Speaker 1 | 00:01
Welcome to a peaceful path. Heschel Education legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs.
Speaker 2 | 00:09
Hello and welcome to A Peaceful Path, special education, legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs. I am your host, Kevin Rosenquist, and I am excited to welcome Michelle Becker to talk about her journey into special education law. Michelle, welcome.
Speaker 3 | 00:26
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2 | 00:28
Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you. I've chatted with a lot of lawyers, but this is a first for me to someone who specializes in this niche.
So can you share with us the journey that led you to become an attorney and what specifically drew you to the field of special education law?
Speaker 3 | 00:44
Sure. Well, actually, I'm not surprised that you haven't spoken to a special ed attorney before. Most people don't know that we exist. And basically, that's what led me to my journey of becoming a special ed attorney. I actually... I have twin girls and my husband and I adopted them from Romania in the 90s. They were part of those 2020-1990s babies that were found in Romania behind the gates, behind the wall. And so we adopted them, we brought them home, we figured, you know, we could do this. And it didn't take long for us to figure out that, you know, 18 months of You know, neglect really impacts how a kid develops.
So we started them in school and I could see early on that this was going to be a challenge. So, you know, I did the same thing that most parents do was talk to the school teacher, talk to the principal and see what I could do to get my kid help. Fast forward two more years, there's still no help. There's really nothing.
So I spent the time trying to cobble together supports for my kids, that's where I found out that there is such a thing as a special ed attorney. And so just given the process and given what I'd learned already, I said, there's a need for this. I'm going to go to law school and do it. Wow.
Yeah. So I literally... Made the decision to go to law school to become a special education attorney.
You know, I had the time, the resources, the inclination to figure this out. And yet it was still very hard for me.
So I figured, you know what? Parents who are working two jobs with a disabled kid, this has got to be an impossible scenario.
So I'll just do it.
Speaker 2 | 02:46
Wow. That's really cool. That's really cool.
So- You know, it sounds like obviously you're passionate about it. You can feel that you can sense that you have a direct experience with your adopt with your children that came from Romania. Did you said there were 18 months when you adopted them? Yes. Okay.
Yeah, that's... That's so sad that was the life of neglect. That's sad.
Speaker 3 | 03:06
Yeah. And you know, when we first adopted them, we figured, you know, my husband and I are both educated people. This is just elementary school stuff. We could teach our kids 18 months isn't that long. But the truth is 18 months is a very long time when you're just kind of laying in a crib without stimulation.
So it's more the thing is these disabilities when your kid is born with a disability, when you discover your kid has a disability at any point during the process. It becomes a mountain and there's so much information out there and a lot of misinterpretations of the law by parents on Facebook or, you know, whatever, just all, collectively trying to figure out how to help their kids like there's no need or intention of you know giving bad advice but there's so much bad advice out there because there's just so much information and everybody's experience is different so yeah so having a lawyer who knows this who's already you know made the climb knows the law it's not that complicated once you learn.
Speaker 2 | 04:04
Everyone's got an opinion on it.
It were there any challenges Along the way, like in law school, what Did you get any pushback from professors? Did people say, I don't know if this is a good idea, or was everyone pretty supportive of your decision to go to take this approach?
Speaker 3 | 04:27
No, I think, I think that the underlying feeling is that when you go to law school, you're going to be working at some big law firm and doing, you know, big deals or, you know, criminal law or prosecutor for the people.
Speaker 2 | 04:47
Law and order type.
Speaker 3 | 04:48
Stuff. Yeah. But the truth is, I think. It feels a little...
You know, granola... Pro bono-y? And it kind of is, but that's kind of where this all begins, right? We're talking about kids. We're just really trying to talk about helping kids.
I mean, if you're going to seek justice for anyone. It would be the kids.
So no, there was no pushback other than good luck making a living out Yeah.
Speaker 2 | 05:16
Of that. Good luck making money.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 | 05:19
But you know, it's so much more, right? You're not just making a living. You are literally changing lives.
Speaker 2 | 05:29
That's really cool. That's really cool.
