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SPED Fellow Academy is a year-long, comprehensive development program for novice special education leaders across the state. The fellowship will provide in-person training, coaching, and a community of practice that will instill the knowledge and skills the next generation of leaders need to lead and sustain change to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

Programming Details

Mentor Coaches: SPED Fellow mentor-coaches are expert special education leaders who provide support and guidance to fellows throughout their cohort experience. Mentor-coaches support fellows in developing key components of their Executive Learning Project (ELP) for successful completion of the program. 

Professional Development: The learning in SPED Fellow Academy covers a broad swath of topics such as strategic budgeting, stakeholder engagement, laws and policies, leveraging data, leadership development including managing teams and sustaining change.

2022-2023 SPED Fellow Guide

SPED Fellow Guide


Executive Learning Project (ELP): The ELP supports fellows in examining a systems level problem of practice, developing a theory of action to address the problem of practice, and developing a project plan to lead systems level change.

SPED Fellow Application

Given the focus of the program, we are prioritizing full time administrators who are leading the special education programming in their system. Novice and aspiring special education leaders committed to seeing systemic improvements for students with disabilities and their development, should apply. Applications are accepted during the spring of each year, and posted in the System Leaders Newsletter. Please reach out to diverselearnersupport@la.gov with any questions.