The Special Education Advocacy Training Project (SEAT)

SEAT National Advisory Board and Project Developers | SEAT Curriculum | FAQ's

Project Overview

In January, 2005, the USC UCEDD at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, in partnership with the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) received a 3-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to implement, evaluate, and explore the feasibility of a replicable special education advocate pilot training program that will address current concerns regarding the availability and quality of non-attorney advocacy services for families of children with disabilities. When parents wish to exercise their rights under special education law, they may turn to advocates to assist them, prior to, instead of, or along with seeking attorney services. At this time advocacy is essentially an unregulated field and there is no systematic or uniform method for advocates to receive comprehensive training and supervised practicum experience.

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

Program Type: Demonstration Project

Contact Persons: Barbara Wheeler, Ph.D., Project Director, USC UCEDD
bwheeler@chla.usc.edu
Denise Marshall, M.A., Project Co-Director, COPAA
exec@copaa.org

OSEP Project Officer: Anne Smith, Ph.D. OSEP ann.smith.ed.gov

Project Period: January 1, 2005 – December 31, 2008

Development and Field-Testing of the SEAT Curriculum

The SEAT Project was funded to create a standardized training curriculum and materials, and develop guidelines and protocols for classroom instruction and practicum experience. Using experts in the field of special education law and advocacy, the project has developed and field-tested a curriculum to prepare special education advocates, which includes 115 hours of coursework and 115 hours of practicum experience. The SEAT curriculum has been field-tested and revised on 3 cohorts of pilot participants :

1. The first draft of the curriculum was field-tested on 77 students across four sites (Los Angeles, Bay Area, Philadelphia, and New York)


2. The second draft was field-tested on 35 students across two sites (Los Angeles and New York)


3. The third pilot site, to field-test the final version of the curriculum, is currently being conducted with a cohort of 32 students across two sites (Los Angeles and Boston). Classroom instruction is complete and students at both sites are now engaged in the practicum portion of their experience.

SEAT Certificate of Completion

SEAT Pilot Participants receive a certificate of completion upon satisfactorily completing the requirements of the program.

The SEAT Training Project is NOT a certifying entity, and provides no guarantees of the competencies of participants who received a SEAT certificate of completion. There is no regulatory oversight of graduates, nor is there regulatory oversight of special education advocacy as a field at this time.

The purpose of training provided as part of the SEAT project to date is the development of a uniform training curriculum (coursework and field experience) that provides trainees with the knowledge and skills necessary to competently and ethically assist students with disabilities and their families to access appropriate educational services under federal and state law. The training provided to students participating in this project was a means to field-test various drafts of the curriculum. The SEAT certificate of completion is provided to those individuals who demonstrate global evidence of achieving basic competencies outlined in the SEAT curriculum, as evidenced by test results and the subjective evaluations of site instructors and practicum supervisors. The SEAT Certificate indicates the number of hours of coursework and supervised field experience the trainee received during their participation in the project.

Evaluation Requirements

Because the SEAT Project is a demonstration project, evaluating the success of the training program is a major grant requirement. As such, trainees were active participants in the field-testing of the curriculum and the project’s attempts to link outcomes to the SEAT training. As such students were required to:

1. Take written exams to evaluate their mastery of content and advocacy skills
2. Do numerous in-class and at-home assignments applying what they learned
3. “Pass” the course before they could matriculate to the practicum experience (Course passing was based on teacher judgment and performance on exams and assignments)
4. “Pass” their practicum (based on practicum supervisor evaluation)
5. Agree to complete a one-year follow-up survey documenting their special education advocacy activity since completing their practicum
6. Provide feedback on the curriculum while taking the course

SEAT Curriculum

The SEAT Curriculum consists of 115 hrs of classroom instruction and 115 hrs of practicum/field experience under the supervision of an experienced special education attorney and/or special education advocate. MORE

SEAT National Advisory Board

There are many stakeholder groups involved in educating and supporting families navigating the special education system. Consequently, the topic of creating a uniform training curriculum for special education advocates was of interest to many groups. In order to assure a thorough examination of the goals and end product of this project, the SEAT Project recruited representatives from a diverse group of stakeholders to participate in the project’s National Advisory Board. (read more)

Project Developers

Many special education advocates, attorneys, professionals, and family members across the country participated in the pilot instruction, curriculum development, and curriculum review. This project and its final product, the SEAT curriculum, could not have been possible without the dedication of these people. (read more)