MEMBER ONLY WEBINARS
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TITLE IX and Serving Neurodivergent Students
Thursday, April 25th at 12:00 p.m. PDT
A significant challenge faced by student conduct professionals and Title IX administrators in higher education settings is recognizing and responding to a growing population on campus: autistic and other neurodivergent students. While these students are no more likely to find themselves involved in conduct-related situations, the stakes are particularly high for them. Title IX and student conduct professionals must bring to these interactions a depth of understanding and a toolbox of strategies to make sure all students are treated fairly, respectfully, and compassionately. In this presentation, I’ll discuss some of the most common characteristics of autism and related neurodivergence. When an incident has occurred, Title IX administrators must respond. So preventing those incidents and accusations is the best option, which we can do by improving campus-wide understanding of neurodiversity. But when an incident or accusation has already occurred, there are some strategies for working with autistic students and their neurotypical peers that may help lessen the impact of a conduct response.
About the Presenter
Lee Burdette Williams is the Executive Director of the College Autism Network, an organization committed to improving access, experiences and outcomes for college students with autism. She worked in higher education and student affairs for almost three decades, including serving as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Wheaton College (MA) and Dean of Students at the University of Connecticut. As a student affairs professional, Lee served in a variety of areas including student activities, residential life, orientation, student conduct, and admissions. She has taught in student affairs graduate programs at the University of Vermont, the University of Connecticut, Appalachian State University, Western Michigan University, and the University of Maryland.
Lee holds a Ph.D. in College Student Personnel Administration from the University of Maryland College Park and an M.Ed. in community counseling from Salem State University. Her undergraduate degree is from Gordon College (MA). Lee is a frequent contributor to Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education and is the author of two professional books, one on peer education and one on learning communities. She writes and presents on a variety of topics, most often on student mental health, autism in a college setting, student culture and conduct, and leadership in student affairs.
TITLE IX and Pregnant & Parenting Students
Thursday, October 25th at 12:00 p.m. PDT
NWATIXA is proud to announce that we will be hosting Jessica Lee from the Pregnant Scholar to help us get a jumpstart on the upcoming academic year. There is some uncertainty about when the new Title IX regulations will go into effect, but we can still work to get the best information possible.
About the Presenter
Jessica Lee is the Senior Staff Attorney at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco’s Center for WorkLife Law, and Director of the Center’s Pregnant Scholar Initiative. Jessica’s research and advocacy advances gender and racial equity in the workplace and in education, and she is a nationally-recognized expert on the laws at the intersection of employment, education, and maternal and infant health.
Jessica provides partner organizations with know-your-rights training and strategic tools. Model legislation co-drafted by Jessica has been enacted at the federal and state levels, she regularly advises state and local enforcement agencies, and has guided dozens of institutions through drafting and implementing family-responsive policies. Jessica also provides resources and trainings on the legal rights of caregivers–translating complicated legal issues into approachable and useful tools for thousands of non-lawyers.
Jessica’s work has been covered by a variety of press, from the NY Times to the BBC, and her writing has appeared in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review to The Journal of Women’s Health. Prior to joining the Center, Jessica was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Jessica earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
No Longer a Footnote: Beyond Surface-Level GEnder/Sexuality Inclusion in Violence PREVENTION
Thursday, September 21st at 12:00 p.m. PDT
This workshop will help violence prevention and response professionals build more gender- and sexuality-inclusive practices by 1) learning to avoid common gender/sexuality assumptions in programming work and 2) developing a set of strategies to make prevention and response more inclusive. We'll discuss the importance of moving away from models that assume that all perpetrators are cisgender, heterosexual men and that all survivors are cisgender, heterosexual women. We'll also review common traps that practitioners may fall into when attempting to make prevention more inclusive and explore strategies that better address diverse student experiences. This workshop assumes a 101-level familiarity with LGBTQ+ identities and communities.
Our speaker Hannah Lipstein (she/her) has been active in the violence prevention & response field since she first volunteered as a teenager at her local domestic violence organization. Most recently, she worked at Williams College in Massachusetts as the Assistant Director for Violence Prevention, where she conducted workshops with the student body on healthy relationships, partner abuse, bystander intervention, consent, boundaries, and more. She also played a central role in responding to the 2020 Title IX rules changes and rewriting the college's policy in compliance. Prior to joining Williams, she worked as an advocate at The Network/La Red, a Boston-based, survivor-led organization working to end partner abuse in LGBTQ, SM, and polyamorous communities. She is pursuing a master's degree in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.
