A key component in achieving COPAA’s mission is collaboration with other organizations and coalitions that share our values and support our work.  Some of COPAA’s current collaborative activities include:

Alliance in Support of Athletics Opportunity for Students with Disabilities

This coalition is working to expand physical activity and athletic opportunities for individuals with disabilities in educational institutions. Individuals with and without disabilities, female and male, must be provided with equal opportunities and resources to participate in school-based athletic programs. See http://www.gao.gov/Products/GAO-10-519 for recent GAO report.

Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion (APRAIS)
COPAA works with 18 other national organizations for the prevention of the use of restraint, seclusion and aversive interventions in our nations public schools.

American Bar Association Section of Litigation Children’s Rights Litigation Committee (CRLC)
COPAA is working in collaboration with the ABA to produce a national outcome report from the summit: Raising our Hands: Creating a National Strategy for Children’s Right to Education and Counsel to complete a national outcome report.  COPAA’s interest in this issue stems from widely reported accounts that children with disabilities are being routinely ejected into alternative schools, denied access to an education with their peers and appropriate educational services. Behavioral Intervention Plans are often ineffective; Functional Behavioral Assessments, poorly conducted. Increasingly, school districts are sending children to face criminal charges for relatively minor incidents.

Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) University Center for Excellence, University of Southern California on a three year demonstration grant funded by the US Department of Education. The grant funded portion of the project ended in 2009, resulting in development of a model curriculum for advocacy training. Learn more about this project.

Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD)
COPAA is a longstanding member of this national consortium of approximately 100 associations dedicated to the improvement of disability policy. Our work with CCD centers around its Task Force on Education to design and advocate for improvements in special education policies based on the identified needs of children with disabilities and their families.

School Success for All – The School Success for All Coalition seeks to ensure that all schools have a climate that is conducive to learning and to ensuring children’s social and emotional health.  SSFA works to encourage widespread adoption of school-wide Positive Behavior Support (PBS) initiatives to help reshape school climates into more favorable learning environments appreciated by students, parents, teachers and other school personnel.

TASH People of Color Initiative
COPAA is participating in this project of TASH, along with five other national organizations, to develop an organizational self-assessment tool to assist non-profit disability advocacy organizations to achieve cultural and linguistic competency.  The assessment tool is being completed by the National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development.

Interested in collaborating with COPAA on an initiative related to our mission?
Please submit a request using the Contact Us .