So when you first, when you got out of law school and you started your practice, How would it go in the early days?
Speaker 3 | 05:37
- So what I did once I got out of law school, I interned at, it was kind of like a nonprofit. It was a nonprofit that kind of focused, it's, you know, education, foster kids, you know, Some of these areas that I was interested in as a way to just kind of learn how a law firm works, right? What do I do?
Like, how do I do an intake? How do I screen clients? How do I figure out whether or not this is a case I want to take? How do I manage a caseload?
So all the things that I'd just never done before, I just needed to do, like, get exposed to it. So I did that internship for about 11 months. And while I was doing that, I was setting up my firm, writing the content for my website, going in California, which is where I live. And I think that it's probably consistent throughout the country. School districts are required to have parent, school, special education, information sessions. And I would go to those information sessions just to try to present my, you know, what I knew, like be a subject matter expert for parents, not necessarily trying to get clients, but more to explain to parents what the process is just so that they knew they had options out there for help. I remember when I, you know, I sent out all of my announcements that I was opening my firm, got a lot of really good feedback. And it was, you know, literally within two months, I got my first client.
And then it's just been amazing. Non-stop ever since. Wow.
Speaker 2 | 07:25
That's awesome. And kudos to you for doing the internship. That was really smart, trying to cut him a law school and be like, "Yeah, I'm going to start my own firm." That would probably be pretty.
Speaker 3 | 07:33
Hard. Well, you just don't know how to do anything, right? And my background is in business, so I knew how to run a company.
So it was just learning how to practice law.
Speaker 2 | 07:46
Yeah. You have the nuances of that specifically.
Yeah, for sure. All right. You mentioned at the beginning when I said I'd never talked to a special ed lawyer before, you said that's because most people don't know he exists.
So what kind of things are involved in what you do specifically?
Speaker 3 | 08:04
There is federal law, federal special education law. And that federal law then trickles down to the states.
And then the states have their state law, which kind of conforms to, the federal law. And ultimately, my job is to make sure that kids who are in the public school system are getting the services they need as prescribed by federal and state law. And wonderfully, you know, who has ever worked, you know, case law, That was kind of precedent setting in the 70s and then over time evolution into federal and state law basically created what I consider to be very sound framework for supporting these kids. And my entire job is walking into a meeting with the parent and figuring out what their case is, if they have a case.
And then engaging with the school district to make sure that what's missing for these kids is being provided by the school district. And I'll just give you some examples because this feels very esoteric as I'm describing it.
So let's just say that you have a kid who has autism and the kid was, you know, identified as a kid with autism at three and it's time to go to school. So there's a The school district is required to find all kids that are suspected of having a disability. Whether they go to private school or public school, who in their community is a potential student. They are tasked as part of the law, finding those kids, assessing those kids and determining whether or not they need services.
So it starts as early as three and ends as late as 22 years old. That's their kind of framework or their range of liability.
So my job is to make sure that these kids get found, assessed. And support it.
Speaker 2 | 10:12
Okay. Yeah, that's really that. Okay. That's really cool.
Yeah. That's really cool. Can you describe a case or an experience that really impacted you and reinforced your passion for advocating for the rights of children with disabilities?
Speaker 3 | 10:25
Yeah, I'll give you my case, because my case is, I think, the classic case. It happens all the time.
So my kids were delayed. And as a result of those delays, the developmental delays, you know, one has ADHD and an auditory processing disorder. The other one, you know, she's got ADD and Other stuff. And basically, I went to the school site and I said, "My kids are struggling with reading. They come home every day and they say, 'Well, this kid can read it, this kid can read it, but I can't read it.'" So I went to the school and said, "My kid is struggling. What can we do?" And so typically what school sites do is they come back and they say, Well, let's have a student success team meeting or student study team meeting. SSTs is what they're called, I think, generically across the country. And, you know, they say, well, we'll try this and this. But none of those things work and they're not successful. Effectively implemented and your kid stagnates. And this can go on. For me, it went on for a year and a half. For some parents, they come to me after like four years, my kid is still doing an SST meeting.