Disclaimers: This webinar is provided for the purposes of professional development and growth. Presenters share information from their experience as professionals and practitioners. This presentation is intended to foster dialogue, reflection, and growth among participants and/or attendees. This training was not designed nor offered to meet Clery or Title IX training requirements. The information is presented for the sole benefit of NWATIXA members. Participants will not be authorized to make the materials publicly available on their websites or for request and inspection by members of the public. This presentation also does not serve the purpose of legal counsel or advice. Please consult your legal counsel for guidance if you have outstanding questions relating to your institution's policies and procedures relating to Title IX or the Clery Act.
TitleIX and Pregnant & Parenting Students
Tuesday, June 27th at 12:00 p.m. PDT
NWATIXA is proud to announce that we will be hosting Jessica Lee from the Pregnant Scholar to help us get a jumpstart on the upcoming academic year.
About Jessica Lee
Jessica Lee is the Senior Staff Attorney at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco’s Center for WorkLife Law, and Director of the Center’s Pregnant Scholar Initiative. Jessica’s research and advocacy advance gender and racial equity in the workplace and in education, and she is a nationally-recognized expert on the laws at the intersection of employment, education, and maternal and infant health.
Jessica provides partner organizations with know-your-rights training and strategic tools. Model legislation co-drafted by Jessica has been enacted at the federal and state levels, she regularly advises state and local enforcement agencies and has guided dozens of institutions through drafting and implementing family-responsive policies. Jessica also provides resources and training on the legal rights of caregivers–translating complicated legal issues into approachable and useful tools for thousands of non-lawyers.
Jessica’s work has been covered by a variety of press, from the NY Times to the BBC, and her writing has appeared in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review to The Journal of Women’s Health. Prior to joining the Center, Jessica was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Jessica earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
About the Pregnant Scholar
An initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California College of the Law San Francisco, the Pregnant Scholar is the nationwide legal resource center on the rights of pregnant and parenting students. The Pregnant Scholar provides technical assistance to college and university administrators, training on Title IX’s pregnancy and parenting-related protections, and assistance implementing best practice policies to support pregnant and parenting students.
Trial and Error: Lessons from Live Hearings
Wednesday, November 30th at 12:00 p.m. PDT
Join fellow Title IX administrators and conduct officers to learn from others’ mistakes and successes (but mostly mistakes) with live hearings. Connan Campbell, lead Student Conduct Officer and Title IX investigator at Spokane Community College will share insights and lessons learned. In the past several years, SCC has hosted nearly a dozen live hearings for general student conduct and sexual misconduct investigations; some including absent respondents or reluctant complainants, some including video testimony and some including multiple attorneys.
Connan has served as the lead Student Conduct Officer at SCC since 2013; where live hearings have become a regular part of the student conduct process for any circumstance in which a student may get suspended. SCC has a cadre of administrators and faculty trained to serve as panelists and one of whom serves as chair of the hearing.
TItle IX Athletics: Basics Plus a bit more
Wednesday, September 28th at 12:00 p.m. PDT
In this hour-long webinar we will review how Title IX views athletics compliance for high schools, colleges and universities, along with some current topics in athletics such as participation of transgender athletes and treatment of e-sports. Our speaker is Amy Klosterman, who handled Title IX athletics matters during her 11 years at the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Currently, Amy's firm, Amy Klosterman Law PLLC, provides neutral investigations, training, consulting, and expert witness services. Amy is a NWATIXA board member.
Restorative Justice Webinar
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
Since being formally enshrined in Title IX regulations, the possibility of alternative dispute resolution or other informal methods of resolving Title IX complaints or allegations is now possible. This webinar will focus on educating you as a Title IX practitioner regarding the various forms of alternative resolutions, including mediation, restorative justice, and transformative justice, so you can better determine what, if any, your campus is prepared or interested in offering students.
“Relevance” in Title IX Sexual Harassment Investigations
Wednesday, May 2, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
The 2020 Title IX regulations at 34 CFR 106.45(b)(1) state that grievance processes for formal complaints of sexual harassment "require an objective evaluation of all relevant evidence, including both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence." This lunchtime webinar will define and discuss "relevance," explain inculpatory and exculpatory evidence, explain the regulation's rape shield protections and exceptions, and allow participants to interactively practice conducting relevance analyses with examples. This webinar is designed to help those who work with Title IX understand the concept of "relevance" and apply it to investigations, report writing, and decision-making. While the principles covered may be helpful to those involved in hearings, relevance determinations by hearing officers in Title IX hearings will not be covered in this training.
