Diane Lipton Award for Outstanding Advocacy

Each year, COPAA awards the Diane Lipton Award for Outstanding Educational Advocacy on Behalf of Children with Disabilities. The award is named in memory of COPAA founding Board member and national disabilities attorney Diane J. Lipton. The recipient an individual or group of individuals who have made a particularly exceptional and outstanding contribution to COPAA's primary mission: obtaining high-quality educational services for children with disabilities. More

Previous recipients of the Diane Lipton Award have included Wendy Byrnes (2005), Kathleen Boundy (2006), and Judith Gran (2007).

Special Distinguished Public Service Award to Senator Edward M. Kennedy for Highly Meritorious Service In May 2007, COPAA gave an award for Distinguished Public Service to Senator Kennedy, for his decades of advocacy to protect the rights of children with disabilities, and ensure that they receive appropriate educations. More

Distinguished Service Awards COPAA has also given distinguished service awards to attorneys and advocates who have made special efforts to protect the rights of children with disabilities. Past recipients include Ankur Goel of McDermott, Will, and Emery in 2006; Jim Comstock-Galagan and Courtney Bowie of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Hector Linares of Protection and Advocacy, Inc. in 2007; and the law firm of Baker & McKenzie in 2008.

COPAA has three scholarship programs for the annual COPAA conference, as described below. Information about the membership scholarship program is here.

Scholarship Donations. To donate to any of the scholarship programs, click here. You can donate online or print out a form. COPAA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation; all donations are tax-deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law.

Applying for a Conference Scholarship. Applications for the conference scholarship programs will be available in November of each year. Please check back. The Beth Goodman scholarship is awarded only to COPAA members.

Beth Goodman Scholarship Program. Since 2003, COPAA has awarded Beth Goodman memorial scholarships to COPAA members who have made significant contributions to special education advocacy but could not otherwise afford to attend the conference. The scholarship honors the memory of Beth Goodman, a member of the COPAA Board until her death in 2002. Beth was an outstanding attorney who dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of students with disabilities in Washington D.C.

Ken Archibald Scholarship Program/Poverty Registration Waiver. COPAA has created the Ken Archibald Memorial Scholarship Fund to help defray conference expenses for attendees with incomes at or below the poverty level. The scholarship is named in memory of Ken Archibald, beloved husband of Board member Rose Marie Archibald. COPAA also waives a limited number of conference registration fees (tuition) for conference attendees with incomes at or below the poverty level.

Special Dana Taylor Memorial Scholarship for the 2009 Conference. COPAA has created a special scholarship for the 2009 Conference in memory of our friend and COPAA member, Dana R. Taylor. The scholarship will go to advocates on behalf of children with traumatic brain injuries. For more information about the scholarship and donating to this special program, see the following link. More

Creating a Special Memorial/Honor Scholarship. COPAA welcomes the creation of special memorial and honor scholarships. More information is available here.