September 9-11, 2026
Griffin Gate Marriott Resort and Spa
Lexington, KY
We look forward to having you join us at the Kentucky School Counselor Association Conference!
We hope to see you next year!
Lead Presenter: Mike Paget
Oppositional Defiant Disorder is one of the most disruptive behavioral and emotional patterns. When students refuse to cooperate, whether passively or actively, it is extremely worrisome for the teacher and other school staff, and it often interrupts the day for others, including other students. This session will look at what is behind the development of ODD, and what tends to increase or decrease the patterns of disruption and defiance.
Lead Presenter: John Hodge
S.A.M.E. stands for Social, Academic and Mindset Education. It is a holistic approach to creating and sustaining academic excellence in today’s schools. S.A.M.E. provides a research supported, holistic view of school improvement by addressing all of the components of school and district culture which must be addressed if lasting school reform is to be attained, i.e. the Social Domain, the Academic Domain and the Mindset Domain. As the rigor of state accountability measures increase, schools must focus their efforts to achieve and sustain academic excellence. Come learn how this approach has been particularly successful in schools serving economically challenged communities.
Lead Presenter: Rachel Anderson
What if every 4th grade girl received proactive support for friendship challenges—before issues begin? Learn a streamlined, lunch-based small group model that ensures all students are included without missing instructional time. This session covers scheduling, group structure, and a ready-to-use curriculum focused on relational aggression, communication, and empathy. Walk away with a system you can implement immediately.
Lead Presenter: Loren Dittmar
When young people are in pain or struggling, caring adults naturally want to make things easier and solve the problem, yet real meaningful change begins when students feel understood and empowered. In this engaging session, Dr. Loren shares Motivational Interviewing strategies to support students who seem stuck or resistant. Learn how to reduce power struggles, build trust, and spark genuine motivation that moves young people toward true growth and healing.
Lead Presenter: Steven Coyle
Four-year college isn’t the dream for every Gen Z student—some want skills, not syllabi. In this high-energy session, we’ll dig into why the skilled trades are hotter than ever, what success means to Gen Z, and how you can connect your students to real career paths they’ve probably never considered. You’ll also get a sneak peek at SPARK, the chatbot built to answer student questions about skilled trades, jobs, and training—so you don’t have to.
Lead Presenter: Robert Crawford
This high-energy, hip-hop-inspired session helps school counselors move beyond “random acts of guidance” to design intentional, engaging lessons. Framed like an album, it offers a practical framework with clear objectives, strong flow, and interactive strategies. Participants will see live demos and leave ready to create inclusive, high-impact lessons that boost engagement and outcomes.
Lead Presenter: DJ Riggs
Discover how to lace up and level up your counseling program! This session introduces Marathon Kids, a free, evidence-based program, as a dynamic tool for school counselors. Learn how integrating purposeful physical activity into school counseling can boost emotional regulation, reduce anxiety, and foster resilience. Participants will walk away with actionable strategies, neuroscience-backed rationale, and a step-by-step framework to blend movement with counseling to support the whole child.
Lead Presenter: Nicole Fields
School counselors play a vital role in guiding students through the pivotal years from 6 to 12. This session highlights strategic counseling frameworks that build a deep sense of belonging, ensure smooth transitions, and increase retention. By fostering hope, counselors empower and activate students to illuminate their unique academic excellence, college and career readiness, and social/emotional learning.
Lead Presenter: Dori Glance
School Counselors are integral to promoting “college knowledge” – the skills necessary for students to plan for, apply to, enroll in, and navigate through higher ed. settings – with easy access to school counselors to answer questions rated as the highest factor for students’ college and career readiness needs. Recent research emphasizing the role of the school counselor in promoting college and career readiness, specifically in rural settings and for first-generation students, will be presented.
Lead Presenter: Laura Beth Neff
School counselors are uniquely positioned to lead whole-child systems, yet social, emotional, and behavioral learning (SEBL) is often viewed as “one more thing” rather than essential academic enabling skills for student success. This session explores how one high school counseling program moved beyond a weekly counseling lesson or SEL curriculum to build a Tier 1 framework for authentic SEBL integration through everyday classroom instruction.
Lead Presenter: Andrea Sebastian
Attendees will leave this session with practical ideas for making small changes to strengthen/start the steps to create a comprehensive, data-driven school counseling program. Participants will learn ways to collect and share meaningful data with stakeholders while highlighting the daily impact counselors can have with students and their school communities. These strategies support personal and professional growth, while ultimately leading to increased student success.