Amy Klosterman is an attorney and consultant based out of Seattle, Washington, providing independent investigations to schools and workplaces as well as training and consulting on school and workplace issues. Amy also serves as an expert witness to both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation. She had the privilege to work with Kelli for several years when they were both at the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights here in Seattle.
Kelli Schmidt is the owner of Advance Law Office PLLC where she provides civil rights support, training, and investigative services to education institutions and workplaces in Washington State. Prior to starting her own practice in 2017, she worked for Seattle Public Schools as their student civil rights compliance officer. Before that, she was a senior attorney at the Seattle regional office of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for sixteen years where she had the privilege of working with Amy Klosterman for several years.
TAKING CARE AS A TITLE IX PROFESSIONAL
Thursday, April 23, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
Being a Title IX coordinator can be a thankless job under most circumstances - much less in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. In this webinar, Matt Nelson (Assistant Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator at Pacific Lutheran University) talks about strategies and practices to help deal with the stress of being a Title IX coordinator and how to be sustainable in our day-to-day work, which can involve organizational politics, secondary trauma, burnout, and more.
An Overview of Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams
Bolante.NET in partnership with Kelli Schmidt, JD
Thursday, March 12, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. PDT
Rebecca Bolante and Jim Bennett will give a Threat Assessment overview of current best practices including team composition, threat assessment//management protocols, differences between higher education and k-12, how Title IX fits into the picture, common "pitfalls", and the current trends or needs. Multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment teams are the nationally recognized approach to assessing the potential for violent acts and developing strategies for mitigating or preventing violence. Behavioral Threat Assessment is a proactive approach requiring a comprehensive review of the situation, context, and subject's psycho-social and behavioral dynamics. Literature supports the creation of trained multidisciplinary teams who can identify, assess and prevent/mitigate situations potentially leading to targeted violence (ASIS International; ASME Innovative Technologies Institute; Society ofHuman Resource Management).
Emergency Actions During a Pandemic
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 12:00 p.m. PDT
Institutions typically implement emergency measures to separate students, employees and community members pending an investigation. That has frequently included temporary suspensions, changes in housing, administrative leave, modifications to class schedules or building access, and changes in participation or access to extracurricular activities like sports events. However, during the ongoing pandemic and after the implementation of the new Title IX regulations, institutions have new emergency thresholds to consider and new frameworks for analyzing how to keep their community safe while ensuring appropriate access to education and the workplace.
Join Darci Heroy and Missy Matella for a robust discussion of these new challenges and steps you can take now to help you moving forward.
Best Practices for Effective Credibility Assessments
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 12:00 p.m. PDT
Skillful credibility assessments are critical in conducting high-quality fact-finding processes. This webinar will discuss myths surrounding credibility determinations, tips for applying established credibility factors, and best practices for effective assessments.
Trish Murphy of Northwest Workplace Law is a Seattle-based employment attorney who devotes the majority of her practice to conducting independent investigations of workplace, higher ed, and Title IX complaints. To date she has performed more than 200 investigations, spanning a wide range of claims, parties, and industries. She is a licensed private investigator, an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH), and a certified civil rights/Title IX investigator.
INFORMAL Resolutions and the New Title IX Regs
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PDT
During this training, we will explore “tips, traps and tools” related to workplace conflict, interpersonal interventions, and informal or alternative resolution possibilities with claims of discrimination and bias. We will discuss different types of informal resolutions, common privacy and information sharing concerns, setting and managing expectations, laying a founding for successful resolutions and documentation, and when and how these informal techniques may be used.
Darci Heroy is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Grand River Solutions, and regularly acts as a mentor, interim coordinator, and resource for our Northwest clients. Darci has served in various Title IX related institutional roles, including as Title IX Coordinator and Chief Civil Rights Officer, performed and directed hundreds of complex investigations, and audited and restructured campus wide systems responding to equity complaints. During over a decade of labor and employment work, she has presented countless hours of trainings and developmental coaching, served as a civil rights investigator for the State of Oregon, and as a contract attorney for both employer and union labor firms. She is always available at darci@grandriversolutions.com
Missy Matella is currently the Senior Director of Employee and Labor Relations and Associate General Counsel for the University of Oregon. She is transitioning to work for Watkinson Laird on January 1, 2020. Missy has over a decade of experience as an employment, labor, business, public sector and higher education attorney who has worked as both outside and inside counsel, and as senior leadership for large institutions of higher education and private organizations. Missy uses her first-hand knowledge of the realities of implementation to provide practical legal advice with the goal of not only managing risk, but coming up with solutions that appropriately balance operational needs and creating positive work cultures for clients and their employees. Her new email address is: MMatella@WLRLaw.com
Writing Reports, Best Practices for Documentation Webinar
Wednesday, November 7, 2020 at 2:00 a.m. PDT.
