LAW 782 - Special Educ Advocacy Clinic

In this one-semester, multi-disciplinary, graded clinic, law students will assist children with special needs and their families in special education matters. This may include assistance in eligibility meetings, Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, discipline matters, mediation, administrative hearings, complaint drafting, and court proceedings. Clinic skills include interviewing, counseling, problem solving, informal and formal written and oral advocacy, negotiation, mediation, development of case theory and strategy, and file management. Students will identify obstacles, defuse emotions, and clarify legal issues. They will learn how to put a case together for a succesful outcome, while managing client expectations and meeting client goals. In this clinic, the students will also teach parents effective advocacy and negotiation skills through public presentations and preparation of materials. Students will be graded on the quality of their work in educating families, representing clients and handling multiple cases, their ability to work collaboratively with other students in the clinic and those from other disciplines, and their written work associated with client representation. Students receive detailed grading criteria at the start of the semester. Students will be required to attend class sessions, work on clinic cases, attend regular case meetings with the Professor, and assist clinic operations when requested. Students are required to work on clinic cases and assist clinic operations for 8 hours each week, including case rounds and meetings with the supervising attorney. This is a 3-credit graded clinic.