Lead Presenter: Kaet Barron
With a steady history of attendance in the low eighties, over the past three years interventions and programs have been put into place at Coleridge-Taylor Montessori geared at educating and improving student attendance. In those short three years, CTM’s attendance rate has increased to over 92%. In one school year, the amount of chronically absent/truant students decreased by over 10 percent. Learn simple and easy things to incorporate into your school counseling program to support attendance.
Lead Presenter: Kacey Evans
Meeting the social, emotional, and mental health needs of elementary students requires intentional collaboration between school counselors and school-based mental health therapists. While each role has distinct responsibilities, their shared mission is to remove barriers to learning and support the whole child. This interactive session highlights how an elementary school counselor and a school-based mental health therapist collaborate to provide seamless, tiered supports for students.
Lead Presenter: Joanna Barney
Looking for resources and activities to incorporate with your elementary small group lessons? Join us as we model a variety of activities and resources to make your Tier 2 instruction engaging and meaningful for students. We will emphasize methods for fostering connections as we share practical ideas. You will leave with ideas and resources to take back to your school and use immediately!
Lead Presenter: Emily Kuhn
This session focuses on advocating for the implementation of Erin’s Law, which requires body safety education be taught in schools, while introducing a newly developed free K–12 curriculum. Participants will learn practical strategies for advocating for Erin’s Law in Kentucky and leave with access to the curriculum. This session is ideal for educators who want to strengthen prevention programming and promote student safety.
Lead Presenter: Kara Goodman
It’s never too early for students of any age to begin thinking about life after graduation. This session will give counselors engaging, practical strategies to help students explore interests, personalities, and strengths—and connect those insights to meaningful postsecondary pathways. We will focus on four key pathways: college, trades, military and U.S. service opportunities, and entrepreneurship/workforce readiness and learn how to implement them into guidance lessons.
Lead Presenter: Sharon Todd
This session equips school counselors with the latest suicide prevention statistics and practical strategies for recognizing risk and responding with confidence. Participants will explore prevention, intervention, and postvention practices and learn the important role school counselors have as they serve on the front lines of student safety. School counselors will be encouraged to illuminate the path to support by fostering connection, safety, and hope within their school communities.
Lead Presenter: Sherlyn Bratcher
Equip yourself with practical tools to respond to school and community crises, including grief, natural disasters, and traumatic events. This session provides ready-to-use templates for communicating with families, staff, and stakeholders, along with strategies for individual and group counseling. Participants will gain confidence in supporting recovery, promoting resilience, and restoring a sense of safety and stability in their school communities.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Faith
This session highlights the collaboration between a school counselor and FRYSC to support students’ academic, social/emotional, and basic needs. Participants will learn how aligning services, improving communication, and coordinating interventions create effective wraparound supports. Attendees will leave with actionable tools including collaboration frameworks, communication strategies, and program ideas that can be implemented immediately in their own schools or districts.
Lead Presenter: Krystel Santiago
School Counselors wear many hats every day, and burnout is real. This practical session will show counselors how to use AI ethically and responsibly to save time with lesson planning, parent communication, small groups, flyers, SEL activities, data organization, and counseling program tasks without losing the human connection students need most. Participants will leave with realistic strategies, ready-to-use ideas, and systems they can immediately apply to their School Counseling Program.
Lead Presenter: Heather Moore
National Board Certification is often described as the “gold standard” for accomplished teaching and school counseling now has its own powerful pathway within this process. Yet many counselors don’t know where to start, feel overwhelmed by the components, or aren’t sure whether the journey is worth the time and energy. In this session, participants will explore a clear, counselor-friendly roadmap to becoming a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in School Counseling.
Lead Presenter: Ashley Slaven
This session helps participants explore simple, practical ways to support their mental and emotional well-being. Participants will explore healthy coping skills, self-care practices, and begin creating their own personalized toolkit to manage stress, build resilience, and support wellness in both personal and professional life.
Lead Presenter: Kaet Barron
After the pandemic, we saw a dramatic decline in executive functioning skills with our students. Executive functioning skills are basically the motors to our brains. Students needed a lot of help learning (or even relearning) how to utilize their working memory, self-control and mental flexibility. Teaching and improving on executive functioning skills can be an incredible theme to your guidance lessons.
Lead Presenter: Heather Bushelman
Which comes first…MTSS or the ASCA National Model? The answer is BOTH! Attendees will learn how to cohesively implement MTSS while using the updated ASCA National Model guidance and protocols, including data-driven decision making, tiered direct and indirect services, and assessing the fidelity of the school counseling program in regards to student achievement.
