Sarabeth Starr, BCEA

Sara is the Director of Advocacy and on the Board of NSEAI.

Special Needs Advocate, Parent Consultant and Trainer

Sara Starr went to Brigham Young University and Widener University with a focus in Organizational Leadership and Development.

Sara Starr’s journey into special needs began nineteen years ago with the birth of her eldest daughter.  In striving to help her daughter Sara learned a great deal about the potential of children.  Sara believes and seeks out opportunities to expand on a child’s potential irrespective of the labels they are given and holds that to be an invaluable asset.

Sara's experience and accomplishments include:

• Founding Starr Educational Advocacy in 2012 and as a Board Certified Education Advocate has an extensive national practice as a special education advocate.
• She has served as the Program developer at the Pennsylvania Education for All Coalition – PEAC, a partnership partnering with parents, educators and related professionals that believe that children of ALL BACKGROUNDS AND ABILITIES should be successfully educated together in their neighborhood schools within the general education curriculum. Activities included:
  • Hosting an annual state wide inclusion conference
  • Changing the Cultural Context in Schools – Inclusive Education Empowerment Project (IEEP), a partnering with school districts and universities 
  • Educational Rights Project that created a space for families and educators that addressed effective collaboration, problem-solving for individual students, as well as addressing school-wide needs and barriers to inclusion, and advocating for statewide system change towards best inclusive practices that was funded by the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, (PA DDC)
  • Supporting Diverse Learners in School and in the Community, a three-volume training curriculum in collaboration with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University offering extensive training and resources on how to make inclusive schools and inclusive communities a reality.
  • Collective Advocacy Grant, a Collective Advocacy Grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, (PA DDC)  that provided training, resources and supports to parents,  schools and communities.
• She has participated or served as the Secretary and then Chair of the PA Right to Education Task Force (Delaware County), a state mandated county task force, since 2012. She supports parents through the task force as a result of the PARC Consent Agreement, which provided for the establishment of a Local Task Force in each of the 29 Intermediate Units to insure that the intent and spirit of the Agreement is carried out throughout the Commonwealth of PA.
• She has collaborated, facilitated and participated in IEP Clinics hosted by NSEAI, DCIU and PEAC.
• She was a key member of the team that brought about the Annual Making a Difference Awards Ceremony.
• She is employed by and actively serves as a Peer Monitor/Compliance, monitoring across the state for the PA Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education, Division of Monitoring and Improvement. The Department of Education is responsible for ensuring that all school districts and charter schools administer special education programs and services that are in compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. This is done through cyclical compliance monitoring. It identifies noncompliance and monitors its correction in no longer than one year from the report.
• Sara speaks at conferences and trainings in the Greater Philadelphia region for disability groups.
• She lectures nationally with the National Special Education Advocacy Institute related to research based educational interventions and national standards of education advocacy.
• She is an expert in and leads groups in Family Leadership and Family Communication, as a Parenting Partner facilitator and a trainer in the train the trainer program.  Parenting Partners Builds Capacity for Strong Family-School Partnerships and the workshops combine parenting and leadership skills that empower parents to become vital contributors to their children’s academic success.
• Sara is bilingual in Spanish and serves the Spanish speaking and Asian immigrant populations and their special needs in Pennsylvania with bilingual lawyers.  

Motto:

Collaboration with a Vision for a Brighter Future One Child at a Time
Despite real developmental obstacles, Sara reminds us we are free to pursue dreams for living happily and growing beyond labels.