About SOS and Cindy Michaels

Cindy Michaels, owner of SOS: Strategic Out-Source Services, is a former public-school administrator in Texas with many decades in education. For seven years, she served as Director of Special Education in a rapidly growing thirteen-district Shared Services Arrangement for 2,000+ students with disabilities. She served for three years as Director of Special Services in a single-member district for 500+ students with disabilities.

Cindy was director of other district special programs (Dyslexia, Section 504, Pregnant and Parenting Teens). She was an instructional services consultant in a Texas Regional Education Service Center. She also worked as an educational diagnostician, clinical trainer, and faculty associate at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas, appointed as Assistant and Acting Director of Education at the University Affiliated Center. She was a public-school teacher in special education, general education, and taught at the university level in Texas. She also was a teacher for the Department of Defense Overseas Dependents Schools in Germany. 

Since establishing SOS, Cindy has worked as a consultant in a variety of roles. Her clients have included school districts of all sizes across Texas, Special Education Shared Services Arrangements, law firms specializing in school and disability law, public charter schools, the Texas Education Agency, Texas Regional Education Service Centers, Utah State University, Bureau of Indian Education schools, and the New Mexico Department of Special Education.

Cindy was appointed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as the TEA Monitor for Special Education compliance in one of the largest school districts in the state and was later appointed as a TEA Conservator in a smaller district with significant compliance issues in multiple areas. She also has served as a mentor to new Special Education directors, both for individual school districts and through an ongoing contract with the Region 10 Education Service Center. 

Cindy traveled throughout the US conducting Special Education program compliance monitoring in Native American schools. She also provided onsite technical assistance for Special Education programs identified by the state of New Mexico as needing significant improvement. 

Cindy has provided professional and staff development training at the pre-service and in-service levels. Examples include graduate-level training in developmental disabilities and educational diagnostics; instructional services and Special Education topics as an employee and contractor for Texas Educational Service Centers, and customized topics identified as a Local Education Agency (LEA) need. Her "What's The Big I.D.E.A.?"© Training Monographs© system has become the “go-to” solution for Special Education programs throughout the state that want to not only meet the professional development standards in the Special Education Self-Assessment but also to provide staff the knowledge and expertise to meet the needs of individual students.

Through the years, Cindy has provided technical assistance and support aimed at high quality services for students with disabilities. Whether helping with an unexpected problem, providing quality implementation tools, or assisting with proactive systemic change, her goal has always been to offer practical solutions, be a positive support, and focus on productivity.

Cindy lives in McKinney, Texas with her best friend and husband, Terre. They enjoy traveling, good wine with good friends, and spoiling their Goldendoodle, Digley, SOS' "office manager".