Kelli Schmidt will provide an-depth training on report writing, including the purpose of investigative reports, essential elements of all reports, critical issues, and report formats. She will then breakdown and discuss report elements such as: background and preliminary case information; identifying the role of the investigator and the issue being investigated; scope, legal standards, and standard or proof; describing the investigation process; making findings of fact and credibility determinations; and analyses and conclusions. She will also share her practice tips gleaned from twenty years of experience writing investigation reports.
KELLI SCHMIDT is the owner of Advance Law Office, PLLC, where she provides independent, impartial civil rights investigations for school districts and employers. Before going into practice for herself, Kelli worked for Seattle Public Schools as Student Civil Rights Compliance Officer and interim Title IX Coordinator. Prior to that she was a Senior Attorney at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she led investigation teams and trained others in investigations for 16 years. A graduate of the University of Washington
School of Law and the University of California Santa Cruz, she began her legal career in the Pierce County and Seattle Offices of TeamChild representing youth involved in the juvenile justice system on civil legal issues. She is also the immediate past chair of WSBA's Civil Rights Law Section and on Vice President of K-12 on NWATIXA’s Board of Directors.
Virtual INvestigations: New Rules vs Old Rules: Best Practices
Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PDT
As the COVID pandemic continues, there is still a need to continue to manage Title IX cases. And with it the necessary switch to virtual investigations and hearings. In this webinar, we discuss best practices, lessons learned, and ways to continue supporting students as distance and hybrid learning models persist at institutions in the Pacific Northwest and across the country as new Title IX regulations come to bear on the Title IX procedures at your institution.
Matt Nelson is currently an independent investigator who has been working in the Title IX field since 2015. He specializes in student-centered approaches to Title IX work, applying trauma-informed investigative practice to all parties. He has served as a Title IX investigator for Gonzaga University and Assistant Dean of Students/Title IX Coordinator at Pacific Lutheran University.
NWATIXA SOcial HOur
Thursday, October 8, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PDT
Join us for a Virtual Happy Hour to kick-off the 2020-2021 school year. At this participatory Zoom event, you will meet others with Title IX roles and your NWATIXA board members. After brief introductions, we will break into smaller groups for Higher Ed and K-12 discussions. Moderators will help keep conversation flowing, but the discussions are not scripted. Based on feedback to date, we anticipate lively conversations about challenges and successes with the new Title IX regulations, remote learning and investigations, COVID, etc. We hope to see you there!
Cyber Harrassment Investigations
Thursday, September 27, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. PDT.
Topics to be addressed include: how to locate social media and online harassment that is not on your organization's system; how best to preserve evidence; what to do when the evidence may be child pornography; what resources are available for targets of harassment to get written or photographic items off third-party platforms such as social media apps and online forms?
For Title IX Professionals: Best Practices for Working With Legal Counsel
Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. PDT
Join NWATIXA for this webinar where we host two attorneys highly experienced in Title IX and higher education law. Our speakers for this event are Mike O'Brien, Attorney at Perkins Coie, former Associate General Counsel for the University of Alaska, and Kerena Higgins, Assistant Attorney General, Education Team Leader, Western Washington University. They will share their perspectives on:
Building and maintaining a productive relationship with legal counsel.
What does legal counsel need to know and when do they need to know it?
Preparing for litigation - document production, depositions, communication guidelines.
How to handle situations where Title IX professionals may need to educate counsel on Title IX.
How to approach disagreements in handling issues and moving forward on complaints.
At what point is it best to reach out to legal counsel for programmatic/developmental support, such as for policy/procedure revisions?
Michael O’Brien is senior counsel for Perkins Coie, based out of the Anchorage office. He has spent the past five years representing educational institutions in Title IX matters, including internal investigations, OCR compliance reviews, and litigation ranging from protective orders to the Alaska Supreme Court. His expertise includes counseling clients regarding employment and student conduct issues, drafting handbook and policy language, and conducting and defending investigations.
