Head Start East LIVE
Turning Stone Resort Casino, Verona, New York · September 23–25, 2026
See the full schedule →Not registered yet? Register here. Already registered? Your mobile pass, your schedule and everything else come to you by email — reply to any of them, or write to info@headstarteast.org.
Turning Stone Resort Casino is at 5218 Patrick Road, Verona, New York — about thirty minutes east of Syracuse, right off Thruway Exit 33.
Self parking in the resort garages is free, and complimentary valet is available at the Tower main entrance.
Park in the North Parking garage. It brings you in through the Tree of Peace Promenade, which is the quickest route to our meeting rooms. Other lots route you toward the Expo Center, the wrong end of the property.
This is for the conference, not the hotel — check in for your room at the Tower main entrance as usual. For HSE Live there is no single desk: check in at the table right outside your own session room, where our team will have your badge and materials ready. Look for us from 7:30 each morning, and outside Onondaga from 5:00 PM before the Celebration on Wednesday evening.
Digital reader boards outside each room list our session names, locations and times, refreshed daily. Turning Stone staff are all over the property and happy to point you anywhere.
Our program runs in two areas of the property, plus the entertainment wing on Thursday evening.
The full schedule lives at schedule.headstarteast.org — every session, room and time across all three days, with speaker details and descriptions. It is kept current, so check it the morning of rather than working from a printout.
All together, one corridor
Professional Development Day, the Fiscal Leadership Summit, and every breakout room sit side by side off the Conference Center corridor.
A short walk — allow extra time
The CLASS® 2E Pre-K Observer Certification meets all three days in Oak, over near the Event Center rather than in the Conference Center. Certification attendees should allow a few extra minutes to get there.
Entertainment wing
Thursday evening’s reception and karaoke. It’s in the entertainment wing, a different part of the property from the meeting rooms.
The short answer to the question we get most: yes, Thursday lunch is included.
Meals outside the conference. We are feeding you breakfast and lunch every day you are in session, dinner Wednesday at the Celebration, and dinner Thursday at the reception. For the gaps — an early arrival Tuesday, a late night, or someone travelling with you — the resort has more than twenty restaurants, from the steakhouse on the 21st floor of The Tower to casual spots on the casino floor.
Wednesday, 5:30–8:30 PM — join the Head Start Family and Community Celebration, a welcoming dinner in Onondaga. Doors and dinner both from 5:30.
Thursday, 5:00–10:00 PM — the reception moves to the Turquoise Tiger, with karaoke from 6:00 to 9:00.
Every breakout room carries live captions in Spanish, Haitian Creole and Portuguese, alongside English captions.
You open them on your own phone. There is no headset to sign out and nothing to collect — bring earbuds if you would rather listen than read. Ask anyone on our team and we will get you connected.
Presenters do nothing differently; they simply speak. If it would help you, use it.
Fifteen photo challenges run across all three days, with points and a leaderboard on the lobby screen once we are on site.
Several are already open, so you can start before you travel — Show Us Where You Work, Getting Ready, In Transit. There is no app to download and no QR code to hunt for: open the page on your phone, pick a challenge, add a photo.
Two things to know before you play. Photos you submit go up on the display in the ballroom and in our public gallery, and we may use them next year in the materials for San Juan — we do not sell them and we do not give them to anyone else. And please leave children out of frame: only a child’s family can agree to that, and they are not with us in Verona.
Open the photo challenges →The Tower and the Brook are inside the main property. The Lodge and the Crescent are a short walk away.
The Lodge and the Crescent are about a five-minute walk from the main property.
Book at turningstone.comOr call 1-800-771-7711.
This program exists because a group of Head Start leaders and practitioners said yes — and then put real work into what they are bringing to Verona. Much of that preparation happened on their own time, on top of running their own programs.
Read who they are and what they are presenting before you arrive. It makes choosing sessions easier, and it makes the hallway conversations better.
Meet the speakers →