Washtenaw County's Special Education Inclusion Coffee & Conversation

The Washtenaw County Intermediate School District has had a longstanding relationship with The Statewide Autism Resources and Training (START) Project. The START Project is funded by the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Special Education to work with schools, community partners, and families across the state of Michigan to support students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related disabilities to become active, engaged members of their schools and local communities and move into adulthood as independent individuals with many choices and opportunities.

We invite you to join us in a conversation, complete with breakfast snacks and coffee, centered on the concept of Presuming Competence. Presuming competence means believing a person has the capacity to understand and learn—regardless of whether there is consistent, tangible evidence that this is the case. It’s assuming the person is capable and can learn. How we think about a student's capabilities impacts the decisions we make. Low expectations will lead to minimal results, but when you aim high, students rise to meet those expectations. (START, 2024).

Participants will have a chance to engage in conversations with others of backgrounds different than their own, hear from a local parent whose children have been affected when they are not given high expectations, and an optional extension of learning.

Host or Publisher Win4Autism