Hiring a lawyer or special education advocate

In general, I think you should be able to handle most everything for your child’s education (whether they have a disability or not)… without a lawyer or advocate.

However, I have definitely recommended that people talk to a lawyer or advocate…and…

However 2, I also know that in many ways, our special education system is broken—and those who can afford to hire a lawyer or advocate often get better service.

And that is a big problem.

SIDEBAR 1 – I know some people choose to hire a lawyer or advocate to delegate negotiations with the school district as a basic “way of doing business”. I’m not really speaking to that approach—I’m talking about dealing with a problematic situation for your child.

We hired a special education lawyer who worked with us for several years in our last school district, and overall, I was quite happy with their work.

They addressed some short-term problems, but ultimately, we did better by moving out of the school district.

Key Takeaway:

• You can’t lawyer someone into doing a good job. 
• An IEP settlement or negotiated agreement can’t make a school district or IEP team better than it is.

I’ve listened to the stories from a lot of other people who have hired lawyers and advocates . This is my perspective based on my experience—and my experience with their experiences.

First, Know What You Want

This is true PERIOD. But, it is even more true for special education and is even Double-Extra Really, Really True if you are going to hire a lawyer or advocate.

Know what you want for your child.

This includes what you want in the long term, what you want from their education overall, what you want from your school, and what your current problem is with the school—and if you didn’t have a problem, you wouldn’t be talking to a lawyer or advocate.

NOTE – as parents we need to have high expectations! There are over 300 college programs for students with intellectual disabilities… but employment rates for people with meaningful disabilities can be below 20 percent (and worse if the target is earning a livable wage). Your child’s educational outcome can make a real difference.

Backing up a bit…

How are you working with the school district in general?

Here are the general models I see:

• One principal parent doing all the work
• A strong parental team
• A parent or team with an independent third party—whether it’s a friend, coach, or someone else
• Local (Parental) community (Coffee group, Facebook, etc.)

And in terms of paid support:

• A coach
• A paid community
• A lawyer or an advocate

Is it one parent going it alone?

You really benefit from some sort of partnership. A second set of eyes and ears makes a huge difference—not just in meetings with the school, but in background conversations. This stuff is challenging, complicated, emotional, and intensely personal. Having at least two points of view is inherently helpful.

SIDEBAR 2: It’s worth noting that—at least in California—the presence of your lawyer at an IEP meeting cannot be reimbursed. In my experience, it’s good NOT to have a paid lawyer or advocate at the meeting. Otherwise, the school district brings in their lawyer, and communications become more guarded. On the good side, things may be more productive. On the other good side, less guarded school staff may say what they think without their lawyer shutting them down which may prove helpful later.

But if you’ve hired a lawyer or advocate, you should definitely follow—or very seriously consider—their guidance (and if you aren’t taking their advice… why did you hire them?). I’ve interviewed a potential lawyer and, even though their firm had a really solid reputation, I just didn’t like the way they seemed to work … trust is key.

SIDEBAR 3: If you are going to hire a lawyer or advocate, hire the absolutely best person you can manage. Even if they are more expensive. Better is better… and may be cheaper in the end.

Most important note: It is my opinion that you should always, always, always record the IEP meeting. It is your right (it is a Procedural Safeguard). You need to notify the school in advance (I notify them immediately when the IEP meeting is called with several reminders along the way), but this is a super useful and important tool. I don’t believe it inhibits conversations at all.

Lawyers and advocates are not Magic

The reason I start with knowing what you want is because I think you should view a lawyer or advocate as a very specific tool to solve a very specific problem.

Things to think about..

If you’re having trouble communicating with your IEP team, ideally you should be able to escalate that within the school district. Some districts support arbitration services to help unstick communications.

Lawyers and advocates can’t make people do—or want to do—a good job. So if your basic problem is that people aren’t doing a good job, a lawyer or advocate isn’t going to fix that.

If services or supports are missing, you can request and designate someone to do an independent educational evaluation—without bringing in a lawyer or advocate.

If you can’t find community support or a coach—or you just want a different level of advice—you can potentially hire a lawyer or advocate as a background advisor to help you come up with a good strategy and tactics for communicating with the school district.

The most powerful tool that a good lawyer or advocate brings is their ability to communicate independently of you with the school district (good strategies and tactics had better be a given!). This separate channel can get around roadblocks and cut some b****s******.

If you’re looking for an alternative placement outside the school district, you almost certainly need to go to a lawyer rather than an advocate.

It’s very helpful for your advocate or lawyer to have experience with your specific school district. They need to know the personalities involved and how the district works. Once you get to the point of pushing for some sort of settlement or Due Process, this is true for both lawyers and advocates—especially advocates.

Final Note – At least in California, advocates are no longer allowed to represent families in Due Process (though you can represent yourself). I tactically find that this gives a bit of an edge to choosing a lawyer over an advocate in that you are signaling your willingness to escalate to Due Process. Some advocates team with lawyers and, as I noted earlier, school district knowledge is key as no one really wants to play “Due Process Roulette” … almost everyone will try if at all possible to settle (which is the same as in matters that can go to court in general).

What is your experience with hiring a lawyer or advocate? Are there other considerations? I’d appreciate any experiences you are willing to share.