Kerena Higgins has been with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office since 2001. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and Seattle University School of Law and is a managing Assistant Attorney General in the Bellingham Regional Services Division. Kerena serves as Team Leader to the attorneys handling Education and Labor and Industries work in the Bellingham office and at Western Washington University. Kerena began working in the Tacoma Division and transferred to the Bellingham office in 2002. She has handled a wide variety of litigation and client advice matters over the years, including dependency and termination of parental rights cases, Labor and Industries litigation, and day care licensing-related litigation. Kerena’s work is now exclusively higher education work for public education institutional clients.
Taking Care as a Title IX Professional
Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
Being a Title IX coordinator can be a thankless job under most circumstances - much less in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. In this webinar, Matt Nelson (Assistant Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator at Pacific Lutheran University) talks about strategies and practices to help deal with the stress of being a Title IX coordinator and how to be sustainable in our day-to-day work, which can involve organizational politics, secondary trauma, burnout, and more.
An Overview of Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams
Bolante.NET in partnership with Kelli Schmidt, JD
Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. PDT
Rebecca Bolante and Jim Bennett will give a Threat Assessment overview of current best practices including team composition, threat assessment//management protocols, differences between higher education and k-12, how Title IX fits into the picture, common "pitfalls", and the current trends or needs. Multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment teams are the nationally recognized approach to assessing the potential for violent acts and developing strategies for mitigating or preventing violence. Behavioral Threat Assessment is a proactive approach requiring a comprehensive review of the situation, context, and subject's psycho-social and behavioral dynamics. Literature supports the creation of trained multidisciplinary teams who can identify, assess and prevent/mitigate situations potentially leading to targeted violence (ASIS International; ASME Innovative Technologies Institute; Society ofHuman Resource Management).
How to complete a Title IX Investigation in 30 days or less
Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. PDT.
A basic overview of an investigation including: case file with templates, outreach efforts, intake/determining a game plan, scheduling of interviews, interviews and report writing, draft reports and final reports. Learn how to keep your investigation on track in order to complete it in a timely manner after you have been assigned the case as an investigator.
investigating together: the two investigator model
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. PDT.
While new guidance from the Department of Education is still in the works, there has been a growing emphasis on multiple investigators staffing cases. In this webinar, Pacific Lutheran University Title IX Coordinator Matt Nelson will offer a model for investigations based on two investigators, as well as talk about ways to grow the bench of staff you have on campus to staff investigations.
Cyberbullying Facts and Tips Webinar
Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. PDT.
Join us for an informative webinar on cyber bullying - what it is, how it relates to traditional bullying, current apps/tools and best practices for administrators/Title IX personnel in terms of response (including encouraging reporting and creating positive school climates). Includes a Q & A session.
Anne Collier is founder and executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative, the national nonprofit organization that is piloting a US social media helpline for schools. A youth advocate with more than 20 years’ experience researching, writing and speaking nationally and internationally about kids and digital media, Anne serves on the Trust & Safety advisory boards of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. Based with her family in the Salt Lake City area, she blogs at NetFamilyNews.org.
Cross-Institutional Complaints
Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
Using a case study approach, presenters will walk through a shared case that eachhad and use it for discussion of how they worked together with the other institution - what went right, what missed the mark, as well as share other experiences each of them had as they have worked through cross-institutional complaints.
Presenting will be:
Lynzie DeVeres is the Title IX Coordinator at Claremont McKenna College. She has worked in this role for over two and half years. Her current responsibilities include working with six other institution within Claremont, known as the Claremont Colleges. She also works very closely with the Dean of Student Office to support student educational trainings and some programs centered around Title IX issues. Previously she spent over five years working in higher education in Admissions and in Financial Aid. During her tenure in Admissions she served in many different capacities; as program coordinator for diversity recruitment, coordinated student and alumni engagement program events, and facilitated admission workshops for parents. Lynzie also worked for a labor union where her responsibilities included coordinating education programs about healthcare reform within the state of California, which also included working with members on wage disputes, and advocacy in grievance matters. Lynzie received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
Juli Dunn is the Associate Dean of Students and Title IX Administrator at Whitman College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Juli has worked at the Walla Walla, Washington-based Whitman College since 1993, first as the College's first certified athletic trainer providing preventative and rehabilitative care to Whitman's student-athletes, and later as Director of Academic Resources overseeing academic advising, tutoring, study skills series, mid-semester deficiency and academic probation advising, disability support services and more. Today, her role as Associate Dean of Students includes the oversight and implementation of retention, leadership and mentoring programs, oversight of pre-major advising and supervision of the Academic Resource Center Director. She is also the primary Student Conduct Administrator at the college. As Whitman's Title IX Administrator, Juli proactively educates the campus community on Title IX laws and matters and is the College’s point person for all cases of sex or gender-based harassment, discrimination, or assault. Juli previously served as the College’s lead Title IX investigator. Juli received her B. A. from Whitworth College and her M. A. from The Ohio State University.
