Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School (Benchmark Assessment)
Jennifer Kerns
SPE-350 Special Education Litigation and Law
Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School (Benchmark Assessment
August 5, 2014
Nancy Hooper
Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School (Benchmark Assessment)
For this Benchmark I had to research the law and how it is applied to special education issues that were covered in this class.. I looked at my state departments of educations website to view the laws of my state of Oklahoma and Texas and Arkansas to see how they cover special education issues. I had also had to interview a lawyer who is well-versed in school law. I interviewed Ms. Andrea Kunkel, she was a wealth of information. She is well-versed in Special Education law, she was an attorney at Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold, where she represented Oklahoma Public Schools. She handled many Due Process Cases, she advised school staff on their legal responsibilities under the Section 504, Title II of the ADA and IDEA. She also was the legal advisor of the Oklahoma Directors of Special Services and is now the staff attorney of CCOSA (Cooperative Council of Oklahoma School, where she is currently training school administrators on special education law and issues and is the liaison to ODSS group. The first topic we discussed was how has the legal system evolved, as it applies to special education, over the past 20 years, and how has that affected the legal framework for special education today? Ms. Kunkel said that in the 2004 Reauthorization of the IDEA, Congress Kerns Page 2 Law/Benchmark
added a requirement that, when a parent files a due process hearing complaint, the district and parent must promptly participate in a resolution session, unless they agree in writing to waive the resolution session. The purpose of the resolution session is to provide a forum at which the parent explains the complaint and what s/he is seeking through the process so that the district has an
SPE-350 Special Education Litigation and Law
Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School (Benchmark Assessment
August 5, 2014
Nancy Hooper
Discovering the Relationship Between the Law and Your School (Benchmark Assessment)
For this Benchmark I had to research the law and how it is applied to special education issues that were covered in this class.. I looked at my state departments of educations website to view the laws of my state of Oklahoma and Texas and Arkansas to see how they cover special education issues. I had also had to interview a lawyer who is well-versed in school law. I interviewed Ms. Andrea Kunkel, she was a wealth of information. She is well-versed in Special Education law, she was an attorney at Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold, where she represented Oklahoma Public Schools. She handled many Due Process Cases, she advised school staff on their legal responsibilities under the Section 504, Title II of the ADA and IDEA. She also was the legal advisor of the Oklahoma Directors of Special Services and is now the staff attorney of CCOSA (Cooperative Council of Oklahoma School, where she is currently training school administrators on special education law and issues and is the liaison to ODSS group. The first topic we discussed was how has the legal system evolved, as it applies to special education, over the past 20 years, and how has that affected the legal framework for special education today? Ms. Kunkel said that in the 2004 Reauthorization of the IDEA, Congress Kerns Page 2 Law/Benchmark
added a requirement that, when a parent files a due process hearing complaint, the district and parent must promptly participate in a resolution session, unless they agree in writing to waive the resolution session. The purpose of the resolution session is to provide a forum at which the parent explains the complaint and what s/he is seeking through the process so that the district has an