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2008 Breakout Sessions
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Breakout Session I
10:30 am - 11:45 am
- A Quiet Revolution: Building Statewide Capacity through Community Advocacy
This session discusses how to create and sustain a statewide advocacy training program using Georgia's Parent Leadership Support Project as a model. Graduates of this project have advocated voluntarily on behalf of 2000 families across Georgia, increasing access to a high quality education and strong community for students with disabilities.
Presenters: Leslie K. Lipson, J.D.; Marcy McCall
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Understanding the Reimbursement Remedy
This presentation explores all issues relating to obtaining reimbursement for a unilateral placement; including notice requirements, alternative arguments for reimbursement, elements of proof under the different reimbursement theories, recent case law, and current issues related to reimbursement.
Presenters: Richard L. O'Meara, Esq.; Nicole L. Bradick
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Strategies and Scripts for Productive School Meetings
When school administrators say "no" to needed services or try to use delay tactics, what can we do? This session presents scripts for navigating IEP meetings related to requests for eligibility, independent educational evaluations, research-based instruction, and placement.
Presenter:Diane Willcutts
Intended Audience: Advocate or Parent
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Functional Behavior Assessments: An Introduction for Parents
Despite clearly stating a presumption in favor of positive behavior intervention methods and requiring the completion of a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) for students whose behavior is determined to be a manifestation of their disability, 2004 IDEA Regulations are silent as to what a meaningful and valid assessment includes and who is qualified to complete an FBA. What's a parent to do? This presentation helps demystify the FBA process, and prepare participants to effectively participate in an FBA process in the future.
Presenters: Missy Alexander; Siobhan Ponder, LCSW, MA
Intended Audience: Parent
Audience Experience: Novice
- The Effective Advocate
This session explores the essential elements of effective educational advocacy for parents, parent-advocates, or attorneys. The workshop is interactive and designed to develop effective advocacy and problem-solving skills through a case-study and enquiry process. Content will cover advocacy responsibilities, competencies (skills, knowledge-base), communications, ethics, and strategies.
Presenters: Mark S. Kamleiter, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Systemic Strategies for Stopping the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students
Approximately 70% of the students in our juvenile delinquency system are students with disabilities. This presentation discusses Southern Poverty Law Center's New Orleans based School-to-Prison Reform Project's national efforts to mobilize, coordinate and collaborate with other programs. Our goal is to attain systemic educational relief for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and thereby interrupt the flow of the school to prison pipeline for this population of students. This presentation also discusses various strategies used by attorneys to obtain such systemic relief for students with disabilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Presenters: Jim Comstock-Galagan, Esq. Ron Lospennato, Esq.; Courtney Bowie, Esq.; Eden Heilman, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorneys
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Expanding the Bar: Using Volunteer Attorneys for Special Education Representation
This session includes full discussion of the organization, development and efficacy of a pro bono special education project for low and middle-income families of children with special education needs.
Presenters: Dawn Smith, Esq.; Craig Goodmark, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorneys
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Open Records & Open Access: Sunshine in the Schools
This presentation focuses on FERPA, IDEA, State Open Records Act and HIPAA provisions regarding records access and confidentiality. Special issues such as computerized records, enforceability and discovery are discussed. The presentation also discusses the rights of parents and experts/consultants to observe in the classroom.
Presenter: Jessica Butler, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Breakout Session II
2:45 pm - 4:00 pm
- Artful Use of Hardware & Software to Streamline Special Ed Practice
Two experienced special education attorneys offer tips and strategies for maximizing your law practice efficiency and cost-cutting via software, hardware and gadgetry so that you can focus on the practice of law instead of paperwork. They explain how to create a nearly paperless and streamlined electronic or "virtual" office, from which either single or multiple attorneys and advocates can work together even from different locations throughout the United States.
Presenters: Dorene Philpot, Esq., Catherine M. Michael, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorneys
Audience Experience: Novice
- Litigating LRE Cases
In order to successfully litigate a case based on the least restrictive environment (LRE) requirement of the IDEA, an attorney must have both a solid understanding of the statutory framework and the case law that interprets it, and an understanding of how to craft and present a persuasive argument. This session explains the intricacies of LRE law and the rationale for choosing the appropriate forum for a particular case.
Presenter: Selene Almazan, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorneys
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- To RTI or Not to RTI
IDEA 2004 has authorized the implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) as a means of providing early and prompt remediation to children with learning difficulties. Although noble in its concept, RTI presents schools with a framework for teaching young students that is poorly defined with respect to the implementation of a tier system, teacher training, fidelity to instruction, and progress monitoring. This workshop presents an overview of RTI, progress monitoring tools, and the implications for students with educational disabilities.
