On July 27, 2021, Stock and Leader School Law Practice Chair Brooke E. D. Say, Esquire, provided the keynote address, “COVID Exposures”: FAPE – Focused Strategies for Post-Pandemic Educational Recovery at the virtual 2021 Utah Institute on Special Education Law Conference, a two-day conference hosted by the Utah State Board of Education.
After a school year of online, remote, otherwise altered learning in a global pandemic, Attorney Say examined the legal themes arising and strategizes ways to address head-on now known complications of re-engaging student populations. She discussed how to address factors such as absenteeism and learning loss in completing evaluation eligibility determinations. Additionally, Attorney Say identified the distinctions between meeting student (legal and educational) needs with compensatory education/services, recovery services, ESY, and summer services. Finally, Attorney Say presented lessons learned from failures/successes in remote learning to build a proactive defense in current IEPs, evaluations, and FAPE-offerings.
As the conference concluded, Attorney Say participated in a panel discussion addressing participants’ questions.
Ms. Say is the Chair of her firm’s School Law Group and practices in the areas of education (school) for public school districts throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In her school practice, she has developed expertise in advising school districts in special education, gifted, discipline, and civil rights matters.
In her local practice, Brooke E. D. Say pioneered the Stock and Leader Special Education Series, which includes a compilation of seminars addressing the latest topics in Special Education presented to Special Education Directors, Supervisors, Pupil Personnel Administrators, head teachers and School Psychologists. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, she hosted weekly conference calls with her clients, guiding them in their navigation of the legal pitfalls of educating disabled students in their virtual and hybrid educational settings.
Brooke regularly presents for the PA Exceptional Children’s Conference (ECC), Lehigh University’s various Special Education Conferences hosted by Dr. Perry Zirkel, Pennsylvania School Board Association, and Pennsylvania Bar Institute workshops. In 2021, she was selected to give the revered “Year in Review” for the ECC, alongside a parent attorney/colleague. More recently, she has enjoyed speaking across the United States, at the Tri-State Law Conference for Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa, and at the upcoming Northern Plains Law Conference for North and South Dakota and Montana.