Inspiring. Educating. Empowering.

Highlights from Our
2023 “A Time To Thrive”
Charter SELPA Symposium

The El Dorado Charter SELPA held its annual “Inspiration to Action Symposium — A Time to Thrive” on Friday, January 27, 2023, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento, CA. The featured speakers included Otto Lana, William Del Rosario, and Isabella Santoyo, three non-verbal teenagers with autism; Danielle Boyer, a 21-year-old indigenous robotics inventor; Marcus Allen, Jenn Gorospe-Tull, and Erin Mahoney speaking on the power of stories; and Diana Pastora-Carson, author and educator on disability inclusion.

More than 200 participants from County Offices, SELPAs, LEAs, and Nonpublic Agencies attended. They shared that attending the symposium reminded them of the importance of relationship building, that “hearing student’s voice and listening to real stories matters,” and the “power of focusing on the possibility, not the disability.”