Thursday, August 2, 2012

Presentation August 15, 2012: Overview of Special Education Law

In this overview of special education law, a school attorney alongside two “parent attorneys” will present the framework and concepts of federal and state special education laws (IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, NCLB, FERPA, the Rowley S. Ct. decision) and discuss defenses in special education litigation and how to avoid litigation in the first instance. You will gain perspective from both sides of the aisle, and learn the legal avenues available when students’ educational rights have been violated, and how schools can avoid violations in the identification, evaluation, eligibility and placement of students with disabilities, and disciplinary procedures when a student has an IEP or 504. 

Who should attend: Attorneys who defend public, charter and private schools, including nursery and pre-schools and colleges and technical schools; Judges who may have special education students appear before them.

Earn 1.5 CLE credits.  

Date/Time:
Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

Location:
Lewis and Roca LLC, 40 N. Central 15th Floor 

To Register:
https://www.azadc.org/Default.aspx?tabid=2335&mid=4280&ctl=Register&eventid=1807


Speakers
 

Denise Lowell-Britt is an equity partner at the law firm of Udall, Shumway & Lyons where she heads the firm’s education law practice group.  Her practice is devoted entirely to representing school districts, charter schools and other public educational institutions in matters that include:  special education, student disciplinary hearings, employment and personnel, student records, governing board liability and open meeting issues.  In November 2006, she was named a “Top Education Attorney” in Phoenix Magazine. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was selected by her peers as a “Best Lawyer in America” in the specialty of Education Law.  Ms. Lowell-Britt is a member of the National School Board Association, Arizona School Boards Association and Arizona Council of School Attorneys.  She has also been an adjunct faculty member for Arizona State University, teaching graduate level Education Law classes for the College of Education, Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.  She has been on the steering committee for the Arizona School Administrators “Principal and the Law” conference for approximately 14 years.  In March 2009, Ms. Lowell-Britt was presented with the Laura Ganoung Award, which is the Arizona Council of Administrators of Special Education’s (CASE) highest award recognizing leadership in the area of special education.

Hope Kirsch and Lori Kirsch-Goodwin are the founding members of Kirsch-Goodwin & Kirsch, PLLC, which has an education practice devoted to representing students and their families in disputes with public, private and charter schools, and secondary education institutions.  Hope is a 17 year veteran of the New York City Board of Education where she was a special education teacher, Crisis Intervention Teacher and Unit Coordinator in self-contained classes, public special education day schools and psychiatric hospitals before embarking on law, and earned her B.S. and M.A. in special education and completed post-graduate work in in educational supervision and administration.  Lori has navigated the special education system first-hand as the mother of her now teenage son who is “on the spectrum.”  Hope and Lori have worked collaboratively with Denise for the past several years in the due process arena and with disciplinary matters. 


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