Our job is to help you get the IEP your child needs.

motherandchild-painting All of our work as advocates is firmly grounded on an understanding that good IEPs are written because of successful working relationships with IEP teams. Good working relationships happen because we work to find ways to satisfy interests—the parent's, the child's, and those of school district.

After a few years of yelling at "them" across IEP tables, we learned this:

Effective advocacy is not about getting the last word at an IEP Meeting. It is about getting the right words written into the IEP.

"Evidence is a better friend than power." (Andrew J. Vickers, Assistant Attending Research Methodologist, Integrative Medicine, Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA).

And the evidence is almost always buried in the education records. The records reveal more than what is written on the pages. We do forensic record peeping.

That means we go beyond looking for all of the procedural violations. We look for hints about what the real interests are. You, us, or anyone else will get more positive results for children when we dig to identify the school district's real interests and look beyond the excuses. We then set out to develop options for satisfying those interests within the IDEA framework of legitimacy.

We approach special education disputes this way because a school district will not agree to anything it does not find legitimate or justifiable.

We also know that to find a request or a need legitimate or justifiable, we must know what the evidence is.

Please read our disclaimer—>

Who We Are

Diane Drake is recognized as a leading paralegal in Vermont. She sits on the Vermont Professional Conduct Board, which investigates and makes formal recommendations concerning complaints against attorneys licensed in Vermont. She is also on the board of directors of the Rutland ARC. Diane fist became an advocate for children in special education in 1992.

Brice became a special education advocate in 1997. He has taught special education law and advocacy at Continuing Legal Education courses, Advocacy groups, and COPAA conferences. Brice is one of the curriculum developers for the Special Education Advocate Training program (SEAT). Brice also taught the 2006 and 2007 SEAT pilot program courses in New York City with Barbara Ebenstein, Esq.

Lawtemps, LLC is an independent professional paralegal firm that provides litigation support services to licensed attorneys. Sped-Advocates.com is a special education advocacy service of Lawtemps, LLC, Benson, Vermont.