Trauma-Sensitivity and the Individual Education Program (IEP) Process

A pre-recorded streaming VIDEO replay of the July 2024 webcast, Trauma-Sensitivity and the Individual Education Program (IEP) Process.

Many parents and students experience the IEP process as daunting and even traumatizing. Compounding this is the fact that many have experienced traumatic events in their lives, both inside and outside of school. When communication is unclear, students’ strengths and challenges are viewed in narrow ways, or sensitive information about families is shared carelessly, parents and students can lose a sense of trust with school district staff. Sometimes substantive disagreement results from or can be exacerbated by a lack of trust and a feeling of being dehumanized by the process. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

This workshop helps practitioners learn how an understanding of trauma-sensitivity can improve the IEP process for parents, students, and school district staff. It looks at each part of the IEP process through the “trauma lens” and shows how a deep understanding of trauma can: (1) serve as a powerful motivator for school district staff to employ best practices; (2) help team members see students’ needs holistically and focus on the importance of safety and connection at school; and (3) help both students and caregivers feel welcomed, safe, and respected in the process.

• Learn about trauma-sensitivity and what it means to look through the “trauma lens.”
• Look through the “trauma lens” at each part of the IEP process to consider how it can be made more trauma-sensitive.
• Gain practical strategies for improving counsel’s representation of clients.

Faculty

Michael Gregory, Havard Law School and Havard Graduate School of Education / Cambridge, MA

Michael Gregory is Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS) and a Member of the Faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He teaches and practices law as part of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI), where he is Managing Attorney.

TLPI is a partnership between HLS and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a statewide non-profit child advocacy organization in Boston. TLPI’s mission is to ensure that all children, including those traumatized by exposure to violence and other childhood adversities, succeed in school.

As a result of TLPI’s advocacy, Massachusetts enacted the Safe and Supportive Schools Framework statute in 2014, a first-of-its-kind law that creates a statewide community of practice to support schools and districts to create safe and supportive whole-school learning environments that serve as a foundation for all students to succeed.

He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University. He and his husband are proud parents of a five-year-old daughter who loves dancing to Kidz Bop videos and eating chocolate ice cream.