Julie Weatherly, Esq. of Resolutions in Special Education, Inc. (RISE, Inc.) and Dr. Timothy S.

Havard with Auburn City Schools and Havard Educational Consulting has co-developed Learn &
Lead—a one-day (in-person or virtual) training program designed for those who serve as IEP Team
“LEA Representatives,” including local school building administrators. Based upon the combined
experiences of a special education legal expert and an educational leader, this program was developed in order to train LEA Representatives on their important legal and professional job duties
as the IEP meeting’s “process leader.”

Objectives:
This interactive, information-packed training day provides LEA Representatives with suggested aids
and strategies, as well as a video demonstration of their use in an IEP meeting. These strategies are
designed to assist LEA Reps to more effectively:
• Fulfill their roles and responsibilities as the IEP meeting’s “process leader” in support of the
Team’s “content leaders” and other members;
• Ensure that all IEP Team members, including parents, are provided the opportunity for meaningful
participation and input;
• Use visual aids, checklists and other strategies to help prepare for and guide the IEP meeting
process, keeping it on track and ensuring that it remains properly focused on the student;
• Use communication and conflict prevention and management strategies to respond to difficult
behaviors and conversations that may occur during meetings;
• Assist IEP Teams in reaching consensus in decision-making and closure when consensus cannot
be reached; and
• Ensure that an overall organized, efficient, and legally compliant IEP Team meeting
• occurs.

It is the LEArn & LEAd goal that participants will walk away with immediate strategies they can use to
improve their IEP meetings and their knowledge and skills to support collaboration between parents and school staff.

Presenter: Julie Weatherly 

Julie J. Weatherly, Esq. is the Founder of RISE, Inc. located in Mobile, Alabama, and has been working with school agencies in the area of special education since 1986. RISE is a full-service legal and consulting business designed to assist educational agencies in the avoidance and resolution of special education legal disputes arising under the IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the ADA, and other applicable laws. Julie is a graduate of Presbyterian College and the University of Georgia School of Law. She is a member of the State Bars of Alabama and Georgia and provides consultative and/or legal services to school agencies primarily in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, as well as on a national basis. 

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