MELINDA BAIRD, ESQ.
Melinda Baird is in private practice in Knoxville, Tennessee and exclusively represents school systems in the areas of special education and antidiscrimination law pursuant to the IDEA, Section 504 and the ADA. She received her B.A. at Trevecca Nazarene College (1980) and her J.D. at the University of Alabama (1984). Ms. Baird is the former Associate Publisher of Education and Disability Publications for LRP Publications. Prior to her experience at LRP, she served as Director of Program Compliance Administration for the Tennessee Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. In addition to her frequent national, state and local presentations, Ms. Baird is a member of the Special Education School Attorneys Advisory Council, produces a monthly audiotape series, a video training series and has coauthored several publications on special education law.
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DR. ERIC HARTWIG
Eric Hartwig, Ph.D., is a special education administrator and psychologist from Wausau, Wisconsin. He has done extensive research on discipline, school violence, and psychoeducational assessment and related special education issues. He received his doctorate in Education Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a M.S. in School Psychology and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. He is experienced and licensed as a Director of Pupil Services, District Administrator, School Psychologist, and a School Psychologist in private practice. Presently, he is the Administrator of Pupil Services for the Marathon County Children with Disabilities Education Board. Dr. Hartwig has done extensive research on discipline, school violence, psychoeducational assessment and related special education issues. In addition, Dr. Hartwig is the:
- Consulting Editor for Today's School Psychologist.
- Author of a behavioral rating scale designed to identify and treat conduct and personality disorders in school age children.
- Co-author of the book: Discipline in the School.
- Co-author of a monograph, Disciplining Students With Disabilities: A Synthesis of Critical and Emerging Issues..
- Co-author of a law report, Disciplining Children With Disabilities: Balancing Procedural Expectations and Positive Educational Practice.
- Co-author of the article, Disciplining Students in Special Education, The Journal of Special Education, Vol. 33 (4).
- Co-author of eight videos entitled:
- How to Make a Manifestation Determination
- How to Prepare for a Due Process Hearing
- Conducting Expulsion Hearings: A Step-by-Step Guide
- The 11th Hour: How to Handle the Pre-Expulsion Special Education Referral
- IEP's and the New IDEA
- Student Discipline and Section 504 Compliance: Striking the Balance
- Discipline Under the New IDEA
- Functional Behavioral Assessment: How to Do Them Right
- Author of four videos entitled:
- Functional Behavioral Assessments: A Quick Study
- What Have They Done to Discipline?
- A Balanced Approach to Discipline
- Discipline: 12 Things to Remember
He has been an adjunct professor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Administration and Supervision of Special Education; Cardinal Stritch College-Milwaukee/Organizational Behavior, Managing Interpersonal Relationships and Psychology of Human Relations; and for Aurora University- Wisconsin Campus/Tests and Measurement.
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ERIC R. HERLAN, ESQ.
Mr. Herlan is an attorney with Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon in Portland, Maine. His area of expertise is disability law, with a particular focus on claims under the I.D.E.A. and the Rehabilitation Act (Sec. 504). He has represented school units in administrative hearings, in federal court, and before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Herlan has made dozens of presentations on special education law to school officials throughout Maine and New England, and has spoken at the 15th and 18th Annual LRP Institutes on Special Education issues. Mr. Herlan is the author of Commentaries on the Maine Special Education Regulations (MADSEC Spec. Ed. Administrator's Manual, 1993), and The Legal Framework for Responding to DNR Orders on School Grounds (LRP, 1994).
Eric Herlan graduated from the Maine School of Law and earned the Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Columbia University, both in 1987.
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