Julie Halbert has been legislative counsel for the Council of the Great City Schools for over 28 years In that capacity, she has served as a national education legal and policy specialist, with emphasis on special education. She is now serving on special projects as Counsel. She worked extensively on the reauthorizations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997 and 2004. Ms. Halbert is responsible for drafting numerous technical provisions to the IDEA and providing technical assistance to Congress and the U. S. Department of Education. In 1997 and again in 2005, she testified before the U.S. Department of Education on its proposed regulations on IDEA 2004. Ms. Halbert has directed numerous of the Council’s special education strategic review teams in cities throughout the country. Working with national experts, she has published a Council national white paper on the implementation and development of Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) for our nation’s urban school districts. Mrs. Halbert was an active leader with the CGCS grant with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and test instructional spending and performance measures for the 70 member urban school districts.July of 2017, Mrs. Halbert was a panel member at the 16th National IDEA Academy for Administrative Law Judges and Impartial Hearing Officers discussing the Council’s amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. She has participated as the counsel of record for many of the CGCS amicus briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States.Together with Husch Blackwell partner John Borkowski, Ms. Halbert assisted to develop and implement national legal webinars for urban district’s counsel and key staff on emerging legal issues for the Council’s districts: Ms. Halbert graduated with honors from the University of Maryland and the University of Miami School of Law.