Special Education Basic Rights and Meaningful Parent Participation

Meeting Link via Zoom: www.bit.ly/IMBasicRights.

Our presenter for the evening will be Angela Ferreira.  Angela is a non-lawyer advocate with many years of personal and professional experience. Angela works at The Arc of Bristol County as an educational consultant. She offers advocacy services for families outside of Bristol County through her agency Advocacy Associates of Massachusetts. Angela has been the chairperson of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council in her local school district for the last eight years. She has completed the Parent Consultant Training Institute (PCTI) through the Federation for Children with Special Needs (54 hours of classroom instruction in special education advocacy) as well as the Special Education Advocate Training (SEAT) through COPAA (Council of Parents Advocates and Attorneys) which is a year-long Special Education Advocate Training - the only nationally developed and recognized year-long course that provides participants with training to become a special education advocate. Angela has been involved in special education advocacy on a personal level for more than 20 years. She is the proud parent of three children – two with disabilities and one adopted from a trauma background at the age of eight. Angela serves as a special education surrogate parent for a child in custody of the Division of Children and Families (DCF). She is passionate about assisting families through the special education process and helping both parents and students to become more effective advocates.