2026 CASE Conference

Sessions Speakers Exhibitors Products Press Releases Show Specials Floor Plan

The Inclusion Impact: Translating Evidence into School Practice (Room 556 A)

School and district leaders are increasingly asked to make decisions about programs that promise to improve belonging and inclusive outcomes for students with disabilities—often with competing priorities and varied forms of evidence. How can they balance the need for rigorous data with the necessity of communicating it compellingly to colleagues and the community? Building on previous work brought to CASE in 2018 by Special Olympics North America on the Schoolwide Approach to Social Inclusion in High Schools, this panel examines how research, evaluation, and practitioner experience can be effectively messaged to drive systemic change. The session will open with presentations from the National School Climate Center (NSCC) and the Center for Social Development and Education (CSDE), who will share insights for Special Education Administrators about how relationships, perceptions, and inclusive mindsets shift when schoolwide inclusion efforts are maintained and how this inclusion serves as a measurable foundation for school climate improvement. The focus of the session, a moderated panel chaired by Special Olympics North America, will feature practitioner experience from Special Olympics Rhode Island layered with NSCC's and CSDE's research expertise. Building upon past discussions at CASE, panelists will discuss the benefits and challenges of leveraging data to bring inclusive programming into schools (when data helps and when it might hurt), how to message impacts and outcomes to generate buy-in, and navigating other tensions when putting research into practice.