Gail A.
Friel
Ms. Friel brings 30 years of experience as a Pennsylvania certified school psychologist to her role as the firm’s Education Specialist.
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Fax: 610-828-4887
Ms. Friel is an Education Specialist in the firm’s Education Law practice group. Ms. Friel brings her 30 years of experience as a Pennsylvania certified school psychologist to Wisler Pearlstine. In her previous role, she performed over a thousand initial multidisciplinary evaluations and reevaluations of pre-school through high school students for a variety of needs, including, but not limited, to: Autism, Learning Disabilities, Other Health Impairments, Gifted, Intellectual Disabilities, and Emotional Disturbance. She also taught special education and psychological/educational assessment to graduate students as an Adjunct Professor at Arcadia University and Chestnut Hill College. During her tenure as a school psychologist, Ms. Friel assisted school districts and their attorneys in preparing for and conducting due process hearings and mediation, reviewing independent evaluation reports presented to her school district and determining the appropriate response.
At Wisler Pearlstine, Ms. Friel brings her expertise to assist in case preparation by analyzing evaluation reports, independent educational evaluations, and Individualized Education Programs and offering solutions. Ms. Friel’s responsibilities also include assisting with legal documents, in-service presentations for special education directors, teachers, school psychologists, and school board members, and drafting school policies on various issues. Ms. Friel’s first-hand knowledge of assessment instruments, educational disabilities, curricula, and best practices in the field of education contributes additional value to clients.
Presentations
Ms. Friel has given many in-service presentations on special education topics including:
- Conducting comprehensive and legally defensible Evaluation Reports
- Dealing with difficult behavior
- Developing Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs)
- Writing useful, practical, simple and legally compliant Individualized Education Programs
- Characteristics and educational interventions for various disabilities (e.g. ADHD, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance)
- Referral Process and Procedures, Giftedness