The 2026 Virtual Neuroaffirming IEP Summit
A virtual summit helping families, educators, advocates, and professionals build IEPs and learning environments that honor disabled and neurodivergent learners as whole people.
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Virtual Event
Live + Pre-Recorded Sessions
Free Ticket Available | All Access Pass Option
A Message from Your Host Dr. Destiny Huff, LPC
In this short video, Dr. Destiny Huff shares why the 2026 Virtual Neuroaffirming IEP Summit was created, who it is for, and how each session will help families, educators, and professionals move beyond compliance toward access, dignity, and whole-learner support.
Opening Live Session Feature
Evalaurene Jean-Charles, MAT
CEO & Founder of Black on Black Education
Liberated Learning: Centering Black Student Voice to Build Joyful, Rigorous, and Liberating Classrooms
Start the day with a powerful live session centering Black student voice, joy, rigor, identity, and liberation. This session will help ground the summit in the truth that access is not only about services and supports, but also about belonging, culture, voice, and dignity.
Why This Summit Matter
IEPs should be about more than just paperwork.
Disabled and neurodivergent learners deserve educational experiences that support communication, regulation, literacy, identity, autonomy, culture, and meaningful participation.
Yet too often, IEPs focus on compliance, deficits, behavior, and services without fully honoring the learner as a whole person.
The 2026 Virtual Neuroaffirming IEP Summit was created to help families, educators, related service providers, advocates, and school professionals think differently about access, support, and inclusion.
What You'll Learn
By the end of the summit, you will:
⭐ Understand how interoception impacts regulation, emotions, behavior, and participation.
⭐ Learn from lived experience about Childhood Apraxia of Speech and communication access in schools.
⭐ Explore how Black student voice, joy, rigor, and liberation belong in conversations about education and access.
⭐ Deepen your understanding of dyslexia, language, family capacity, and literacy justice.
⭐ Learn how to move beyond compliance and build IEPs that honor disabled learners as whole people.
Meet Your 2026 Speakers
Evalaurene Jean-Charles, MAT
CEO & Founder of Black on Black Education
Liberated Learning: Centering Black Student Voice to Build Joyful, Rigorous, and Liberating Classrooms
Evalaurene Jean-Charles is the CEO & Co-Founder of Black on Black Education, which helps schools and teachers navigate (and fight against) the intentionally broken education system by setting student-centered systems that balance rigor and joy without teacher burnout. As a graduate from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Relay Graduate School of Education, she is a dedicated educator and advocate.
Consistently developing her craft, she continues to make a profound impact in the classroom as a 6th-grade history teacher in the Bronx. Evalaurene is the founder of the Liberation Library, an online coaching community and host of The Resistance: An Underground Educators Podcast. Her Student Action Board curriculum has been effectively implemented in the US and abroad, empowering students to become leaders addressing challenges in their schools through research, collaboration, and actionable solutions.
Kelly Mahler, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Occupational Therapist
Interoception, Our Eighth Sense: The Science of How We Uniquely Feel
Kelly Mahler is an award-winning occupational therapist, author, and interoception groupie known for her boundless curiosity and empathetic approach. Holding a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy, she has served school-aged children and adults for over 22 years. Kelly is author of 12 resources including The Interoception Curriculum, now used in over 30 countries worldwide. She enjoys speaking internationally on interoception, neuro-affirming practices, and playful strategies for inner exploration using a lens of curiosity, validation and empathy.
Resha Conroy, MPA, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
How Language Builds Family Capacity, Protects Identity, and Supports Black Children with Dyslexia
Resha Conroy, MPA, MS, CCC-SLP is the founder and Executive Director of the Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children, a national organization advancing literacy justice for Black children with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences.
As a speech-language pathologist, systems leader, framework developer, and parent of children with learning disabilities, Resha’s work centers language, literacy, identity, family capacity, and educational equity. She is the developer of the ALIGN Framework™ and other literacy justice models that help schools and organizations build more equitable literacy systems.
Jordan LeVan
Non-Attorney Advocate
Understanding CAS in Schools Through Lived Experience
Jordan Christian LeVan is an apraxia, disability, and mental health advocate. He graduated in the year 2020 with his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, focusing on Mental Health, from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Jordan runs a blog called Fighting for my Voice: My Life with Verbal Apraxia, where he gives people an inside view on what it’s like to live with Verbal Apraxia. Jordan is an advocate, blogger, motivational speaker, mentor, research collaborator, and author.
Summit Schedule
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Evalaurene Jean-Charles, MAT
Liberated Learning: Centering Black Student Voice to Build Joyful, Rigorous, and Liberating Classrooms
Live
12:30 – 1:45 PM EST
Resha Conroy
How Language Builds Family Capacity, Protects Identity, and Supports Black Children with Dyslexia
Pre-Recorded
1:45 – 3:00 PM EST
Kelly Mahler
Interoception, Our Eighth Sense: The Science of How We Uniquely Feel
Pre-Recorded
3:00 – 4:15 PM EST
Jordan LeVan
Understanding CAS in Schools Through Lived Experience
Pre-Recorded
4:15 – 5:15 PM EST
Dr. Destiny Huff, LPC
Beyond Compliance: Building IEPs That Honor Disabled Learners as Whole People
Live Closing Session
Free Ticket / All Access Pass
Your Free Ticket Includes:
Access to summit sessions during the event
Live opening and closing sessions
Practical strategies for families, educators, and professionals
A neuroaffirming approach to IEPs, access, and inclusion
Upgrade to the All Access Pass for:
Extended replay access
Speaker freebies and resources
Bonus materials
The ability to revisit sessions after the summit
Access to Summit Recordings
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$10 OFF Neuroaffirming Advocacy: A Neuroaffirming Guide to Special Education Services - this book is a practical guide for parents, caregivers, educators, related services providers, and advocates who want to better understand special education through a neuroaffirming, learner-centered lens.
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Lifetime discount to the Liberation Library - the online community for teachers fighting the system from the inside, without burning out. Becoming a member gets you two live coaching calls per month, 40+ audio trainings, and ongoing personalized support.
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Free 1 hour IEP Consultation with Jordan LeVan - the consultation will provide individualized guidance on special education, advocacy strategies, IEP development, and navigating the special education process to support a child’s unique needs.
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Preschool Autism Summit All Access Pass - We have 5 passes, courtesy of Autism of Little Learners, we will be raffling off.
***More to Come
Meet the Host & Closing Live Speaker
Dr. Destiny Huff, LPC
Mental Health Therapist &
Non-Attorney Special Education Advocate
Beyond Compliance: Building IEPs That Honor Disabled Learners as Whole People
Hi, I’m Dr. Destiny Huff, LPC, a late-diagnosed Autistic and ADHD adult, therapist, parent, and non-attorney special education advocate.
I created the 2026 Virtual Neuroaffirming IEP Summit because disabled and neurodivergent learners deserve more than compliance. They deserve IEPs, classrooms, and school communities that recognize their full humanity.
This summit brings together powerful voices in interoception, communication, dyslexia, literacy justice, liberated learning, and IEP advocacy to help us move toward educational spaces rooted in access, dignity, and belonging.
