantaroni, professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, spoke about the many stressors special education teachers face, including difficult student behaviors, embattled parents and the caseload. “You go in to teach, you don’t go in to do paperwork,” she said. The demands are contributing to SPED educators leaving the field, even as the need for these teachers is growing. Fantaroni shared tips for building “resilience toolkits” for SPED educators, who can sometimes feel isolated at their sites.