This webinar qualifies for 1.0 of California MCLE & MC3 Educational Credit

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When parents decide to restructure their families through separation or divorce, numerous education related decisions emerge. This is especially true when their children have disabilities. Children with special needs have special rights under state and federal special education laws. These laws are complex and provide critical supports and services for these children and their families. The intersection between special education laws and the divorce process is also complex and often unfamiliar both to parents and the professionals who support them through their family restructuring processes. In this session we will explore the ways in which having a disability-informed co-mediator or consultant in your Mediation or Collaborative Process can help us: (1) ask well-informed and useful questions about the children’s and parents’ needs; (2) help parents generate options and alternatives they might otherwise might not have considered; (3) facilitate the creation of more well-informed and enduring co-parenting/custody agreements; (4) refer parents to appropriate outside professional when needed; and (5) help parents prepare more effectively for their children’s transitions to adulthood and a more independent life.

Crystal Willams

Crystal Williams is a Mediator and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) consultant. She has a Mediation company, White & Williams ADR Services, LLC where she specializes in Special Education Dispute resolution. Her areas of expertise include IEP facilitation, conflict management coaching, professional development, parent engagement and trauma informed practices.

Crystal has facilitated hundreds of IEP meetings in multiple charter school districts across Southern California and the Inland Empire during her 13 year career as an Education Specialist.

Crystal completed her Masters of Dispute Resolution at University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law. Crystal has completed additional Mediation training through Waymakers Dispute Resolution Services. She also worked as an Adjunct Instructor for the Learning Rights Law Center for 5 years in their Training Individuals for Grassroots Education Reform (T.I.G.E.R) program helping parents understand the IEP process and fostering the tools of families in need, so that they may successfully navigate within the special education system.

She has Master of Arts from Claremont Graduate University in Teacher Education where she also earned her Mild/Moderate and Moderate/ Severe special education credentials. She has been an educator for the past 15 years, in the Elementary, Middle, High School and Community College and University setting. Currently, she is a Social Justice Education Professor in the graduate school programs at both Claremont Graduate University and University of Redlands.

Additionally, she earned a Master of Arts Degree from Argosy University in Forensic Psychology with a concentration in treatment. She received her BA in Social Science with emphasis in Psychology along with a double minor in Children and Families in Urban America and Psychology and LAW from The University of Southern California.

Josh Kershenbaum, Esq.

Josh Kershenbaum, Esq., is a dedicated Peacemaker with extensive training and experience in both Mediation and Collaborative Law. He earned certifications in both Negotiation and Mediation at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and completed additional Mediation training through the Good Shepherd Mediation Program. Josh trained in Divorce & Family Mediation with mediation luminaries Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten and Susan Guthrie at the acclaimed Mosten Guthrie Academy, where he is now on the training faculty. He is a member of the Collaborative Law Professionals of Southeast Pennsylvania, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators.

Josh brings over 20 years of experience and expertise in the areas of education and special education law to his Mediation and Collaborative Divorce practices. He devotes much of his time to helping parents of children and adults with special needs navigate their divorces through Mediation and Collaborative Practice. He also continues to help parents, students, school districts, and higher education institutions resolve special education and other conflicts through Mediation.

A dynamic and engaging teacher and trainer, Josh has trained hundreds of professionals at numerous professional conferences around the country for attorneys, parents, educators, school administrators, teachers, and students on a variety of topics related to special education law, Mediation, and conflict resolution. Most recently, he was a conference presenter for the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP), the Academy of Special Needs Planners (ASNP), the Council for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Education (CADRE), the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), as well as for numerous professional and community organizations. He has been a guest on several programs on National Public Radio, and on the popular podcasts, Divorce and Beyond (Susan Guthrie), Surviving Divorce (Kate Anthony) and Good Law Bad Law (Aaron Freiwald).

Josh began his legal career as an Associate at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, LLC in Philadelphia. He went on to found and grow one of Pennsylvania’s premier, boutique law firms dedicated to representing the legal rights of children with special needs. Josh later served as Senior Counsel for Alternative Dispute Resolution for one of the region’s most well-respected family law firms, before returning to solo-practice as a Mediator and Collaborative divorce professional. He earned his law degree, cum laude, from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in the Evening Division while working full-time and raising his son. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College, where he studied psychology and neuroscience as an undergraduate. Before practicing law, Josh was a public elementary school teacher in Newton, Massachusetts, where he also served as a Board member for Greater Boston PFLAG. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his family of five humans and three rescue cats.

Cost:

SCMA Sustaining & Student Members: FREE

SCMA Members: $10

Non-Members: $35