Two decades on the other side of the table.

I've spent more than twenty years as a special education teacher. In that time I wrote the IEPs, ran the case conferences, collected the progress data, and sat through hundreds of meetings — watching parents walk in with a folder of worries and no map for the conversation about to happen.

The system isn't out to get your child. Most of the teachers and administrators at that table genuinely want to help, and I'll never treat your school like the enemy. But the people at that table are stretched thin, the process is dense with jargon and deadlines, and the family is the only party without a professional whose job is to know how it all works.

That's the job I do now. I hold degrees in special education and elementary education, I know what services and accommodations actually exist, I know what a strong goal looks like versus one that just sounds nice, and I know how these meetings actually unfold — because I've run them.

My approach is preparation over confrontation. Families who walk in organized, specific, and calm get better plans. My job is to make you that family.