Exceptional Children’s Week 2026
Exceptional Children’s Week is an annual celebration of students with exceptionalities and the professionals who serve them. The week-long celebration is a national event hosted by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), an international group serving as the voice and vision of special education to shine a spotlight on exceptional children.
Dates: April 13 - April 17, 2026
Theme: Turn the Page to Possibility: Literacy Success in Special Education
Programming:
- Monday: Chapter One: Celebrating Our Readers
- Tuesday: Accessible & Assistive Literacy
- Wednesday: Color the Story: Show Your Literacy Spirit
- Thursday: Author’s Workshop: Every Voice Matters
- Friday: Community Reads Day
Take time today to celebrate the many ways students engage with text and build literacy skills, whether through print, audio, visuals, or shared reading.
Assistive technology (AT) includes products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities. Use this day to teach your students about assistive technology and how it helps with reading and literacy. Assistive technology removes barriers to literacy and helps students access grade-level content in meaningful ways.
Wednesday is a chance for your students to showcase their favorite books and characters. Students are invited to celebrate stories and characters that reflect who they are or help them understand others.
Representation in literacy includes authors and stories that reflect disability, differences, and diverse ways of experiencing the world. Take this chance to look at the authors behind the books and the importance of hearing from a wide variety of voices.
Reading can be a shared activity! It connects you to the world and the community around you. Engage with stories that highlight the importance of diversity in your community.
Resources
These resources can help you and your school plan a great Exceptional Children’s Week:
- CEC Exceptional Children’s Week Toolkit - Download our toolkit to plan your school’s Exceptional Children’s Week.
- CEC Exceptional Children’s Week Social Media Toolkit – Download our toolkit to help spread the word about Exceptional Children’s Week.
- Book Read Alouds - Disability Equality in Education put together a playlist of YouTube videos featuring people reading aloud from books that feature characters with disabilities.
- Lessons in Social Inclusion A Collection of 5 Mini-Lesson Units (Special Olympics Unified Champion School) - This booklet outlines 5 units of lessons that you can utilize to teach about social inclusion and disability.
- Disability Awareness Class Activity Lesson Plans- The HIE Help Center compiled a variety of lesson plans designed to help teach students about disability and inclusion.
- Disability Equality in Education Lesson Plans - Disability Equality in Education has created lesson plans for all grades that can be used to teach about disability awareness in your classroom.
If you have any questions, please contact the Council for Exceptional Children at [email protected] or (703) 620-3660.