Supporting and Educating a School Aged Child with a Disability in West Texas
Program Overview
At the end of each month from August 2025 to April 2026, practitioners in Special Education from Guiding Hands—an outreach program connected with Odessa High School's Transition Learning Center (TLC)—developed, delivered, and archived nine (9) Professional Development (PD) sessions to help support and educate a school aged child with a disability in West Texas.
These sessions have been designed so that anyone can participate in and/or replicate these PD sessions for your: own personal education, parent advocacy group(s), teaching organizations, professional learning communities (PLCs), etc. We invite and encourage you to use these materials, made by educators for the community, with the stakeholders in your professional contexts to better support the education of students with disabilities in Texas.
Materials from each session include: the presentation slide decks (one in English and one in Spanish), a pamphlet styled handout (in English and Spanish), and archived bilingual video/s.
Topic 1: How to identify special education needs (August 2025) Materials
Topic 2: How to employ MTSS Strategies and an overview of evaluation procedures and interpreting evaluation results (September 2025) Materials
Topic 3: Understanding what is an Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) meeting and how to discuss a student's special education; parent rights and how to be an effective advocate for your student (October 2025) Materials
Topic 4: An overview of accommodations in the classroom (November 2025) Materials
Topic 5: A survey of high school graduation plans, tracking credits, and how to navigate special education requirements as students prepare for graduation (December 2025) Materials
Topic 6: An exploration of speech disorder(s), diagnosis and speech therapy in the classroom (January 2026) Materials
Topic 7: The early warning signs and research based interventions for dyslexia (February 2026) Materials
Topic 8: Strategies for parents and teachers who support students with autism (March 2026) Materials
Topic 9: How health conditions such as ADHD, epilepsy, and chronic illness impact a child’s education (April 2026) Materials
Key Accomplishments
- Nine (9) PD events were designed and delivered by West Texas special education practitioners.
- Tutoring was provided to students by teachers whose parents attended the PD sessions.
- PD materials were made available to Texan parents and educations on this website.
News / Press
- Guiding Hands event aims to help parents spot learning challenges (August 22, 2025), NewsWest9.
Funding
These PD sessions were graciously supported by a professorial endowment made possible by the Helen Jones Foundation. Learn more about Mrs. Jones and her foundation here.
Collaborators
Karla Montalvo, Guiding Hands
Joseph Mansanales, Guiding Hands
Faculty Contact
College of Education
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Address
Texas Tech University, College of Education, 3002 18th Street Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
(806) 742-2377 -
Email
educ.webmaster@ttu.edu