Lead Presenter: Rebecca Blakley
This session explores the implementation of KRS 158.4416, Kentucky’s legislative framework for a trauma-informed approach to education. Participants will examine the statutory requirements for school environments, including staff training and student support systems. Dr. Blakley will share actionable strategies for fostering resilience and safety, ensuring districts move beyond compliance to create truly supportive ecosystems for students with complex emotional and behavioral needs.
Lead Presenter: April Walker
Are you ready to take your school counseling team from just checking boxes to truly working together? This session will walk you through a clear, practical way to build high-impact professional learning communities (PLCs) that focus on student data, elevate the voice of school counselors, and keep success for students at the center.
Lead Presenter: Sherlyn Bratcher
Discover how AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, MagicSchool AI, SchoolAI, and Canva AI can streamline your school counseling work while increasing student engagement. This interactive session explores practical strategies for lesson planning, data use, communication, and intervention design. Participants will leave with ready-to-use tools and ideas that save time, enhance impact, and support diverse student needs.
Lead Presenter: Lindsey Wilson
Many classrooms have Calm Corners, but some students are unsure about how to utilize these areas, or are too embarrassed to leave their seat to use them. In this session, you will learn about utilizing mini boxes for individual students, as well as strategies to teach students how to use the materials and a suggested list of what to include.
enter: Alani Staples School counselors are agents of change, but much of their impact often goes unnoticed. This session equips you to document what matters, interpret data, and craft compelling narratives that showcase your role. and impact. Learn strategies to highlight equity efforts, drive systemic change, and use state-specific trends to uncover success. Walk away with tools to make your work visible, valued, and centered on student success.Lead Presenter: Britane Bednar
Discover how to use AI to quickly create engaging school counseling lessons, activities, and games that boost student participation and understanding. This session will share practical, easy-to-use strategies for designing PBIS and SEL content that is both meaningful for students and manageable for educators. Participants will leave with ready-to-use resources they can immediately implement in their schools.
Lead Presenter: Terri Hall
Anxiety, anger, and attention issues are the top three struggles I see with my elementary school students. What are strategies that work? How can we measure progress with these strategies? What are research-based resources I can use with my students? Walk away from this session with ideas, resources, and practice in effective strategies for these main topics.
Lead Presenter: Christy Foudray
Don’t let the spring scheduling season swallow your calendar. Reclaim your time for student relationships by leveraging Infinite Campus to automate the heavy lifting. We’ll show you how to use course rules for automated guardrails, course planner for student-led requests, and the academic planner for real-time graduation tracking. Learn how to transform the request process from a clerical headache into a streamlined, human-centered experience for you and your students.
Lead Presenter: Dawne Divine
Equip your students with a free ultimate career exploration launchpad. Use these actionable classroom activities to help 6-12th grade students create stronger post-secondary pathways.
Lead Presenter: LaToya Burns-Vaughn
This session will help school counselors recognize burnout and compassion fatigue, identify personal stress signs, and learn practical self‑care strategies that fit the school day and beyond. Participants will create a simple, sustainable self‑care plan and explore ways to build supportive, wellness‑focused workplace practices that promote balance and resilience.
Lead Presenter: Devin Coats
The focus of this presentation is to teach educators to treat behavior in a restorative way, maintaining student dignity and teacher authority. My approach takes into account previous trauma history, individualization, and a profound commitment to meeting the unique needs of every student. My goal is to help foster environments where all students can thrive emotionally and academically. In this presentation, I will share practical, high-impact strategies for supporting students and staff.
Lead Presenter: Christina Watford
When a student’s way is obscured by absence, data serves as the beacon to guide them back. We’ll use Infinite Campus data tools to identify those drifting into the shadows before they lose their way. This session moves beyond compliance, using an MTSS framework to light the trail for authentic relationships. Through the You Belong KY! Attendance Matters campaign, we’ll show how to clear the hurdles of traditional messaging and brighten the focus on engagement, connection and belonging.
Lead Presenter: Heather Bushelman
Students with anxiety and depression continue to increase annually. The signs and symptoms of each diagnosis will be reviewed, including the impact on student learning. Tier 1 Schoolwide strategies and Tier 2 and 3 Individual and small group counseling techniques will be modeled, as well as sample data collection to support student growth in functioning daily with symptoms and ensuring staff develop an awareness of how to support these students in classroom and social settings.
