Concord: The New Hampshire Association of Special Education Administrators (NHASEA) has been awarded the 2024 CASE Exemplary Small State Unit Award. CASE, Council of Administrators of Special Education, is an international nonprofit professional organization providing leadership, advocacy, and professional development to more than 5,700 administrators responsible for the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”
Left to Right: Christopher Beeso, Kelly Mask, Larry Elliott, Catherine Woods, Brooke Zimmer
Brooke Zimmer, a member-at-large board member, said, “It was a wonderful surprise. The award we received was the exemplary small unit. It identifies the small unit that has demonstrated a strong performance in awards, communication, legislative, membership, and professional development. It was just a great honor. We’re just super happy to be recognized at this level.” Zimmer added, “kudos to all the members. It’s not just the association that we want to honor. It’s the members, too. It’s hard work, but it’s very rewarding work. And none of this would be possible without our members.”
Dr. Kelly Mask, a former board member, attended the event in Savannah, Georgia. “It was a huge event with 1,300 in attendance. It’s great to have national recognition for our leadership in New Hampshire. We’re small but mighty, and the influence we have in terms of work we do in the field of special education and making that known is a great thing because there’s a lot of great work happening in our schools.”
“We have over 300 members who are leaders in special education from all over the state,” Jane Bergeron, Executive Director for the NHASEA, explained. “Our organization has three major priority areas. The first is professional learning and supporting our members and their leadership development and professional growth. The second is advocacy and legislation. We work a lot with our policymakers around legislation related to special education. And the third is partnerships and communication. We work hard to develop solid partnerships with other professional organizations, advocacy groups, parent groups, and policymakers because special education is just a small part of the larger educational system.”
Bergeron said the organization may have been recognized for getting special educators into the pipeline. “We developed a summit for new special education teachers. It’s a two-year commitment. It was two full days this summer. We’re bringing them back in February, and they will return next summer. We did this at no cost to teachers. We were able to get this funded for two years. So we could fund 50 1st and second-year special education teachers from around the state. It was great to see all of these new career educators and how thrilled they were to start the school year, being as well-equipped as they could and getting ready for the year. We do monthly check-ins, and we bring them back in February for a full day, and then we’ll bring them back next summer and add 50 more, so we’ll have 100.”
Beverly Stoddart is an award-winning writer, author, and speaker. She is on the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and serves on the board of the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. She is the author of Stories from the Rolodex, mini-memoirs of journalists from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
