2027 Academic Support & Student Well-Being Conference

When talking about students, too many meetings end the same way: everyone nods, nothing changes, and the same concerns resurface. This session presents the C.A.R.E.S. Framework: a five-part meeting structure, grounded in child and adolescent development and resilience research, that moves schools from a deficit-first, compliance-driven meeting posture to a strengths-first, partnership-driven one.

Originally developed for intensive Tier 3 conversations, C.A.R.E.S. now shapes how schools talk about students across every setting: advisory conversations, parent meetings, teacher planning meetings, formal evaluation meetings, and everything in between. It gives any teacher, learning specialist, counselor, dean, division head, or director a consistent, values-aligned way to collaborate, address student support, and achieve lasting success.

For schools where family trust and retention are critical currency, the C.A.R.E.S. shift can be a game-changer, shaping and strengthening a positive school culture along the way. Participants leave with a ready-to-use framework and practice applying it to real scenarios.

The accommodation system built to protect students with genuine learning differences has a problem, and both educators and students can see it. In independent schools especially, access to private psychoeducational evaluations has quietly transformed a civil rights protection into a competitive advantage for families with means, eroding trust, fairness, and the integrity of the support system itself.

This session offers something rare: an honest conversation across the teacher-student divide, presented by a 20+ year educator and the high school senior she co-authored with. Together they examine how accommodation misuse happens, who it harms, and what student support professionals can do about it. Drawing on national data, recent journalism, and direct student testimony, attendees will leave with practical language for difficult family conversations and a sharper framework for what genuine equity in accommodation requires.

In this session, participants will learn to assess and recognize student behaviors as indicators of EF challenges. Together we will walk through the steps to design an intervention plan that follows a coaching model.

Explore how a small-group elective course, Academic Seminar, can transform executive functioning and academic skills for students in grades 6-12. Learn how Academic Seminar empowers students to build essential skills like organization, time management, study habits, goal setting, and self-advocacy through weekly coaching. Discover how instructors support students in a small group setting, offering targeted guidance in tracking assignments, improving communication with teachers, and mastering core subject content. Examine strategies for fostering student independence while maintaining strong school-home collaboration through intentional parent communication. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for implementing or enhancing small-group academic support programs on their own campuses.

Opportunities for addictive and risky behaviors are escalating for our students, from substances to screens to self-harm, and initiation into them is beginning progressively younger. Our students’ engagement in self-destructive behaviors can interfere with present learning, future thriving, and overall school climate. Luckily a wealth of prevention research informs us on how to foster protective factors and addiction resistance in our students. Participants will gain tangible action steps for preventing and intervening early in students’ addictive behaviors and will be empowered with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to implement impactful practices in any role they play in their school community.