On October 25-26, 2021 NAPSA returned to the conference circuit with its 55th Annual Conference which, in the interest of safety and to make it convenient for all to attend, was held by virtual means only. Since the vast majority of those wishing to attend have been recently inundated with issues related to the surge in the COVID-19 Delta variant, in addition to streaming the conference live NAPSA also provided all attendees with link to a recording of the conference in its entirety.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Administering Pupil Services with a Focus on Trauma, Resilience, and Support.” Thus, sessions offered focused on resilience, trauma-informed care and behavior strategies, restorative practices, mentoring, and legal issues relating to pupil services.
The outstanding line-up of speakers provided some terrific information that expanded the knowledge base of attendees. Overall, participants rated the conference experience at a collective 93.4%, the online experience at 92.77%, the relevancy of topics at 94.55%, the overall flow of the conference at 90%, and the overall rating of the conference at 94.55%.
Those who attended the conference were emailed links to the entire conference recording. They also received links to other conference resources from presenters.
As a special treat, random drawings were held to award attendees chosen with a gift compliments of executive board members. Each gift contains goodies representing the state from which each executive board member hails. Winners were Shannon Akin, Paul Barbato, Shontria Carrington, Leigh Dalton, Garcia Dixon, Andrea Farina, Lauren Fleicher, Marissa Gallagher, Terry Martin, Mandy McKinnon, Kimberly Myers, Brittany Sanchez, and Donna Stelzer.
Two participants have also been chosen for a free membership based on the length of time they were in attendance during the conference. Those winners are: Garcia Dixon and Sara Hoffman. Naturally, given the success of this year’s conference, we are looking towards 2022! So, be sure to mark your calendars for the 56th Annual NAPSA Conference, which is scheduled for October 16-19, 2022 at the Drury Plaza Pittsburgh Downtown in Pittsburgh, PA. At this point, the plan is for an in-person conference with an option for virtual attendance.