Leadership Retreats

The LD Schools Leadership Retreat has been an opportunity for leaders to connect, recharge, and learn for many years. We hope you can join us for this exciting and fulfilling opportunity to share insights, learn, and grow alongside other LD school professionals as we work to build the next generation of leaders serving students with learning disabilities. With the formation of ALDS, the Leadership Retreat will continue to serve that purpose for years to come. The mission and vision of the retreat remains the same.

Mission:

Building the next generation of leaders serving students with learning differences.

Values:
  • Leadership Development
  • Connecting as a Community
  • Recharging

Join Us in Seattle

July 20 - 23, 2025

Click Here for More Information

Click Here for Attendee Information

INTERESTED IN BEING A SPONSOR?

Please review our sponsorship package and reach out to Cheryl Cook at ccook@ldschools.org.

MEET OUR 2025 SPONSORS

Platinum Level Sponsors
MISBO, founded in 1976, is a non-profit, professional association of 400 independent schools in over 25 states throughout the US. MISBO provides its members opportunities for collective purchasing, professional development, and valuable best practices and information sharing. MISBO lives by these three rules:

• Lead with Empathy
• Make it Easy
• No More than One Battle per Day

Superpower Mentors is a pioneering mentorship program tailored for youth and young adults with learning differences. We pair neurodiverse mentees (aged 10-25+) with neurodiverse mentors who share similar interests and passions while also having gone through comparable challenges. This approach creates a unique bond, allowing mentees to connect with mentors who feel like an older version of themselves, providing both inspiration and guidance. In addition to mentorship, Superpower Mentors acts as a family partner by bridging the communication gap between the neurodiverse mentee and their parents to create an aligned homefront on common goals.

RAVE-O is an evidence-based, structured literacy program for grades 1-5 designed to build students’ reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The program was developed by Dr. Maryanne Wolf and based on the POSSUM Approach, a multi-componential system where each unit in RAVE-O teaches strategies that develop multiple aspects of reading, including phonics, vocabulary, syntax, and morphology.

Platinum Level Sponsors

Gold Level Sponsors

Sodexo Independent Schools is a collection of integrated solutions designed to ensure peace of mind, spark your student’s imaginative spirit and further your school’s reputation. We ensure that your valuable resources, both financially and in terms of time and focus, are directed towards creating the most enriching experience possible for students.
 
With Sodexo, take a forward-looking approach not only with your academics, but also with your school food service, maintenance, athletics and more.

12M & Ed Tech Recruiting is an executive search firm that supports leadership hires in all areas of the head’s cabinet: finance and operations, technology and innovation, academics and divisional, advancement and admissions, and more. Founded in 2015, our firm offers a retained search model powered by an intentional and robust methodology that assists school leaders facing complex situations, including: restructuring, creating or redesigning new positions, and hiring for hard-to-fill roles or tricky situations.

We are not a placement firm, and we don't represent candidates. All searches are run as a team and overseen by our founder and principal, Gabriel Lucas, who has worked in multiple independent schools. We are highly connected across the US and beyond in many educational and nonprofit networks. Our searches offer outstanding consultation, custom strategies, and exceptional service for every client.

Currey Ingram Academy is proud to serve as a Gold Sponsor of the Association of Learning Difference Schools (ALDS). As a school deeply committed to empowering students with learning differences, we believe in the transformative power of community, collaboration, and advocacy. ALDS plays a vital role in advancing the shared mission of schools like ours—fostering environments where neurodiversity is understood, celebrated, and supported through research-based instruction and inclusive educational practices.

Resource Group 175 is an experienced team of former Heads of School and senior administrators with a respected track record of leadership. By combining proven search protocols and extensive experience with schools, we concentrate most of our energies on executive leadership and board governance, including Head Searches, Senior Leadership Searches, Strategic Planning and Executive Mentoring. 

Silver Level Sponsors

Educators Collaborative is a full-service consulting firm for schools, providing many services in the areas of search, transition, and strategy. From Head of School and Senior Administrator searches to institutional evaluation and guidance on governance —from strategic and financial planning to admissions policy and conflict resolution— EC provides detailed, comprehensive services tailored to your school’s needs. Since 1971, our partners — all highly accomplished former school leaders —have positioned schools for success through effective leadership.

Carney, Sandoe & Associates is a leading K-12 education recruitment firm specializing in faculty recruitment, head of school searches, and strategic consulting for independent schools worldwide. Since 1977, we have proudly partnered with over 1,800 independent, private, boarding, and charter schools across 48 states and 32 countries. With a proven track record of facilitating more than 33,000 successful hires globally, we are committed to connecting schools with exceptional talent.

