Education

info@e3lawgroup.com • 360-503-0334

Education, Environmental, & Estate Law Group, LLC Protecting the future

SPECIAL EDUCATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS LAW

Supporting parents and caregivers

We support parents and their children with disabilities who are experiencing difficulty with school districts in designing or implementing special education services or accommodations.

From attending meetings with your child's school district to pursuing due process complaints, we are here to help.

We can write educational Power of Attorney and guardian or conservatorship documents for parents with children who are nearing the age of 18 or are older, and who have intellectual/developmental disabilities requiring protection and assistance.

Kim has written hundreds of IEPs in her more than 30 year career in special education, and is available to support parents in seeking eligibility for special education or "Section 504" accommodation plans; retention, suspension, and expulsion meetings; IEP and 504 meetings and more. Kim's PhD in special education, with an emphasis on effective reading instruction and achievement assessments, means she understands the meaning of a child's curriculum-based, district, and state assessment scores.

Kim has been a classroom teacher, a district special education director, an instructor in university teacher and administrator licensing programs, an education specialist at the Oregon Department of Education, and a project manager for a statewide assessment for students with significant intellectual delays, and so understands the school environment from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

Education services

We can coach you behind the scenes

Because districts will invite their attorney to any meeting to which you bring an attorney and this can delay scheduling your meeting, Kim can coach you "behind the scenes" on special education issues.

We can attend a district meeting with you

Kim can attend a meeting between you and your child's school district, related to special education or accommodations for your child, including evaluation, eligibility, program development, Section 504 plan development, manifestation determination or disciplinary meetings.

We can represent you in a complaint to ODE or the Office of Civil Rights or in a due process hearing

If you are unable to work out your differences with your child's school team, we can assist you in submitting a complaint to ODE or a request for a due process hearing, or in filing a complaint to the Office of Civil Rights. We can also assist in pursuing mediation before filing a complaint or due process request.

Coming Soon: Workshop for parents and caregivers: "Understanding the Special Education System"

We are developing a one day workshop on "the big picture" for special education and other disability supports. Anticipated date: 2023. (Covid willing). Anticipated cost: $50 per parent or caregiver team (2 persons).

AUTISM RESEARCH

Please volunteer for research in a new autism identification tool

Kim is also conducting preliminary research on a new tool that may effectively identify children experiencing autism and also serve as a progress monitoring tool.

We are looking for parents of children aged 6 to 18 who either (1) experience autism; or (2) experience an emotional disturbance; or (3) experience no disabilities.

The research requires parents to fill out three surveys and will take approximately 2 hours of time.

Please contact Kim at kim.sherman@e3lawgroup.com to learn more and to volunteer.

Find out more about volunteering for this research

Understanding the Autism Spectrum

On the Level: The Autism Spectrum Described In Seven Levels and Twelve Domains

Authored by Kim Sherman and Sidney Ganzler, available through Amazon:

Order "On the Level"