ORLANDO, Fla. — Registration is now open for the 2012 National Conference on Transporting Students with Disabilities & Preschoolers, to be held here March 9-14.

The best rates can be secured by registering by Oct. 29 for the 21st edition of the event, which will take place at the Doubletree Hotel at the Entrance to Universal Orlando and will carry the theme “Ready to Learn.”

“Come ‘ready to learn’ – and enthusiastically participate in classroom, hands-on and networking activities from Friday through Wednesday. We’ll send you home with a busload of smart ideas,” Edupro Group President Roseann Schwaderer said.

The conference offers more than 40 hours of training on special-needs, Head Start and preschool transportation practices in a series of breakouts and general sessions. Three separate-registration workshops during the conference add another eight to nine hours of opportunities to learn from top practitioners.

In two half-day segments, this year’s nine-hour Executive Briefing (Workshop C) covers “Lesson Plans for Changing Times: Legal and HR Issues You Never Thought You’d Confront.” Attorney Peggy Burns and Adams 12 Five Star Schools HR Chief Mark Hinson (both consultants with Education Compliance Group) promise “in-depth explorations of key topic areas and a fast-paced ‘lightning’ round that will surprise you with the variety of new subjects you’ve got to juggle.”

For preschool and Head Start transporters, the conference offers Workshop A, “Skill Sets for Successful Operations,” in two half-day segments. Workshop B is “Child Safety Restraint Systems” — the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s school bus-specific eight-hour curriculum.

The general sessions will include “Compliance Versus Excellence,” “Medications on the School Bus,” “Protocols for Establishing Custody and Control,” and “Couples Therapy” (to help build and strengthen relationships between transportation and special-ed departments).

The opening general session will look ahead at what recent regulatory changes and initiatives in special education could mean for transportation — changes related to infants and toddlers with disabilities, maintenance of effort, and seclusion and restraint, among other things.

For the second year in a row, registrants will have the opportunity to complete the core curriculum for the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s Special Needs Transportation Training endorsement.

For more conference details and to register, go to www.eduprogroup.com.

The 15th National Special Needs Team Safety Roadeo will be held March 9-11 in Orlando. It will include a number of free conference sessions for team contestants. More info is available on the Edupro website.