Well, when you learn the law... Which is the key, you find out that all you have to do is literally ask the district to assess your kid, and they have 15 days to tell you whether or not they're going to assess your kid.
And then all of a sudden you wiped away this need for this SST meeting. It's not part of the law.
So parents kind of churn in this SST land. Meantime, if they knew, I could ask my school, hey, could you assess my kid in writing? Could you assess my kid? I think my kid has a reading disability. They're way behind. The district could say no, but then you have rights or the district could say, okay, fine. But they have to say something in 15 days. Meantime, parents are doing this for four years. And I did it for a year and a half. And what you do is you delay intervention, and you know, grind on the kids' confidence, and you create behavior problems, and you delay the kid in their learning.
So, you know, there should be a big sign in every you know, school office that says, if you think your kid has, you know, needs to be assessed, put it in writing. Here's the form. We have to tell you in 15 days.
Like to me. They should have a big notice and help parents out.
So that was the impetus of all of this. This happens more often than you know. And as soon as a parent comes to me, we can solve the problem.
You know, it's not always easy, but we could figure out how to proactively and collaboratively move forward to hook the kid up to help the kid and at the same time, maintain the relationship between the family and the school. Because after four years, the Parents are pretty angry about the neglect.
Speaker 2 | 13:50
Absolutely. Yeah. That relationship is fractured at that point.
Speaker 3 | 13:53
Exactly. Exactly.
So that is a classic case. It's happening every day across this country.
Speaker 2 | 14:00
Do you think it's intentional to make it difficult, this process by the schools? Do they not want to address certain things? Are they afraid too many parents are going to I don't know, overreact to things and try to manifest things that aren't there? What do you think the reasoning is for it to be? To be so difficult.
Speaker 3 | 14:19
So a few things. I think that there is a lot of ignorance and I don't mean that like in a condescending way. I think that there's a lot of school-based employees that have no idea.
Speaker 2 | 14:32
Yeah. If you haven't dealt with it, how could you?
Right? Right.
Yeah. You haven't been educated.
Speaker 3 | 14:36
Yeah. Exactly. And there's trainings.
I mean, that's why I would go to those meetings, because school districts and parents are invited to those meetings where they're required to have. And I'd explain this.
So I think that first of all, there is some ignorance with what their duty is. Secondly, there is a law on the books that basically says school districts can't automatically refer kids for special education. They have to try this response to intervention, which is the SST meeting. But that's only if the parents aren't asking for it.
Right? Like if they think if they're like doing their team meetings and they're like, Johnny here, I think he's got a problem. I think we should have an SST meeting. Okay. But you don't have to do it for two years.
So the law is school districts can't zealously refer kids, right? Because That could be a problem too.
So there's protections in place to not refer kids. Then there's the ignorance.
And then I would say this kind of insistence that It's just an overactive mom. Johnny's going to be fine. Just give him some time. He's young, right? Which is Yeah.
Speaker 2 | 15:52
Another thing. And I'm sure that happens, obviously.
Speaker 3 | 15:55
So I think, you know, school districts aren't wrong about everything. It's, I think that they don't always know what to do, and even their understanding of what response to intervention looks like could be wrong, right?
So there's not... Why I exist, right? There's not a lot of really good information out there in the public square for parents to go, I need a lawyer.
Like I'm constantly surprised that parents find me, right? Because I have my Yelp page. Parents will say all the time, I read your Yelp page and I had to call you. I love that. But my goodness, how did you figure out to find me? Find me, right? Because it took me forever to figure that out.
So I love the fact that parents are finding me and finding other attorneys out there that do this, but it's not. Commonly known. And that's, I think, if it were more commonly known, then parents would be like, "I'm getting a lawyer." this doesn't have to be a lifelong struggle. And we'd solve problems more quickly for the kids.
Speaker 2 | 17:06
Well, again, you can really sense your passion. It's personal. It's you know, something that you feel very strongly about. And it's very cool. I'm glad people like you do exist because it sounds like it's a much needed thing and probably not enough people, not enough advocates out there.
