2024 Exceptional Children Conference to Feature Sweet Stevens Attorneys
News Release
New Britain, PA – Three attorneys from Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams LLP will take center stage at the 2024 Exceptional Children Conference, showcasing their widespread experience in special education law. The conference, considered one of the premier special education conferences in the commonwealth, takes place Friday, October 18 at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) Conference Center in Mechanicsburg, PA.
Partner Thomas C. Warner has served as a co-chair of the conference since 2016, playing a central role in organizing the event’s panels and topics each year.
Special Counsel Andrew E. Faust, along with Margaret M. Wakelin of the Education Law Center, will present “Recent Issues Emerging from PDE’s Age 22 Policy,” focusing on the new Pennsylvania Department of Education policy establishing that students are entitled to special education in public schools until the age of 22, and the subsequent – and pending – lawsuit challenging same.
Associate Kalani E. Linnell will present “Title IX at a Time of Major Transition,” along with Dennis C. McAndrews of McAndrews Law Offices. They will discuss the proposed new regulations to Title IX addressing issues related to gender identity, as well as the current legal challenges to the implementation of those rules.
Warner is a frequent presenter at conferences focused on special education legal issues. While he devotes much of his practice to representing clients in matters of special education litigation at the administrative and appellate levels, he also spends a significant amount of time providing in-service training to school districts regarding various matters. This includes the development of defensible special education programming and confidentiality/disclosure issues involving education records.
Faust has represented public school entities throughout Pennsylvania in special education and civil rights litigation since 1986, appearing at every level of the state and federal judiciary and in hundreds of administrative due process proceedings. He has spoken widely on special education, student services, and civil rights to audiences of educators, attorneys, college students, and parents and has appeared as an expert witness on special education.
Linnell advises clients in matters involving special education, student civil rights, and operations/practices, and is especially dedicated to the issue of Title IX compliance, both its historic regulations and the impending new directives.
The Exceptional Children Conference is presented annually by the PBI, the educational arm of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The conference addresses today’s critical topics in special education, team-taught by a balanced faculty of attorneys for school districts, as well as those who represent students. Participants are eligible to earn 6 CLE credits including 1 ethics credit through the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board. For more information, visit https://www.pbi.org/product/exceptional-children-conference-2024-in-person-mechanicsburg/.
Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams, LLP was formed in 1995 by nine experienced education lawyers who created the first private law practice in Pennsylvania dedicated entirely to Education Law. Since then, the firm has grown to 26 attorneys who represent over 290 school and municipal entities as Solicitors or as Special Counsel in more than 50 counties throughout Pennsylvania, and in additional practice areas, such as Construction Law, Tax Assessment Appeals, Audit of Operations and Practices, Real Estate Law and Oil, Gas and Mineral Law.