Re: Annual Legal Conference for Educators - February 28! (Nat'l Educators Law I

[Guest guest]

Re: Annual Legal Conference for Educators - February 28! (Nat'l

Educators Law Institute)

The sponsors of this workshop are school attorneys that I used to work

with, and while I like them personally, Tonya is correct--their focus

won't be on how to help kids. I'm sure employee liability will be the

primary focus, but it will be from a CYA perspective. Liability in

this area is similar to the law pertaining to firing teachers--it's

much easier to fire someone for not turning in lesson plans in

compliance with written policy than for woeful incompetence. Which is

why it can be very difficult to get the latter out of the classroom

and some schools just don't even try.

I, too, recommend the slaw workshops--which are coming to the

Houston and metroplex areas this spring. Tonya's promised me she's

" scouting " the legal panel at the special ed director's convention

week after next, and I've decided to forego the $400+ UT Law School

legal seminar that doesn't include much on special education and whose

speakers in that area this year hold limited interest for me and

accepting the Walsh, firm's invitation to their spring

special ed law seminar for only $150. I'll try to report back here

the information that this listserve might find relevant. The topics

are grouped in issues by disability--learning disabled, et cetera.

And, to the educator who felt they were being identified as the

enemy--no, educators are not the enemy of parents. But there are

school attorneys who make a pattern and practice of demonizing parents

in representing school districts. I could, but won't, name at least a

handful that I've observed first hand. I represent students with a

fill range of disabilities, some of which have genetic components. So

it is always curious to me when a school attorney can't wait to tell

me how " crazy " my client is when they are the natural parent of a

child with emotional disabilities. I represent people I hope I can

help, and one of the only times I've initiated parting company with a

parent was a parent who deliberately failed to show up at an ARD she

hired me to attend (from a couple of hundred miles away), and didn't

even tell me until I was almost at the school. I can't represent

clients who deliberately deceive me, but I'll work with parents with

their own disabilities as much as I can.

The " enemy " are attorneys who attempt to use the law to keep children

from the services they need and are entitled to. And I can also list

you a handful that I can depend on to work with me within the law to

ensure the child gets what they need. In the long run, that benefits

not only the child, but also the educators working with the child, and

the school, which should have better standardized test scores from

that child on which to be judged.

So--when educators detect some hostility on this site, please

understand that the most frequent obstacle to getting autistic

children what they need is often a specific educator (often the

special education director) or a school attorney--so assuming you're

here to learn more about the needs of autistic children, you're

probably not in that group and shouldn't take it personally.