Law School and PELE Special Education Advocacy Clinic Host First Advanced ISEA Reunion Conference
The Law School and the PELE Special Education Advocacy Clinic, along with Wrightslaw and the Oklahoma Disability Law Center, hosted the first advanced Institute of Special Education Advocacy (ISEA) Reunion conference on February 13-14 in Gulfport, Fla. William & Mary first created and hosted the Institue for Special Education Advocacy (ISEA) in 2010, and this national conference has taken place at William & Mary every summer thereafter. ISEA provides intensive legal training in special education advocacy for attorneys, advocates, and law students. In the five years since ISEA began, it has trained more than 250 attorneys and advocates from across the country from as far away as Hawaii, California, and Colorado.
This vibrant community of ISEA graduates continues to stay in touch and support one another following conferences, and the February Reunion conference offered the first opportunity for the alumni group to come together in person and included lawyers and other experienced special education advocates from across the nation. PELE Director Crystal Shin and national leaders in special education advocacy, including Pete Wright, Pat Howey, Joy Turner, RoseAnn Duplan, Mark Kamleiter, and Jim Comstock-Galagan, provided advanced training to attendees focused on strategies and tactics related to school discipline, student behavior, IEP meetings, due process hearings, dispute resolution, and alternatives to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
One Reunion attendee stated, "ISEA brings together the best of the best in the...special education advocacy community. I would recommend attending ISEA to anyone who wants to learn the most essential and most helpful information for how to be an effective special education advocate." As they do during the annual ISEA Conference each summer, the Reunion conference faculty generously donated their time, and funds raised from the event go towards the continued operation of the PELE Special Education Advocacy Clinic.
The 2016 ISEA will be held at the Law School from July 31-August 5, 2016. Applications are currently being accepted on a rolling basis until the class is full. For more information about the conference or the PELE Special Education Advocacy Clinic, please call (757) 221-5735 or email [[pele]].
About William & Mary Law School
Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.