Please join us for our monthly educational meeting: Monday, Feb. 15, 2010 - 7pm,
"Advocating for Your Adopted Child Within the School System" presented by Carole Hurley
From the time our children step foot in the school system they will experience a variety of settings that require our advocacy. From explaining our children’s unique arrival in our family to negotiating the educational services maze, this speaker will provide insight, tips, and guidance. She is a foster and adoptive mom, an attorney for children in foster care with extreme medical and mental health issues, and is a frequent public speaker on a variety of issues related to adoption. This session will include such topics as dealing with the issue of adoption in the early grades; identifying learning differences; the ARD process; making sure your child gets the services they are entitled to; support and information that is available. There will be time for sharing our own experiences as adoptive parents and adoptees as relates to school issues, as well as a question and answer period.

Carole Hurley has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1984. For 12 years she handled a variety of general civil matters, focusing primarily on family law matters, both as a partner in a small firm, and later as a sole practitioner. From July 1999, through 2006 she was Director of both the Texas Children's Justice Act Project, and the Texas Court Improvement Project, which for most of that time were administered through the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. Ms. Hurley is currently working as a consultant for a variety of child welfare and advocacy organizations, as a public speaker, and as an attorney ad litem and guardian ad litem for children with special, complex, medical issues. Ms. Hurley holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Texas and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law. She is a foster and adoptive parent of two delightful girls. She brings to the table her experience, frustration, and joy of raising neurologically different children in a world that often does not understand their challenges.

All meetings are held at the Westover Hills Church, 8332 Mesa, Austin, TX on the third Monday of each month. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by discussion groups for birth families, adopted people, and adoptive/prospective adoptive parents. If you have a topic that you would like to see presented at a future meeting, please let us know.

Search assistance meetings for family members disconnected by adoption are by now by appointment only. Search assistance is free to AKA members and there is a $10 fee for non-members. Search assistance meetings are held at Westover Hills Church, 8332 Mesa Drive.

Adoption Knowledge Affiliates
PO Box 4082 Austin, TX 78765
512.442.8AKA
Email: aka@adoptionknowledge.org