Bay Area Community of Practice

At the Solano County SELPA, we are honored to serve as the Regional Implementation Lead for Region 4. We work in partnership with Region 5 Regional Implementation Lead, Matt Wintheiser, Program Specialist for El Dorado Charter SELPA, to bring a community of practice to the Bay Area, including Solano, Napa, Marin, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey counties.

Our work is made possible by our collaboration with Pathways to Partnership. The Pathways to Partnership consortium envisions a statewide educational community with the necessary skill sets to prevent, reduce, and resolve conflicts building trust and mutual understanding between families and educational agencies. Their vision embraces resolving conflict at the lowest level, preserving relationships with all members of the IEP team, and ensuring the IEP process is the foundation for positive, equitable student outcomes for all students with disabilities. Their vision seeks to transform the way in which educators respond to conflict and dispute within the California special education system and Statewide System of Support (SSOS) by establishing a sustainable continuum for dispute prevention and resolution that is accessible to all.

Learn more about Pathways to Partnership on their website.

“Communities of practice are groups of people 
who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, 
and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area 
by interacting on an ongoing basis.”
Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 4, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge