Resource of the Week: COPAA's "Find an Attorney / Advocate"

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates is a national organization with members who are parents of students with special needs, Advocates and Attorneys who represent students with disabilities, and "other" providers, etc who advocate for students. In addition to many other resources and information available on their website, COPAA has an online directory to assist parents (both within COPAA's membership and members of the public) with finding and Attorney or Advocate in their area.

Often, Parents need to seek the assistance of a special education attorney or educational advocate to represent them in IEP meetings or in legal disputes with their school district. An advocate or special education attorney can help parents through the process and provide representation when there is a dispute over placement and/or services.

COPAA's online directory is a great tool to assist parents with locating representation when they need it. You can go to the Find an Attorney / Advocate directory at this link: http://www.copaa.org/find-a-resource/find-an-attorney/

Resource of the Week: Wrightslaw

Wrightslaw is a well-known online source of information about special education law and advocacy, and is considered by many to be the first "go-to" place for parents and advocates to locate information about a variety of important topics.

Wrightslaw.com is a very extensive resource. The website includes articles and briefs on an significant number of topics, updates on current events and news, a newsletter, and an online "law library." In addition, you can find information about Wrightslaw's various publications and other materials, including books and DVDs.

Check it all out at www.wrightslaw.com.

COPAA Webinar on Section 504

On Tuesday, November 15th, Mandy and I will be giving a live presentation as part of COPAA's current webinar series. Our presentation is entitled Expanding Your Arsenal with Section 504 and we will be covering a variety of issues that arise under Section 504, with a focus on practical application of advocacy strategies. We are very excited to be a part of COPAA's training endeavors through this webinar!

Here are the details:

What: Expanding Your Advocacy Arsenal with Section 504; Webinar Presentation by Carolina Watts and Mandy Favaloro

When: November 15th at 2:00pm Eastern/ 11:00am Pacific

How to register: Go to www.copaa.org/conference-training/webinars to sign up for the live webinar. COPAA members get a discounted rate for registration. At a later date, COPAA also makes prior presentations available for purchases through webinar archives.

Resource of the Week: WOSEP

The Women's Organization of Special Education Professionals is a group of attorneys, advocates, therapists, providers and educators in the southern California area who provide services and assistance to students with disabilities and their families. The organization hosts twice-yearly networking events, and provides an online resource for the community that includes information about various events in the area as well as a directory. WOSEP's online directory is a place to locate special education attorneys, educational advocates, speech therapists, occupational therapists, behaviorists, educational therapists, and other providers all in one go-to location online.

Check out WOSEP's general webpage here: http://www.wosep.com/ and the online directory here: http://wosep.com/wosep/directory.php

Resource of the Week, a New Series

In order to continue our efforts to use this blog as a means to provide information that will be helpful to our readers in the special education community, we will be starting a new weekly post in which A2Z will share resources that we find useful. These may be online resources, information about books / printed publications, information about parent support or training, or anything else we think is a worthy resource for parents, advocates, providers, educators and others in the field. We hope you find this information helpful!