Presenter: Melissa Farrall, Ph.D.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Reading Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities: Let's Raise the Bar
Many students are excluded from effective reading instruction based on their disability. This presentation focuses on what we know about teaching reading to children with significant disabilities, specifically students with intellectual disabilities. Alternate strategies for accessing curriculum, including assistive technology are explored.
Presenters: Kathleen Whitbread Ph.D., Anne Eason, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Assistive Technology and the IDEA
This seminar informs participants of the legal requirements for assistive technology (AT)devices and services for students with disabilities. Participants will learn the statutory and regulatory framework of AT, and receive an overview of relevant case law. We will also address the history of assistive technology requirements of the IDEA; including understanding when AT was added to the IDEA, and why it is important that we advocate for AT devices and services.
Presenter: Sonja D. Kerr, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Representing Foster Children under the IDEA 2004
This presentation highlights the changes from IDEA 2004 that effect the representation of children in the dependency system. It also provides information and sample material on how to use the change in the law within your community to facilitate appointments of surrogate parents by Dependency Court judges.
Presenters: Rebekah Gleason, Esq.; Jodi Siegel, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorney
Audience Experience: Novice
- Advocating For Children with Social Language Delay
This presentation explores the educational interventions that help children with social language delays experience success in the school setting. Compensations, accommodations, modifications, and strategies are discussed. Classroom tips and techniques are given for teacher and aide planning in the classroom. Essential pragmatic language goals and objectives and assessment techniques such as a pragmatic language chart are also featured.
Presenter: Susan Diamond, SLP
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- How Your SEA Really Works: An Insider's Perspective
Have you ever wondered how to effect change in your State Education Agency (SEA)? Do you want insight into who has real power? Want to learn how an SEA walks the tight rope between technical assistance and oversight to school districts? A former SEA insider, now with the Florida Protection and Advocacy Center, gives persepectives on how SEAs really work.
Presenter: April Katine , M.S.
Intended Audience: All
Audience Experience: Novice
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Breakout Session III
4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
- Advocating for Children in Foster Care
This presentation covers critical information for advocates and attorneys who need to navigate the myriad of confusing federal and state statutes, regulations, and state policy manuals that govern the education, placement and treatment of children in foster care. Information regarding the various treatment facilities into which foster children may be placed (i.e. psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment facilities); state statutes regarding the removal and commitment of children; the responsibilities of social workers and, where applicable, state Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) are discussed.
Presenters: Melissa Bowman, Esq.; Heidi Schissler Lanham, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice/Intermediate
- Legal Claims Related to Bullying and Harassment
It is impossible to receive a free and appropriate public education in an unsafe environment. Teasing, name-calling, bullying, and joking, even if egregiously cruel, do not create a discriminatory hostile environment. But if the teasing, name-calling, bullying, and/or joking tend to indicate discriminatory intent, school personnel and school districts can face liability for the hostile environment. This seminar will discuss the differing standards of liability depending upon which statutory claims the student pursues. Section 504 and the ADA prohibit discriminatory harassment in public schools, but claims may require notice to and deliberate indifference of school officials. A hostile environment could render a placement inappropriate under IDEA, even without actual knowledge of district officials. Finally, state law claims may have differing standards for liability.
Presenters: Catherine Merino Reisman, Esq.; Amelia Carolla, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- The LRE for Students with Significant Disabilities: General Education
Students with limited or no speech, cognitive disabilities, autism, or other developmental disabilities can and should be educated in general education classes in their neighborhood school. This session describes how such students can be successfully included, using a case study and picture illustrations.
Presenter: Carol Quirk, Ed.D.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Advocates & Attorneys: Working Collaboratively for the Benefit of the Student
This session is a facilitated discussion, not a lecture or seminar. The participants will work as a group to clarify the differing roles of advocates and attorneys. The facilitators will to develop and use a number of scenarios to identify the issues.
Presenters: Andrew Feinstein, Esq.; Patricia Howey
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Effectively Using Two Misunderstood Rights: The IEE and Informed Consent
This session addresses the legal meaning and enforcement of the Independent Educational Evaluation ("IEE") and the right of informed consent. A framework for their use and enforcement, including tactics and application, is provided. Also addressed is the use and impact of IEEs on parent participation and the right to observe.
Presenters: Jonathan A, Zimring, Esq.; Deborah Mattison, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Strategic Planning for Effective IEP Meetings, Mediation, and Resolution
Effective advocacy is the process of setting priorities. Parents and advocates need to have a plan going into an IEP meeting, resolution session or mediation. In this session participants learn what to look for in an evaluator and how to understand test evaluations. They also learn how to document concerns, stick to facts, manage the clock wisely and avoid common pitfalls used against them in IEP meetings and at due process. This presentation provides practical advice and tips to achieve meaningful educational goals for a student, with the view that due process should be the very last resort, and used only when preparations in the earliest stages of advocacy are made to increase the likelihood of success.
