Up to Date, with SST8

News and Events for December 22 through January 9, 2026

Winter Special Education Legal Update Series

Join Christina Henagen Peer and Lisa Woloszynek, Partners with Weston Hurd LLP, for an engaging and informative series designed to keep you and your team up to date on the latest legal developments in special education.

Please invite your district and building-level administrators to attend one session or the entire series, each event offers valuable insights you won’t want to miss.

Click the flyer for more information and to register!

“But I’m NOT a Reading Teacher”

Harnessing the CTE Advantage for Literacy

Career and technical educators play a critical role in developing students’ literacy and communication skills—far beyond traditional reading and writing. Join us for a virtual professional learning opportunity focused on the real-world literacy skills students need to succeed on the job.

Dr. Sandra Adams, co-author of But I’m NOT a Reading Teacher, will lead this engaging session, sharing proven literacy strategies specifically designed for use within Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms.

This virtual professional learning experience is a collaborative effort by CTPD consultants from across the state and is hosted through SST 13, bringing statewide expertise together to support high-quality literacy instruction in CTE settings.

Who Should Attend?

This learning experience is ideal for:

Career-technical educators
Literacy and instructional coaches
Intervention specialists
Administrators

Virtual Professional Learning Session

📅 February 24, 2026

⏰ 8:00 AM – 2:30 PM (includes a 30–45 minute lunch break)

💻 Register Here

Participants will engage in interactive whole-group and breakout sessions. Active participation is expected, including camera use and collaboration with the presenter and fellow attendees.

Virtual Follow-Up Sessions

All participants will be invited to attend one of two optional virtual follow-up and feedback sessions with Dr. Adams. During these sessions, Dr. Adams will answer questions and provide feedback on participant-submitted lessons.

March 4, 2026 | 3:00–4:30 PM
March 5, 2026 | 10:30 AM–12:00 PM

Links to these sessions will be shared with registered participants at a later date.

Contact Hours

Participants will receive contact hours to share with their LPDC. Approval of contact hours is determined by each individual LEA.

Tiered Fidelity Inventory 3.0

The purpose of the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) 3.0 is to provide a valid, reliable, and efficient measure of the extent to which school personnel are applying the core features of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The TFI is divided into three sections (Tier 1: Universal PBIS Features; Tier 2: Targeted PBIS Features; and Tier 3: Intensive PBIS Features) that can be used separately or in combination to assess the extent to which core features are in place.

The TFI 3.0 is based on the features and items of existing PBIS fidelity measures. The TFI has been revised to prioritize content related to the integration of mental health supports, equity, and classroom implementation and to better align with current guidance and training content available through the national Center on PBIS.

Click here for TFI 3.0 resources

Now Accepting Applications for the

2026 Community Collaboration Challenge!

The Partnership for Student Success (PSS) at the Johns Hopkins University Everyone Graduates Center is excited to launch our fourth annual Community Collaboration Challenge! With support from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the Challenge provides $5,000 - $10,000 awards to communities and is designed to support collaboration that expands and pilots evidence-based K-12 student supports in the form of high-impact tutoring, mentoring, student success coaching, postsecondary transition coaching, and/or wraparound/integrated student supports.

We encourage nonprofits, schools, districts, higher education institutions, and state and local government agencies and intermediaries to apply for these awards to facilitate collaboration to expand or improve evidence-based and people-powered supports for local K-12 students.

The application will close on January 16th at 5:00 pm ET. Awardees will be announced in mid-February, for award periods that will run from mid-February through October 2026. Learn more here.

The Department is Seeking Vendor Proposals for K-3 Mathematics Diagnostic Assessments

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is seeking vendor qualifications in response to the Department’s Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a list of up to five K-3 Mathematics Diagnostic Assessments for use by Ohio school districts for the 2026-2027 school year.

Districts may choose to inform any assessment vendors they wish to be considered that the RFQ has been posted to http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Common-Application-for-Requests-for-Qualifications.

The Department will begin accepting vendor applications for its RFQ process on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, and expects the process to conclude in early 2026.

Please direct questions to Mathematics@Education.ohio.gov.

Students with Disabilities Can Read Too!