Practice Considerations when Working with Respondents
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. PDT
This webinar will provide a comprehensive guide to working with respondents in your cases. Latest proposed regulations emphasize the care and balance that should accompany working with respondents, and the importance of due process. This webinar will guide you on how to approach working with respondents and cultivating a fair approach.
Presenting will be MATT NELSON. Matt is the lead Title IX Investigator for Gonzaga University, and has been involved in Title IX and support at Gonzaga after working as a residence life coordinator for the University of Oregon. He is the current president of the Northwest Association of Title IX Administrators. Proud alumnus of the University of Iowa and graduate alum of Western Illinois University.”
Writing Reports, Best Practices for Documentation Webinar
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. PDT.
Kelli Schmidt will provide an-depth training on report writing, including the purpose of investigative reports, essential elements of all reports, critical issues, and report formats. She will then breakdown and discuss report elements such as: background and preliminary case information; identifying the role of the investigator and the issue being investigated; scope, legal standards, and standard or proof; describing the investigation process; making findings of fact and credibility determinations; and analyses and conclusions. She will also share her practice tips gleaned from twenty years of experience writing investigation reports.
KELLI SCHMIDT is the owner of Advance Law Office, PLLC, where she provides independent, impartial civil rights investigations for school districts and employers. Before going into practice for herself, Kelli worked for Seattle Public Schools as Student Civil Rights Compliance Officer and interim Title IX Coordinator. Prior to that she was a Senior Attorney at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she led investigation teams and trained others in investigations for 16 years. A graduate of the University of Washington
School of Law and the University of California Santa Cruz, she began her legal career in the Pierce County and Seattle Offices of TeamChild representing youth involved in the juvenile justice system on civil legal issues. She is also the immediate past chair of WSBA's Civil Rights Law Section and on Vice President of K-12 on NWATIXA’s Board of Directors.
CYBER HARASSMENT INVESTIGATION WEBINAR
Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. PDT.
Topics to be addressed include: how to locate social media and online harassment that is not on your organization's system; how best to preserve evidence; what to do when the evidence may be child pornography; what resources are available for targets of harassment to get written or photographic items off third-party platforms such as social media apps and online forms?
NWATIXA 2018 Annual Conference
March 19 - 22, Idaho state University, Pocatello, Idaho
CLICK ON TITLE OF WEBINAR TO REGISTER
Autism Cultural Responsiveness at School: Primary, Secondary, and Post-Secondary Students
December 8, 2017 12:00 PM PDT
Join us for a one hour webinar on December 8th featuring Sara Sanders Gardner. Sara Sanders Gardner began her work in the disability field fifteen years ago, when her son received an autism spectrum diagnosis. Sara’s intense interest and study led to her own diagnosis, and a new career as a parent advocate and president of a large family support group in Orange County, CA. Through her experience working with families and her own family struggles, she created a six-week parenting workshop “Helping the Behaviorally Challenging Child” based on Ross Greene’s book “The Explosive Child” and taught it through United Cerebral Palsy OC for five years prior to moving to the Seattle area. Sara is now Washington State’s only certified Collaborative Problem Solving Trainer, through Think:Kids, a program of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry.
Sara began her work at Bellevue College in 2010, during a pilot study for what is now the Autism Spectrum Navigators program. Following the pilot, she stayed on to design and develop the program, which she now directs. Sara is also part-time faculty: she teaches the first class in the ASN course series to incoming program students, and is lead curriculum designer for the nine-course cohort series of classes. In her spare time, Sara consults with Microsoft Corporation to deliver “Autism at Work & Autism as a Culture” workshops to prospective managers, hiring managers, and team peers of individuals hired through Microsoft’s Autism Inclusive Hiring Program.
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
New Title IX Interim Guidance: What do we need to know?
