Sweet Stevens Attorneys Plan, Present at 2023 PBI Exceptional Children Conference
News Release
New Britain, PA – Two attorneys from Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams LLP are taking a lead role at the annual Pennsylvania Bar Institute Exceptional Children Conference, scheduled for Friday, October 13th at the PBI Conference Center in Mechanicsburg, PA. Partner Thomas C. Warner is a course planner for the event and a featured speaker. Special Counsel Andrew E. Faust joins Warner as a faculty member.
Presented annually by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the educational arm of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Exceptional Children Conference is considered one of the premier special education conferences in the commonwealth. This year’s program runs from 9 AM to 4:20 PM and will also be webcast, so participants may attend remotely.
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. This year’s topics include Discipline and the Role of Virtual School Post-Covid; New Title IX regulations and PHRC regulations; Truancy & Outgrowth of School Phobia; First Amendment issues & Social Media; and Legal Ethics in Special Education.
Warner, who is serving as a planner for the event for his eighth consecutive year, 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.
The Exceptional Children Conference is attended by attorneys, school administrators, parents, and anyone who wants to learn more about student educational rights. Participants are eligible to earn 5 CLE credits and 1 ethics credit through the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board. For more information, visit https://pbi.org/.
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 21 attorneys who represent over 290 school and municipal entities as Solicitors or as Special Counsel in more than 50 counties throughout Pennsylvania.