Presenters: Charles Fox, Esq.
Intended Audience: Advocate/Parent
Audience Experience: Novice
- How to Maximize Your Section 504/ADA Complaint with OCR
Ever wonder how and when to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Rights (OCR)? An attorney from that agency will tell you the dos, don’ts, and pitfalls. This session explains OCR and what it is and the laws it enforces, including: jurisdiction under Section 504 and the ADA; what is and what is not a viable complaint to OCR; forum selection; time periods for filing a complaint; how to file a complaint; paths to resolution; remedies if a finding of non-compliance is made; and, what to do if OCR doesn’t do what you want.
Presenters: David LaDue , Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Special Needs School Vouchers: Greater Options but Fewer Rights
Five states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Utah) have recently enacted legislation creating school vouchers for children with special needs. About a dozen other additional states are considering the option. Voucher programs allow parents, regardless of income, to apply public funds towards private school tuitions. While vouchers may give parents a way out of unsatisfactory school programs, participating parents lose most of their rights under the IDEA. How do these programs work logistically? How successful have they been so far? What implications do they have for special education advocacy, law and policy? How can you expand your practice to include this new area of the law? Those questions and others are addressed by the presenter who is a leading special needs voucher expert in Florida – the first state in the country to enact such a program.
Presenters: Allison Hertog, J.D.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Breakout Session IV
8:30 am - 9:45 am
- Time for a New Dispute Resolution
Procedure?
Thanks to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, parents without lawyers now face additional barriers: recovering attorney's fees, meeting the burden of proof and paying for experts. Maybe it's time to consider a radically different dispute resolution procedure — a procedure that focuses solely on the child's educational program, does not require attorneys, invokes true educational expertise and can't be litigated indefinitely— and might be fairer, faster and shorter to boot!
Presenter: S. James Rosenfeld, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Building and Sustaining a
Successful Advocacy Practice
In this session novice and experienced advocates, as well as those who want to become advocates, learn pragmatic tips and practical strategies for avoiding burnout from two advocates with over 35 combined years of advocacy experience.
Presenters: Patricia Howey, Brice Palmer
Intended Audience: Advocate/Parent
Audience Experience: Novice/Intermediate
- Making the Most of the Attorney/Client Relationship -- For Attorneys
The limited availability of qualified attorneys in special education often means that those who do practice in this field are overworked, and therefore vulnerable to complaints from and disputes with clients. This workshop provides guidance and practical tools that allows attorneys to simultaneously protect your clients' interests and your reputation.
Presenters: Jennifer D. Laviano, Esq.; Dana A. Jonson, Esq.
Intended Audience: Attorneys
Audience Experience: Novice
- Relief Is In Cite: The Hit Parade's Top Forty Special Education Citations
It's been thirty-five years since the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 forced open the schoolhouse doors for children with disabilities, and thirty-three years since the IDEA debuted and took over center stage. The presenters offers a lighthearted, yet seriously important, survey of the special education hit parade over this period, focusing on the top forty case citations and quotations from courts and hearing officers that every attorney and advocate representing children with disabilities needs to know in order to rock the house and avoid the blues.
Presenter: Richard L. O'Meara, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Can a School Punish a Child for His/Her Disability?
(Sadly, the answer is yes.) This session covers general rules of discipline, acceptable forms of punishment, calling police, limits on school rules, Honig v. Doe, statutory erosions of Honig, FBAs, BIPs, manifestation determination, alternative interim placements, weapons and drugs, sexual harassment, statutory enigmas, expedited hearings, and practice tips.
Presenter: Andrew A. Feinstein, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Learning Style and the Sin of Omission
One of the most important (and least understood) parts of an IEP is the description of a child's style of learning. Its purpose is to focus teachers (and parents) on teaching methods and strategies that will complement how the individual student learns. This workshop focuses on styles of learning as determined by performance on IQ tests, common misunderstanding related to the concept of "learning style," and recommendations for additional assessment and programming.
Presenter: Melissa Farrall, Ph.D.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Practical Tips for Divorced/Separated Parents & Advocates in IEP Process
This session discusses the overlap of family law issues intertwined with the IEP process when districts and public or private agencies are involved with families of divorce. The following issues are explored: legal custody issues that arise in the context of general educational decisions and assessments; Court orders, and special education rights in the IEP process; ethical standards of the American Psychological Association/Board of Behavioral Science that also pertain to divided families in the IEP context. We will then take the participants through the IEP process and make suggestions along the way for ways to anticipate conflict and reduce them in order to reach agreements with divided parents.