Speaker 3 | 17:22
No, in fact, it's, you know, I've had potential. Like lawyers out there who are saying, you know, I'm thinking about doing special ed. Would you mind if I pick your brain? No, let's go to lunch. Do you have a website? No, you can use my content. I wrote all my content myself. Use it, put it on your website, learn the law, come to an IEP meeting with me, you know, as like co-counsel or whatever. I think that that's a big difference between what I do and a lot of special ed attorneys. I'm like, in order for you to, you know, successfully advocate for your parents, you have to understand the case, you have to build the case, you have to know what their issues are.
So I actually do go to all my IEP meetings, you know, like some attorneys just take it at the lawsuit phase. I take it right at the very beginning phase, I go to the IEP meetings, I get to know my, clients, IEP teams.
You know, it's just kind of every lawyer does it a little different, but the truth is there aren't enough. Please come do this job. There's a lot of kids who need our help.
Speaker 2 | 18:33
Well, that's awesome. I'm excited to hear more about what you do in future episodes. And thank you for tuning into A Peaceful Path, special education, legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs. To connect with Michelle, visit michellebeckerlaw.com and like and subscribe to our channel. We have plenty of awesome content ready to come your way. Michelle, so great meeting you.
So great learning about what you do. I'm excited for future episodes.
Speaker 3 | 18:58
Thank you so much for having me, Kevin.
Speaker 1 | 19:01
Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button and leave us a review in the comments.
Welcome to a peaceful path. Heschel Education legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs.
Speaker 2 | 00:09
Hello and welcome to A Peaceful Path, special education, legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs. I am your host, Kevin Rosenquist, and I am excited to welcome Michelle Becker to talk about her journey into special education law. Michelle, welcome.
Speaker 3 | 00:26
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2 | 00:28
Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you. I've chatted with a lot of lawyers, but this is a first for me to someone who specializes in this niche.
So can you share with us the journey that led you to become an attorney and what specifically drew you to the field of special education law?
Speaker 3 | 00:44
Sure. Well, actually, I'm not surprised that you haven't spoken to a special ed attorney before. Most people don't know that we exist. And basically, that's what led me to my journey of becoming a special ed attorney. I actually... I have twin girls and my husband and I adopted them from Romania in the 90s. They were part of those 2020-1990s babies that were found in Romania behind the gates, behind the wall. And so we adopted them, we brought them home, we figured, you know, we could do this. And it didn't take long for us to figure out that, you know, 18 months of You know, neglect really impacts how a kid develops.
So we started them in school and I could see early on that this was going to be a challenge. So, you know, I did the same thing that most parents do was talk to the school teacher, talk to the principal and see what I could do to get my kid help. Fast forward two more years, there's still no help. There's really nothing.
So I spent the time trying to cobble together supports for my kids, that's where I found out that there is such a thing as a special ed attorney. And so just given the process and given what I'd learned already, I said, there's a need for this. I'm going to go to law school and do it. Wow.
Yeah. So I literally... Made the decision to go to law school to become a special education attorney.
You know, I had the time, the resources, the inclination to figure this out. And yet it was still very hard for me.
So I figured, you know what? Parents who are working two jobs with a disabled kid, this has got to be an impossible scenario.
So I'll just do it.
Speaker 2 | 02:46
Wow. That's really cool. That's really cool.
So- You know, it sounds like obviously you're passionate about it. You can feel that you can sense that you have a direct experience with your adopt with your children that came from Romania. Did you said there were 18 months when you adopted them? Yes. Okay.
Yeah, that's... That's so sad that was the life of neglect. That's sad.
Speaker 3 | 03:06
Yeah. And you know, when we first adopted them, we figured, you know, my husband and I are both educated people. This is just elementary school stuff. We could teach our kids 18 months isn't that long. But the truth is 18 months is a very long time when you're just kind of laying in a crib without stimulation.
