by Jodie Howard, BREN Clinic Director
In September 2018, San Joaquin College of Law began a pilot program that would be the launching pad for a new clinic. The course, open to the community, was a ten-session class on Special Education Law. It was designed to offer tools and information regarding special education to parents so that they could become more knowledgeable advocates for their children. However, parents of children with disabilities were not the only ones to take the course. Various professionals who serve individuals with disabilities also attended the class.
Nichola Krebsbach, an attorney with Gillett Green, was among the professionals who attended the course. "Parents of children with disabilities are at a disadvantage when compared to school administrators, because more often than not, parents are unaware of the robust civil rights guaranteed under federal law to children who qualify for special education,” Nichola explained. “The problem is that a parent shouldn’t have to use their hard-earned money to pay for an attorney or advocate, and some don’t have the resources needed to do so. This is why the BREN clinic is necessary — to educate parents, and to provide legal counsel and advocacy to those who need it. The amount of time we have to educate a child is short and fleeting, and there is no time to waste.”
The mission of the BREN clinic is to help individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) to obtain the education and community services and related supports they need to reach their full potential. This is accomplished through a four-part focus:
• Bolster partnerships between families and schools;
• Reform special education services within communities;
• Empower families and individuals to self-advocate; and
• Network peer-to-peer advocates.
BREN will provide special education law and advocacy training and community outreach programs designed to empower families and individuals to help themselves and one another. At BREN, we aim to work in tandem with school systems and families and, through collaboration, maximize the services available to children who have disabilities.
This fall, we are offering a free ten-session course in Special Education Law open to the community. Each class dives into a specific part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law which outlines the responsibilities of school districts in educating students with disabilities as well as the rights of those students and their parents.
We are also working on other components that we hope to begin rolling out in spring of 2020. For example, we are working with Centro La Familia Advocacy Services to have our printed materials translated into Spanish and hope to offer our course in Spanish. We also plan to have law students, working under the Director’s supervision, helping families navigate the complex Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process, the process by which special education services are determined and delivered. The BREN clinic will also be facilitating a network of peer-to-peer advocates comprised of individuals who have completed the ten-session course and can provide support to other special needs families. We also hope to organize an annual conference to keep our special needs community, both the individuals/families and professionals who serve them, apprised of the latest developments and practices in the Special Education field.
The BREN clinic is funded by a budding local non-profit agency, Growing Resources for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (GRAND). Alissa Malakan saw firsthand the challenges facing families who have children with special needs and the scarcity of resources in our community. In response, she founded GRAND with the mission to empower individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) by improving resources, offering support, and promoting inclusion throughout the community. Recognizing the assistance a clinic at SJCL could offer to families and the important learning opportunity it could provide for students, GRAND provided the funds necessary to establish the clinic. While we are seeking future funding on an on-going basis, we are grateful to GRAND for their endowment that made the BREN clinic possible. To learn more about GRAND, visit their website at grandcv.org. More Information about the BREN Clinic can be found at http://www.sjcl.edu/bren.