Do you want to improve literacy outcomes for students with disabilities (SWD) in your district/community school? Join us for a series dedicated to addressing literacy practices to support SWD. SST8 will host these collaborative viewings of the DEW series, All Students Can Read (ASCR).

SST8 will also facilitate one-hour virtual ASCR Prep Sessions prior to each of the DEW sponsored events. These sessions will be critical to get the most out of the ASCR training. Benefits of these Prep Sessions will be to frontload and organize information, prioritize content based on regional feedback, and support the development of critical questions to increase engagement and maximize learning.

The ASCR sessions will be facilitated by SST8 in person and viewed as a collaborative group at Summit ESC/SST8 with processing time during the sessions. The series will culminate in a one-hour virtual Wrap-Up Session to support teams to apply the learning by developing an action plan with defined steps to implement evidence-based approaches for teaching students with disabilities to read.

The ASCR sessions are sponsored by DEW and therefore all participants MUST register for all three with this link in order to receive 9.0 DEW contact hours. In addition, all participants must register for the virtual Prep, in-person Collaborative Viewing, and virtual Wrap-up sessions through SST8.

Event Details:

📅 In-Person Dates: January 13, 2026, February 10, 2026, March 10, 2026

🕘 Time: 11:45 am - 3:15 pm

📍 Location: SST8 / Summit ESC 420 Washington Ave. Cuyahoga Falls, 44221

📅 Virtual Dates: January 6, 2026, February 3, 2026, March 3, 2026, March 12, 2026

🕘 Time: 8:30 - 10:00 AM (Jan ONLY) All others 8:30 - 9:30 AM

📍 Location: Zoom link provided for each session upon registration

Who Should Attend:

We request participation from at least one Curriculum Director and one Special Education Director per district to encourage cross-department collaboration and planning. Additional beneficial team members may include: building principal, literacy coaches, instructional coaches, and other special education leads.

Three Assessments Approved for the Department’s 2026-2027 List of K-3 Reading Diagnostics

Under a recent change to Ohio law, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce must revise its current approved list of K-3 reading diagnostic assessments to include no more than five reading diagnostic assessments by June 30, 2026. The updated list will be effective beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.

The revised list must include three currently approved K-3 reading diagnostic assessments that were the most used statewide prior to Sept. 30, 2025. Accordingly, the Department has determined that the following approved K-3 reading diagnostic assessments were the three most used statewide prior to Sept. 30, 2025:

I-Ready Assessment

NWEA MAP Growth

Acadience Reading K-6/Acadience Reading K-6 (formerly DIBELS Next)

As a result, the three assessments above will remain on the Department’s revised approved list of K-3 reading diagnostic assessments for the 2026-2027 school year.

Two additional assessments will be added to the Department’s revised approved list of K-3 Reading Diagnostics through a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process. The Department will begin accepting vendor applications for its RFQ process on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, and expects the process to conclude in early 2026.

Frequent updates will be shared with district leaders statewide and posted on the Department’s approved assessment webpage.

Please direct questions to ThirdGradeGuarantee@education.ohio.gov

Strengthening Mathematics Learning Across Ohio: Ohio’s new Plan for

K-12 Mathematics

Ohio’s Plan for K-12 Mathematics establishes a common statewide vision of high-quality, research- and evidence-based mathematics instruction, as well as guidance on the system-level conditions and structures needed to bring quality instruction to scale. It is intended to serve as an anchor for local, regional, and state education leaders, policymakers, partners, and others who can play a role in improving students’ access to rigorous mathematics instruction and overall academic achievement.

More resources will be shared throughout the year. Until then, please find the plan here: Ohio’s Plan for K12 Mathematics

Submit Reading Achievement Plans by Dec. 31

Districts and Community Schools that meet the following criteria are required to submit a Reading Achievement Plan to the Department by Dec. 31:

» For two consecutive years, the district or community school met both of the criteria below:

The district or community school received a performance rating of less than three stars for the early literacy component of Ohio's School Report Card.
Fifty-one percent or less of the district or community school's students scored "proficient" on Ohio's State Test for grade 3 English language arts.

Find the list of districts and community schools required to submit Reading Achievement Plans on the District's Reading Achievement Plans webpage. Please direct questions to ReadingPlans@education.ohio.gov.