Autism and Special Needs Transition Conference in Pennsylvania July 19th-22nd

Pennsylvania Community on Transition Conference 2005 - Strengthening Transition: Achieving Results is a conference for all special needs facing transition. It is for individuals with disabilties, their families, and professionals.

This conference is for all special needs, not just autism. Some lectures deal with more than just transition, so parents of younger children will still find it relevant.

It will be held on July 20-22 in State College, Pennsylvania. There is a half-day pre-conference on July 19th. Registration is on-line by creating a logon conisisting of initials and last 4 digits of SSN. No credit card or any other info is needed.

Professionals pay a $75 conference fee. Special needs individuals and family members are free.

Here is a PDF with the classes/lectures.

Scholarships may be available to pay for room and board. Check with your local intermediate unit, office of mental retardation, etc, to find out if any are available locally.

We are going to attend.

Rich, I'm sure I'm going to be chagrined for not having known, but...do you have special needs family members?

I wish this conference, or something like it, was being held in my neck of the woods. My son desperately needs some sort of socialization and transportation resources.

Yes. My teenage son has Autism.

As far as conferences and other events, information is very hard to come by. We only found out about the conference through my son's school, and only because my son was in a specific program.

There aren't a lot of consolidated sources of information, and almost all of it is passive, with dosens of agencies expecting parents to find their websites or call and ask 'Is anything going on?'

The local Autism Society's closest chapter was in a different state, and we weren't getting enough out of the meetings.

There is a group called TASH who will also be at the conference. We're going to look into joining them.

They have a Missouri Chapter. This might be a good resource for you.

I searched through their links section.

here is a search for agencies matching services to disabilities and needs.