Lead Presenter: Schlonda Gates
In this session we will focus on: 1. Lead SEL and MTSS efforts school wide 2. Support Staff with Ongoing Dissemination 3. Use Data to inform Decision Making 4. Develop a Plan to Implement with Fidelity
Lead Presenter: Crystal Crouch
When a Kentucky family is reported for child abuse and neglect and the allegations meet criteria for a CPS response, DCBS conducts either an investigation or an Alternative Response (AR). AR is an evidence-based approach implemented in over half of the US and grounded in the knowledge that the primary goal of any CPS response is safety, and families are helped through connections with community services, resources and informal supports. Learn what AR is and how it is applied.
Lead Presenter: Terri Hall
What type of data needs to be collected? What supports should be put in place? Who is responsible for those supports? How do I progress monitor these supports? How do I move students from one tier to the next? What does an MTSS meeting look like? Answer these questions and more while looking at examples of data, supports, and agendas.
Lead Presenter: Kelly Richards
Some of the most powerful moments in a school never make it into a lesson plan. They happen in a hallway when one student stops for another — a student who sat down next to someone eating alone, a peer who noticed and refused to look away. Those moments do not happen by accident. They happen because someone believed a student was capable of carrying the light and gave them the tools to do it. Come learn how to find those students, equip them, and watch them illuminate everything around them.
Lead Presenter: Elisha Lawrence
In this session, presenters will Illuminate the path to assessment with the implementation of personality inventories, and college & career assessments. This will build awareness of strengths and reveal opportunities for student growth. Sharing these options with school counselors can help to navigate future conversations with both parents and administrators on ways to assist students in building positive relationships and supporting college and career goals.
Lead Presenter: Santina Plottner
How does the brain impact student behavior, learning, and emotional regulation? This interactive session highlights how social/emotional learning and neuroscience can illuminate pathways to student growth and achievement. Participants will gain actionable strategies to support student mental health, improve engagement, and strengthen school connectedness.
Lead Presenter: Renee Sunday
School counselors carry academic, emotional, and career readiness demands that require sustained clarity and resilience. This session introduces the REST Framework, a structured, evidence-based approach to recognizing early strain patterns, supporting emotional regulation, and sustaining counselor effectiveness. Participants will leave with practical tools to strengthen mental health, improve student outcomes, and maintain professional sustainability.
Lead Presenter: Jane Kim
Across the country, educators are seeing the effects of social media on student attention, behavior, and mental health long before the first bell rings. Yet common responses—phone bans and monitoring software—fail to address the root cause: engagement technologies designed to capture attention. This session explores how these systems shape student behavior and how counselors can support by focusing on prevention and behavior change, and building student agency to develop healthier habits from within.
Lead Presenter: Julie Squires
Learn practical, beginner-friendly motivational interviewing strategies designed specifically for middle and high school counselors. This session will introduce the core principles of MI and demonstrate how to use reflective listening, open-ended questions, and student-centered conversations to increase motivation, reduce resistance, and support positive behavior change in teens through real-world school counseling scenarios.
Lead Presenter: Tinika Campbell
Led by high school counselors, this session explores the critical role of student advocacy and representation in shaping equitable school environments. Participants will learn how counselors empower students to use their voices, access internships, co-ops, and navigate systems for academic and personal success. Discover how fostering belonging and serving as a beacon of hope transforms outcomes, creating intentional pathways for underrepresented students to thrive.
Lead Presenter: Bethney Salmon
As school counselors, we love to advocate for others. Let’s talk about how we can use that skill to advocate for the profession of school counseling! Local and State advocacy, face-to-face or from your own desk or couch. There is a way to advocate that works for everyone! Let’s chat and build our profession.
Lead Presenter: Heather Moore
Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to feel overwhelming at the elementary level. This interactive session highlights how MagicSchool AI can be used intentionally and ethically to support K–5 students, educators, and school counselors. Participants will explore real-world examples that enhance student engagement, support SEL, reduce staff workload, improve family communication, and model developmentally appropriate AI use through practical, ready-to-use strategies.
Lead Presenter: Kari McGrath
Are you the only School Counselor in the building? Do you wish you had a more collaborative relationship with your Admin? Being the lone wolf in your building can be tough! But, you’re in luck! You don’t have to do it alone! Come learn how my building built an Administrative Team that collaborates weekly to ensure our students, teachers, and families needs are met! We’ve boosted attendance, improved behavior/office referrals, and formed a team that leads together; ensuring a strong school climate.
National Center for Youth Issues
ATTN: KSCA
P.O. Box 22185
Chattanooga, TN 37422-2185
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