September 29, 2017 @ 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM PDT
On September 22, 2017 the Department of Education rescinded the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter and the 2014 Q&A and issued new Interim Guidance on Campus Sexual Misconduct.
What does this mean in practice and how will it change how Title IX Coordinators approach complaints?
Join us for one hour webinar on September 29th featuring Debbie Osgood, a Partner at Hogan Marren Babbo & Rose, Ltd. and a nationally recognized expert on the civil rights laws and regulations that govern educational institutions. After more than 25 years at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Debbie currently represents educational institutions, including public and private colleges and universities, school districts, accrediting entities, and nonprofit organizations, on a wide range of educational policy and legal issues. Her area of specialty is advising educational institutions on how to best position themselves to avoid claims of discrimination by students and employees and how to effectively respond to these claims.
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Receiving Notice of Title IX Issues on Campus: What Next?
FEBRUARY 15, 2017@ 12-1pm PST
This webinar will explore the variety of avenues in which an institution can receive notice of a Title IX concern on campus and review different methods of responding that ensure OCR obligations of a prompt and effective response are met. Through the use of case examples, participants will also explore how to best handle challenges that may arise due to ambiguity, confidentiality, reluctant complainants, and dealing with upper level administrators who take an interest in a case.
Joseph Bryant is the Executive Director of Student
Rights and Responsibilities at Central Washington University and one of the University's Deputy Title IX Coordinators. He also works in Health Promotion at Central Washington University.
Gail Farmer is the Manager of the Equal Opportunity Office at Central Washington University and one of the University's Deputy Title IX Coordinators.
Gender for Title IX Administrators: Gender Diversity, Education, and Legal Protections for Transgender Students
November 21, 2016 @ 1-2:30pm PST
In May 2016, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released guidance to ensure that all students, including transgender students, can attend school in an environment free from discrimination based on sex. For many schools and Title IX coordinators, understanding and implementing OCR’s guidance has been a learning curve for their school community. What action can you take as a Title IX coordinator to provide a supportive, non-discriminatory environment for all students, including gender-nonconforming and transgender students? How can you identify discrimination on the basis of gender identity on your campus and how can you talk about gender with your school community?
Aidan Key’s work to increase understanding and awareness of gender identity in all people has taken him into places ranging from kindergarten classes to boardrooms. He has guided many schools, churches and organizations in expanding their understanding, knowledge and confidence to adequately and create optimal environments that support not only the transgender child, teen or adult but also positively impact the people around them. Key is the author of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: Child Chapter (2014, Oxford University Press) co-author of Gender Cognition in Transgender Children (2015, Psychological Science). In 2001, Aidan Key founded the Gender Odyssey conference, then in 2007, the Gender Odyssey Family conference for families with transgender children and GO Professional Seminar for professionals/providers. He leads trainings for providers, agencies, and other child-based organizations. Key has the largest network of support groups in the nation at Seattle Children’s Hospital for parents of transgender and gender non-conforming children. Aidan founded Gender Diversity: Education and Support Services and serves as the organization’s director. The Pride Foundation, Ingersoll Gender Center, Chicago Black Pride, Seattle Out and Proud, and the Seattle LGBT Center have recognized Aidan’s work. He has often been featured in the national media, including appearances on Oprah, NPR, and Larry King Live. Aidan lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Kristin.
Mallory Sullivan is a Program Supervisor in the Equity and Civil Rights Office at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The Equity and Civil Rights Office works to ensure that each student has equal access to public education without discrimination and raises awareness of rights and responsibilities under civil rights laws. Mallory provides assistance to schools and parents to resolve allegations of discrimination, develops resources and guidance documents for school districts, and enforces compliance with state civil rights laws though monitoring and complaint investigation. Before joining OSPI, Mallory’s practice at a Seattle-based law firm focused on school law, including civil rights compliance and litigation. She attended University of Washington School of Law and during law school gained experience working at the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and with the general counsel’s office in a large Washington school district.
The OSPI Equity & Civil Rights office has had statewide guidance clarifying school district’s obligations to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression since 2012. These guidelines for school districts were cited multiple times in the May 2016 OCR guidance as examples of policies and emerging practices for supporting transgender students.
