SEAT Project
Special Education Advocate Training Project

The UCEDD, in partnership with The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement and evaluate a Special Education Advocate Training Program that will address current concerns regarding the availability and quality of lay advocacy services for families of children with disabilities.

When school districts fail to provide students with what is required under special education law, families may turn to lay advocates to assist them with IEP issues. Currently there is no course of study that provides training and education around these very specific legal aspects of advocacy.

The SEAT Project will address these issues by establishing a training model that will provide comprehensive advocacy training to be field tested at four different sites across the country including Los Angeles, CA, Bay Area, CA, New York City, NY, and Philadelphia, PA. A second cohort of the training program will be repeated and adjusted as data is collected as to the feasibility and effectiveness of this model.

Population Served: Students with Disabilities (3 – 22 years) and their Families

Program Type: Demonstration Project

Program Lead:    Barbara Wheeler, Ph.D.
                                bwheeler@chla.usc.edu

Funding Sources:
US Department of Education
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitate Services (OSERS)
January 2005 – December 2007