Wilson Language Training® is a leading provider of professional learning and research-based reading and spelling curricula for all ages. Its multisensory structured literacy programs, Fundations®, Just Words®, the Wilson Reading System®, give educators the highly effective resources they need to help their students become fluent, independent readers.


The Slingerland® Approach adapts and adds to the Orton-Gillingham 1-to-1 technique for a whole-classroom setting. Our multisensory (multimodal), structured literacy approach begins with oral language and leverages that learning to build other literacy skills. The ultimate goal is always functional use.

The Slingerland® Approach can be utilized across an entire educational curriculum, not just reading and writing instruction, and it is adaptable to most materials used at any school. It is effective for general education classrooms and particularly effective for struggling readers.

The Windward School in White Plains, New York, is a coeducational, independent day school dedicated to serving students in grades 1 through 9 with language-based learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. Established in 1926, the school has earned national recognition for its research-based, multisensory curriculum designed to help students of average to superior intelligence overcome language challenges and develop the skills needed to thrive academically and socially .

There's a haven just 30 miles from Boston on the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean where students in grades 2-12 with dyslexia and related differences flourish. Landmark School is designed for the difference.

We meet our students where they are and individualize a program just for them. With opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom, challenging college-prep academics, robust athletics and extracurriculars, and an impactful boarding program—Landmark graduates are prepared for what's next.

One of the nation’s best schools for bright students who learn differently, Delaware Valley Friends School delivers an extraordinary education in grades 1–12 within a nurturing, inclusive Quaker learning community—one that is constantly growing and evolving.

Our Quaker beliefs help all students feel supported and encouraged, thrive in an environment that celebrates differences and each person’s inherent worth, work towards creating an inclusive community, and learn to recognize their own strengths while discovering new passions.

It’s different here. Creative energy permeates the air. Vibrant artwork is everywhere. Gardens cultivate curiosity. Hammers and 3D-printers in makerspaces bring ideas to life.

At traditional schools, students with language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia and ADHD, may feel alone, misunderstood, and even embarrassed. At The Lab School of Washington, these students enter an environment designed for them to thrive.

And that changes everything. 

 

The Roig Academy offers a global curriculum with a specialized approach. The Roig Academy is an IB (International Baccalaureate) PYP-accredited private K-8 school in Miami, Florida, offering a global curriculum with a specialized approach for students with dyslexia and language-based learning differences. At The Roig Academy, we empower students to inquire, act, and reflect. The Roig Academy is the IB choice for students with dyslexia.

Mary McDowell Friends School is a K–12 Quaker school in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to the success of students with learning disabilities. We offer an academically rigorous college preparatory program along with athletics, performing and visual arts, and opportunities for travel. Mary McDowell Friends School has been a leader in special education for 40 years because we’ve shown that students with learning disabilities succeed in school when they’re given the attention
and specialized teaching they need. Our curriculum focuses on revealing brilliance in every student. 



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Bronze Level Sponsors

A Life-Changing Experience… Eagle Hill School, located in Greenwich, Connecticut, is a leading independent day and boarding school where students with language based learning differences are understood, valued, and educated in a way that ignites their joy in learning and empowers them to become confident and resilient learners.

Pathlitics is the only postsecondary navigator that empowers neurodivergent high school students to discover their optimal next step through its proprietary database, authentic peer insights, and community connections. High schools can efficiently deliver more personalized, effective guidance. Colleges and programs can showcase their support of neurodivergent learners. Our mission is to level the playing field by exposing critical information so every student can make informed, confident choices and advocate for their needs.

Captured Time Productions, founded by Emmy-winning filmmaker, farmer, diagnosed dyslexic and education advocate, Harvey Hubbell V, is a Connecticut-based, documentary video production company tackling urgent social issues. Their latest film, “Hopeville: How to Win the Reading Wars”, confronts America’s staggering literacy crisis and presents actionable solutions, via the Science of Reading—a proven, 50 year old approach to teaching.
 
Learn more, get involved, or host a screening at HopevilleAdvocacy.com.

AIM, which was founded in 2006, includes AIM Academy, the Philadelphia area’s largest school for children with language-based learning differences, and the AIM Institute for Learning & Research, which provides evidence-based professional training to educators and leaders around the country and the world with comprehensive literacy training, access to researchers and opportunities to partner for impact. AIM uses the innovative teaching and research-based curricula.  AIM also partners with top literacy researchers to develop coursework for all educators to support student readers and transform loves through literacy. To learn more about AIM, visit www.aimpa.org

LeadTeam Partners is built for school leaders to easily engage external school partners. When you need to outsource, we connect you with the right partners.

When projects are easier, leaders are able to get more things done. We care about removing the friction to make more things possible for schools and their leaders.