School Advocacy- Offered via Zoom 

New York families are protected by three layers of law, IDEA (guaranteeing a Free Appropriate Public Education through an IEP), Section 504 (a civil rights law providing accommodations for students who don't qualify for an IEP), and New York's own Article 89/Part 200 regulations, which set state timelines and define the Committee on Special Education (CSE). Every family has core rights: to request an evaluation in writing, receive a Procedural Safeguards Notice, participate in every meeting with anyone they choose present, review records, dispute IEP decisions in writing, and request an Independent Educational Evaluation at district expense. The process itself runs on a clear timeline, referral, written consent, a 60-school-day window to evaluate and hold a CSE meeting, IEP implementation, annual review, and reevaluation at least every three years, and a strong IEP should have specific present levels, measurable goals, exact service frequencies, and clear accommodations. Advocacy skill-building starts with the student: self-advocacy means knowing your needs and being able to state them, built through self-knowledge, rights awareness, communication, and follow-through, practiced through tools like an "elevator pitch" and situation-specific scripts. For parents, advocacy means showing up as an equal team member rather than a guest, preparing before meetings (reviewing drafts, writing down top concerns and asks), speaking up during them, and following up after (email summaries, dated records, tracking whether services are actually delivered). Across both, the goal is the same: turning knowledge of rights into confidence to use them.