The most recent stop on the 2011 Jim Gerl special Education Law Tour is over. The 2011 Arizona Director's Conference is history. They had to turn away potential registrants because of the stellar reputation this conference has developed. It was very impressive.
As always the best part of the conference for me was meeting with old friends and making new friends, including a number of people who are readers of this blog. It was great to talk to all of you.
My sessions were well received and there was a lot of fantastic participation. I believe that my co-presenter and i were able to impart some helpful information and allowed them to have some fun in the process. it was a great group.
I also attended excellent sessions on dispute resolution, year in review, IEP facilitation, UDL and transformative leadership.
Great conference. Thanks again for letting me participate.
Well another stop has been added to my 2011 Special Education Law Tour. I will be co-presenting a session on resolution sessions at the Arizona Director's Conference. The conference will be held from August 29 to 31, 2011 at the Wigwam Resort. You can learn more about this conference at the Arizona Department of education website
The tour is now well under way. As always I am having a great time traveling around the country. I am meeting many of our wonderful readers on the tour.
By the way next week, I will be in Columbia South Carolina. Because this stop is for meetings tat are not open to the public, it is not an official tour stop. But I am definitely looking forward to spending a few days in Columbia.
If you will be near any of my stops, please find me and say hello. In the meantime, thanks for your ongoing support!
Labor day. It seems fitting that we have a holiday for people who work for a living.
Many people have jobs in the field of special education. Today we honor you. A participant at one of my sessions at the Arizona Conference last week made a great point. Nobody goes into special education for the money.
Sometimes we forget this point. I often deal with issues involving dispute resolution. The parents and the school personnel disagree. Many times emotion is involved. People get upset when they think that their kid's education is not going well.
But in the heat of battle, we forget that people do not go into special education to make money, or for the glamor. People go into special ed because they care about children with disabilities. There are easier and better ways to seek fame and fortune.
So please raise your glasses to all those who work in special education- Happy Labor Day!
If you read this blog regularly, you know that I have a delusional belief that I am a rock star and that my special ed law presentations somehow constitute a rock and roll tour of the country. As the title indicate, I continue to struggle with a title for the tour. Suggestions by readers to date have not exactly been helpful.
If you will be in any of the following places while I am in town, please stop me and say hello. I have met a bunch of readers this summer and I always enjoy meeting those who read these pages. Please continue telling me what you think.
From August 30 - September 1, 2010, I will be at the ArizonaSpecial Education Directors Institute in Litchfield Park, Arizona. I will do three presentations on the role of the non-attorney advocate in IEP team meetings and due process hearings. You can follow the links to register here.
I will for the sixth straight year be a part of the faculty at the National Association of Hearing Officials Annual Conference from September 26 - 29, 2010 in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee. I will be presenting on the prehearing process and on ruling on objections. The registration link trail begins here.
Disclaimer time (very different from hammer time) None of the state agencies or private organizations mentioned above in any way endorse this blog or any statements made by me or readers and commenters. For purposes of things said here, I do not represent any organization or person. My statements are my own and they really couldn't buy me if they tried, which so far they haven't
Any way, please find me at these conferences and say hey.
My recent post on my upcoming summer tour got a very positive reaction. Last summer's IDEA Remedies Tour was a big success. By the way, if you'd like to organize a tour for your rock band, here is a helpful wiki. There is a lot of stuff on the internet.
As I stated in the last post: if you read this blog and you will be in any of these places while I am there, please let me know or come by and say hello. I always enjoy meeting readers of the blog. These are only the conferences that are open to the public although in some instances, my presentation may not be open to the public. Please check the registration sites for more specifics.
By the way, is it just me or are those "hello my name is" tags used at conferences getting smaller and smaller? This makes for embarrassing, and possibly inappropriate, stares as I desperately try to get the names of those whom I am talking to. To those of you who organize conferences, please consider using larger type on these name tags.
With due apologies to Hammer, I'm still looking for a better name for the tour. The "Too Legit to Quit Tour," really doesn't do it justice. (INSERT appropriate music here.)
I have made a semi-permanent gadget on the left-hand side of the blog which states where I will be and includes registration links where available. PLEASE NOTE: none of the state departments of education or other agencies or sponsors of these conferences in any way endorse this blog. My comments, here and elsewhere, are my own and should not be taken to represent the views of the sponsoring organizations or any other entity. (That was what we call a disclaimer; there is a purpose for lawyers.)
From July 27 - 29, 2010, I will be at the Wyoming Special Education Leadership Symposium in Lander, Wyoming. I will be part of a panel discussing least restrictive environment issues; I will give a paired presentation with the highly regarded Julie Weatherly (a big honor for me) on educational benefit and I will be doing a solo session discussing dispute resolution options.
I will attend the Utah Institute on Special Education Law on August 2 - 3, 2010 at the Eccles Center in Ogden, Utah, and I will do a (non-public) hearing officer/mediator training the next day.
From August 30 - September 1, 2010, I will be at the Arizona Special Education Directors Institute in Litchfield Park, Arizona. I will do repeat presentations on the role of the non-attorney advocate in IEP team meetings and due process hearings.
I will for the sixth straight year be a part of the faculty at the National Association of Hearing Officials Annual Conference from September 26 - 29, 2010 in Music City, Nashville Tennessee. I will be presenting on the prehearing process and on ruling on objections.
So there it is, please stop and say hello if you will be nearby. Again the name challenge- if you have a better name for my tour than Too Legit to Quit, please leave a comment.
Image via Wikipedia
