{"id":1711,"date":"2009-11-27T17:47:51","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T21:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=1711"},"modified":"2014-08-26T14:58:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T18:58:08","slug":"can-school-attorneys-legally-attend-iep-team-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/can-school-attorneys-legally-attend-iep-team-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Can School Attorneys Legally Attend IEP Team Meetings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Can%20School%20Attorneys%20Legally%20Attend%20IEP%20Team%20Meetings%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>Pete and Pam Wright were adjunct professors at<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> <a title=\"William &amp; Mary Law School\" href=\"http:\/\/www.law.wm.edu\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">William &amp; Mary Law School<\/span><\/a><\/span> where they co-taught a Special Education Law class and consulted with the <a title=\"PELE Special Education Advocacy Clinic\" href=\"http:\/\/law.wm.edu\/academics\/programs\/jd\/electives\/clinics\/specialed\/faculty_staff\/index.php\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">PELE\u00a0 Special Education Advocacy Clinic<\/span><\/a>. Clinic students assist children with special needs and their families with eligibility or Individualized Education Program meetings, discipline matters, mediation, and administrative hearings.<\/p>\n<p>Clinic students observed school district attorneys at some IEP meetings. Some attorneys were helpful. Others were adversarial. The law does not include attorneys as members of the child&#8217;s IEP team, so the students asked this question: &#8220;<strong><em>Can school attorneys legally attend IEP team meetings?<\/em><\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What do you think?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Martin, parent of a child with a disability and law student in the PELE Clinic, offered to research the issue and write a legal memorandum to answer this question:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Whether an attorney for the school can legally attend<br \/>\nan IEP team meeting?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jeff found information that supported his position that, in general, parent and school attorneys should not attend IEP meetings. A Policy Letter from the U.S. Department of Education to Senator Hillary Senator supported his position. Jeff&#8217;s Memorandum includes an Action Plan for PELE Clinic to use when dealing with school attorneys at IEP meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Read Jeff&#8217;s Memorandum: <a title=\"Can School Attorneys Legally Attend IEP Meetings\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/memos\/atty.iep.martin.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/memos\/atty.iep.martin.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Letter to Clinton: <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/policy\/speced\/guid\/idea\/letters\/2001-3\/clinton072301iep.doc\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/www2.ed\/gov\/policy\/speced\/guid\/idea\/letters\/2001-3\/clinton072330iep.doc<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Letter to Clinton is also available at <a title=\"Letter from OSEP to Senator Clinton about attorneys at IEP meetings\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/osep\/usdoe.clinton.iep.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/osep\/usdoe.clinton.iep.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete and Pam Wright were adjunct professors at William &amp; Mary Law School where they co-taught a Special Education Law class and consulted with the PELE\u00a0 Special Education Advocacy Clinic. <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/can-school-attorneys-legally-attend-iep-team-meetings\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,137,35,57,18,346,136],"tags":[447,449,79,446,445,201,448],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-attorneys","category-eligibility","category-fape","category-ieps","category-law-school","category-strategies","tag-attorney-roles","tag-iep-meeetings","tag-iep-team-members","tag-jeff-martin","tag-law-clinic","tag-parent-participation","tag-pele-special-education-clinic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11879,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/11879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}