Lessons from John Doe Cases
June 21, 2016 @ 1pm PDT
We have now seen several years of stepped-up activity by lawmakers and aggressive and sometimes controversial enforcement and guidances from the Department of Education designed to address the very real problem of sexual violence on college campuses. Schools haverevised and updated policies, trained thousands of students, established or upgraded reporting channels, and taken a close look at disciplinary procedures, timelines, and sanctions. That was followed in short order by a wave of litigation filed by disciplined students filing their own form of “reverse discrimination” lawsuits. The lawsuits have a lot in common: they are typically brought by disciplined male students (hence the John Doe of our title), and they assert a variety of legal theories including denial of due process, discrimination on the basis of sex (male), defamation, and breach of contract. A growing number of these lawsuits have now survived initial motions to dismiss. There are lessons to be learned from the John Doe cases that can help campus teams review and update policy language, ensure fair and equitable procedures, address concerns about subconscious bias, and plan for proper sanctions. NWATIXA members and friends are invited to attend this webinar to learn about the kinds of procedural and structural concerns that regularly appear in disciplinary challenges, and to discuss steps they can take now to limit exposure and risk.
High school athletics booster clubs and other outside funding resources have become a necessity in these financially trying times. Once predominately organized to provide sports teams with the "extras" required to run a high-level program these organizations are sometimes the primary sources of funding for nearly all athletics expenditures in many school districts. High school athletics programs have become the target in Title IX litigation many times due to schools permitting these outside resources to come into their athletics program thereby creating disparities. This webinar will discuss ways that school districts can be proactive in their efforts to guide and manage booster clubs and outside funding resources in their interscholastic athletic programs.
Types of Offenders - January 14, 2016 @ 10am-11:30am PST
This training was originally developed by Jerry Trew, J.D. who has a vast and extensive career in law enforcement as a police officer, detective and head of major crimes, as well as an extensive career as a lawyer and judge, and now currently serves as a Title IX Coordinator. This training has been expanded by both Jerry and Stephanie to include Myths, Misconceptions and archetypes to assist attendees in early identification of alarming behavior to better stop harassment and prevent its reoccurrence at the earliest onset and whenever possible. This training seeks to demystify individuals who engage in gender-based discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct and provide attendees with a tool to help identify types of offenders you may see in your work as a Title IX Investigator/Coordinator and create a common language in order to better identify and understand offender behaviors, motivations, and modes of operation.
Paula Barran, a founding partner at Barran Liebman, has been practicing labor and employment law since 1980. She has written extensively on management law and is a national speaker and trainer. In addition to providing employer advice, Paula handles employment litigation in state and federal courts, and labor disputes and employment arbitrations. Additionally, she develops and presents “train the trainer” programs to introduce comprehensive and cost effective training programs into workplaces. Paula is recognized annually by Super Lawyers, Chambers & Partners USA, and Best Lawyers as one of Oregon’s top Employment and Labor Law attorneys. She is also a fellow of both The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation. In addition to her labor and employment practice, she represents colleges and universities on wide ranging compliance issues including institutional obligations under Title VI, Title IX, and VAWA, and has earned an ATIXA Title IX Coordinator Certificate. Paula received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, M.A. from Cornell University, Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, J.D., with honors, from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and M.B.A. degree from the University of Oregon, Oregon Executive MBA program.
Peg Pennepacker has been a high school athletic director for 25 years and has served as a teacher/athletic director, assistant principal/athletic director and a full-time athletic director. She has been in public education for 35 years beginning as a health and physical education teacher before moving into school and athletic administration. She is currently the athletic director in the State College Area School District, State College, PA.
Peg has earned the designation of Pennsylvania Registered Athletic Director from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association (PSADA) and Certified Athletic Administrator from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA). In addition, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education from Lock Haven University, a Masters degree in Sport and Athletic Administration from West Chester University and both elementary and secondary principal’s certification from the University of Scranton.
As an NIAAA Leadership Training Course National Faculty member, Peg has presented numerous clinics and sessions in the professional development program as the Title IX national chairperson. Peg is also the founder of High School Title IX Consulting Services a small consulting service focused on assisting high schools with Title IX compliance. She may be contacted at pegpennepacker@gmail.com.
Originally from Montana, Stephanie N. Whaley attended Seattle University for her undergrad and Michigan State University for her graduate work in Student Affairs Administration. Prior to working at Gonzaga University, Stephanie served as a Title IX Investigator and Trainer for 3.5 years at the University of Alaska Anchorage before becoming the Title IX Coordinator at GU in in June of 2015, Stephanie has been working professionally in Higher Education since 2007 and has a significant background in Residence Life and Housing, Crisis Response and Management and Title IX.