Presenters: Mara Berke, Esq., Renee Cohen, Lauren Giardina, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- IEEs Made Simple
This session provides an overview of the requirements under the IDEA for obtaining an Independent Educational Evaluation. Analyzing district's assessments, deciding whether to obtain an IEE, process of requesting an IEE, and things to consider when making a request are discussed. What the District needs to do once you request an IEE, what constitutes "unreasonable delay," and provide a review of statutes, OSEP interpretations, and case law in various circuits when interpreting the timeline under which Districts must respond are also covered. The presentation concludes with a practical component as participants analyze sample school district policy statements regarding IEEs and learn to utilize these rules to effectively obtain IEEs at District expense.
Presenters: Mandy Favaloro, Esq.; Carrie Watt, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice/Intermediate
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Breakout Session V
10:00 am - 11:15 am
- RTI: Better SLD Determinations or Barrier to Eligibility?
This workshop will explore methods, models, promises and pitfalls of RTI and will compare RTI with the advantages and disadvantages of the severe discrepancy method. Emerging case law and anticipated legal trends related to specific learning disability identification will also be reviewed.
Presenter: Tanya Alvarado, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate
- Making the Most of the Attorney/Client Relationship -- For Parents
Jennifer D. Laviano, Esq.; Dana A. Jonson, Esq.
By the time parents have made the decision to hire an attorney, they are frustrated with their school district, and overwhelmed by the process. This workshop provides information to help participants make the most of the attorney/client relationship; including helpful hints for effective communication with counsel to keep costs down, and increase the likelihood for positive outcomes.
Presenters: Jennifer D. Laviano, Esq.; Dana A. Jonson, Esq.
Intended Audience: Advocates/Parents
Audience Experience: Novice
- Special Education Advocates Training (SEAT)
This presentation provides an overview of the effort to meet the growing need for trained, knowledgeable special education advocates. The purpose of SEAT, a joint initiative of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA) and The Center for Disability Studies and Community Inclusion at the University of Southern California University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, is to develop a national training curriculum under an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Research and Innovation Model Development Grant. The project is in its third year of implementation.
Presenters: Barbara Wheeler, Ph.D.; Denise Marshall, M.S., Executive Director, COPAA
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: All
- Charter Schools: Implications on Special Education Charter Schools: Implications on Special Education
Charter Schools are quickly becoming a viable alternative for parents seeking smaller class size and creative teaching methods. Discussion includes the history of charter schools, charter school laws, how special education laws apply to charter schools, and the pros and cons of enrolling a special education student at a charter school.
Presenters: Areva D. Martin, Esq.; Tara L. Canady, Esq.
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Novice
- Building the Case: Addressing Key Factors at the IEP Table
This session highlights a number of precedent-setting judicial and agency decisions; presented to provide a general framework for advocates to consider in reviewing cases and developing defensible advocacy strategies. Advocates learn how to apply case rulings in building an effective defense and advocating for the needs of eligible clients at the IEP table. Common areas of dispute such as: FAPE, Inclusion, Discipline, Related Services and Private Schools/Services are discussed.
Presenters: Sonja D. Kerr, Esq., Lori Waldinger
Intended Audience: All Attendees
Audience Experience: Intermediate/Advanced
- Administration, Information and Relationship Management Qualities for Success
The three fundamental elements of successfully supporting educational success for children with special needs are: Administration, Information and Relationship management. This session teaches parents and advocates the basic elements of each and provides a variety of strategies to implement immediately for increased success and productivity.
Presenters: Donna Gilcher; Deb Hall
Intended Audience: Advocate or Parent
Audience Experience: Novice
- FAPE Under IDEA 2004 -- From Access to Results
Congress made dramatic changes to the IDEA 2004 during the Reauthorization by moving away from technical procedural compliance and emphasizing results. IDEA 2004 incorporates the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which requires a plan for all students with disabilities to meet state achievement standards by 2014, as well as the demand to provide special education validated by peer-reviewed research whenever practicable. IDEA 2004 requires IEPs to provide more than mere access to the doors of public education.
Presenters: Michael Cochrane, Esq.; Stephen Cochrane, Ph.D.
Intended Audience: Attorney
Audience Experience: Advanced
- From the Start--A Pound of Prevention
This mini "How To" course covers the steps necessary to ensure students receive an effective education from the first day they are identified as having a disability. Parents and advocates will receive tips and materials that will assist them as they maneuver through the special education maze.
Presenters: Karen Dalglish Seal, Esq.; Kassandra Levay
Intended Audience: Advocate/Parent
Audience Experience: Novice
DISCLAIMER: COPAA does not endorse, recommend, or make representations with respect to any services, programs, medications, products, exhibitors, or treatments that may be referenced on the Web site. Reference to any program, service, treatment or therapy option is not an official endorsement by COPAA. The inclusion of any resource, link, or conference exhibitor on COPAA's web site does not imply endorsement or a recommendation.
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