Mark your calendar to join the Autism Educators’ Network (AEN) meeting in Spring 2020. All interested educational professionals are welcome to attend for informative and enjoyable collaboration! The AEN meetings are not intended to be training sessions, but information dissemination and networking meetings.
AEN meets once during the fall and once during the spring in Jefferson City. The Spring 2020 meeting will be held at the Hawthorn Bank Community Center, 3600 Amazonas Drive. For those of you who have attended in the past, this is a NEW location for 2019. Attendees must register for each meeting since there is a limited amount of space, and a meal is served (there is a $10 fee to cover the cost of the meal and refreshments).
The Spring 2020 meeting will be held on Friday, April 3rd, 2020 with two guest speakers!
Our featured guest speaker in the morning is Dr. Kaye Otten, PhD., BCBA, LBA. Here is her bio:
Kaye Otten is a board certified behavior analyst with a doctorate in special education, specializing in emotional, behavioral, and autism spectrum disorder. She serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Central Missouri and with The Mandt System, an international leader in crisis prevention and intervention. Kaye has over twenty-five of experience in public and private schools as a general and special educator and consultant and has experience working with all ages, ability levels, and disability categories. Kaye is the Co-Founder of Camp Encourage, a not for profit organization which provides one of the only overnight camps in the United States for children with autism spectrum disorder. She is the co-author of the top selling book How to Reach and Teach Children with Challenging Behavior: Practical Ready-To-Use Strategies that Work and the online professional development courses Managing Challenging Behavior: Part 1-Antecedent Strategies and Part 2-Consequence Strategies provided by Exceptional Child by Vector Solutions.
The featured speaker in the afternoon will be attorney Jim Thomeczek from Thomeczek & Brink, LLC., speaking on “Ten Years Later: The Current State of the Law with Respect to the Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Public Schools”. Here is his self-penned bio:
Jim Thomeczek is a partner in the St. Louis law firm Thomeczek & Brink, LLC. For over thirty years Jim has represented school districts in Missouri in special education and related student matters. He has argued four special education cases before the Eighth Circuit and has had at least one other Eighth Circuit case dismissed by the Court in favor of the school district. Jim has successfully litigated a seclusion and restraint case on behalf of a school district in federal court. Jim is currently on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association’s Council of School Attorneys (COSA). He is on the IDEA Advisory committee of COSA. He has also served as the Chair of the Missouri Council of School Attorneys. For the past eleven years, Jim has been recognized by Thompson Reuters as a SuperLawyer, and has also been recognized by Best Lawyers – including as the Lawyer of the Year in Education (St. Louis).
Other tidbits (some relevant; some not) — Jim has spoken at both LRP conferences and at COSA conferences. He serves on the adjunct faculty at Lindenwood University. He is a former high school/junior high school English teacher. His very first due process hearing involved a child with autism. He shares a birthday with his brother (11 years apart) and his first cousin (four hours apart). He has a 60 year old sister who is cognitively impaired whom he takes to Mass every Sunday. His son-in-law competed on American Ninja Warrior. His wife has won more awards than you can imagine. He prefers red wine (but not merlot) to white. But his favorite roles are those of husband, father, and grandfather (to three grandsons)! He had more fun writing this last paragraph than he did writing the first two.
The AEN meetings are held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
If you are interested in joining AEN and attending meetings, please contact Tina Neal-Fox at tinaneal@missouristate.edu
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