When the school keeps delaying, denying, or ignoring the IEP, your child is the one who loses time. Our special education attorneys help you understand what the school should be doing and what your legal options are when it is not happening.
You do not need to know the legal term for the problem before you call. Start with what your child is missing.
Of cases won**
Average time to results**
Attorney fees*
For many qualifying due process matters.
Your child has their own strengths, challenges, and way of learning. The services in their IEP should reflect that.
When the school is not listening, you should not have to become a special education lawyer just to be heard. We review what has happened, explain your options, and use due process when that is the right step for your child.
You have sent the emails and attended the meetings. If your child is still missing support, these are some of the problems our team can review.
Speech, OT, accommodations, behavioral support, specialized instruction. If it is written into the plan but not happening, that gap matters.
The school keeps asking for more time, pushing the meeting back, or leaving you unsure whether testing is even moving forward.
You are being asked to agree to a plan that does not match what you are seeing your child need.
Suspensions, shortened days, repeated calls home, or behavior responses are becoming the way the school manages the problem.
Everyone talks. Notes are taken. Promises are made. Then your child goes back to the same problem.
Progress reports, evaluations, grades, or what you are seeing at home may tell a different story. If the school’s description of your child’s progress does not match the record or your child’s experience, that deserves a closer look.
Start with what happened. Bring the IEP, emails, evaluations, or notices you have. We can tell you what else we need.
01
What did you ask the school to do? What was the response? What is your child still missing?
02
Our team looks at the IEP, timeline, and prior requests to determine whether the matter fits the legal work we handle.
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If we can take the matter, we explain the scope, fees, and next legal step before you decide how to proceed.
For co-founder David Gardner, the need became clear while advocating for his own child. Even as an attorney working with the Department of Education, he found the IEP process intimidating, complicated, and difficult to navigate.
If it was this difficult for an attorney familiar with education law, what was it like for a parent facing the process alone?
That question helped inspire IEP Defenders.
How attorney’s fees are handled depends on the type of case and applicable law. In many qualifying special education due process matters, families may not need to pay attorney’s fees upfront. Other matters, including some tuition-reimbursement cases, can involve different fee arrangements.
Tell us what is happening first. If the matter fits the legal work we handle, we can explain what fee arrangement applies to that type of case before you decide whether to move forward.
Hear from families who have worked with the team.
Your location changes which laws, agencies, and options may apply.
IEP Defenders works with families in multiple states. Check our Locations page to see whether our team can help where you live.
Questions about when to call, what we handle, and what to expect.
A special education lawyer can review the educational record, identify legally significant issues, explain available options, and represent families in qualifying disputes. IEP Defenders focuses on legal matters involving issues such as evaluations, services, placement, discipline, and special education due process. We do not represent families at IEP meetings.
If the school repeatedly fails to follow the IEP, delays or denies an evaluation, reduces services, proposes a placement you believe is inappropriate, or your child is losing access to class through discipline or shortened days, it may be time to have the situation reviewed.
If services, accommodations, specialized instruction, or other parts of the IEP are not being provided, tell us what the plan requires and what is actually happening. Our team can review the record and determine whether the issue fits the legal work we handle.
Due process is a formal dispute-resolution process under the IDEA for certain disagreements involving identification, evaluation, educational placement, or a child’s right to a free appropriate public education. Whether due process is appropriate depends on the facts and the record.
Not always. In many qualifying due process matters, families may not need to pay attorney’s fees upfront. Other matters, including some tuition-reimbursement cases, can involve different fee arrangements. We explain how fees would be handled before you decide whether to move forward.
It does not have to. We work to resolve disputes professionally when possible. But legal counsel is there to protect your child’s rights and move the problem forward when ordinary meetings are not doing that.
No. Start with what you have. The most useful beginning is simple: what happened, what you asked the school to do, what the school said, and what has not changed. We can tell you what records matter after that.
Read about IEPs, evaluations, school disputes, and getting ready to talk with an attorney.
You do not need the right legal words. Tell us what your child is missing, what the school has said, and what you have already tried. We will start there.