So it's more the thing is these disabilities when your kid is born with a disability, when you discover your kid has a disability at any point during the process. It becomes a mountain and there's so much information out there and a lot of misinterpretations of the law by parents on Facebook or, you know, whatever, just all, collectively trying to figure out how to help their kids like there's no need or intention of you know giving bad advice but there's so much bad advice out there because there's just so much information and everybody's experience is different so yeah so having a lawyer who knows this who's already you know made the climb knows the law it's not that complicated once you learn.
Speaker 2 | 04:04
Everyone's got an opinion on it.
It were there any challenges Along the way, like in law school, what Did you get any pushback from professors? Did people say, I don't know if this is a good idea, or was everyone pretty supportive of your decision to go to take this approach?
Speaker 3 | 04:27
No, I think, I think that the underlying feeling is that when you go to law school, you're going to be working at some big law firm and doing, you know, big deals or, you know, criminal law or prosecutor for the people.
Speaker 2 | 04:47
Law and order type.
Speaker 3 | 04:48
Stuff. Yeah. But the truth is, I think. It feels a little...
You know, granola... Pro bono-y? And it kind of is, but that's kind of where this all begins, right? We're talking about kids. We're just really trying to talk about helping kids.
I mean, if you're going to seek justice for anyone. It would be the kids.
So no, there was no pushback other than good luck making a living out Yeah.
Speaker 2 | 05:16
Of that. Good luck making money.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 | 05:19
But you know, it's so much more, right? You're not just making a living. You are literally changing lives.
Speaker 2 | 05:29
That's really cool. That's really cool.
So when you first, when you got out of law school and you started your practice, How would it go in the early days?
Speaker 3 | 05:37
- So what I did once I got out of law school, I interned at, it was kind of like a nonprofit. It was a nonprofit that kind of focused, it's, you know, education, foster kids, you know, Some of these areas that I was interested in as a way to just kind of learn how a law firm works, right? What do I do?
Like, how do I do an intake? How do I screen clients? How do I figure out whether or not this is a case I want to take? How do I manage a caseload?
So all the things that I'd just never done before, I just needed to do, like, get exposed to it. So I did that internship for about 11 months. And while I was doing that, I was setting up my firm, writing the content for my website, going in California, which is where I live. And I think that it's probably consistent throughout the country. School districts are required to have parent, school, special education, information sessions. And I would go to those information sessions just to try to present my, you know, what I knew, like be a subject matter expert for parents, not necessarily trying to get clients, but more to explain to parents what the process is just so that they knew they had options out there for help. I remember when I, you know, I sent out all of my announcements that I was opening my firm, got a lot of really good feedback. And it was, you know, literally within two months, I got my first client.
And then it's just been amazing. Non-stop ever since. Wow.
Speaker 2 | 07:25
That's awesome. And kudos to you for doing the internship. That was really smart, trying to cut him a law school and be like, "Yeah, I'm going to start my own firm." That would probably be pretty.
Speaker 3 | 07:33
Hard. Well, you just don't know how to do anything, right? And my background is in business, so I knew how to run a company.
So it was just learning how to practice law.
Speaker 2 | 07:46
Yeah. You have the nuances of that specifically.
Yeah, for sure. All right. You mentioned at the beginning when I said I'd never talked to a special ed lawyer before, you said that's because most people don't know he exists.
So what kind of things are involved in what you do specifically?
Speaker 3 | 08:04
There is federal law, federal special education law. And that federal law then trickles down to the states.
And then the states have their state law, which kind of conforms to, the federal law. And ultimately, my job is to make sure that kids who are in the public school system are getting the services they need as prescribed by federal and state law. And wonderfully, you know, who has ever worked, you know, case law, That was kind of precedent setting in the 70s and then over time evolution into federal and state law basically created what I consider to be very sound framework for supporting these kids. And my entire job is walking into a meeting with the parent and figuring out what their case is, if they have a case.
And then engaging with the school district to make sure that what's missing for these kids is being provided by the school district. And I'll just give you some examples because this feels very esoteric as I'm describing it.
So let's just say that you have a kid who has autism and the kid was, you know, identified as a kid with autism at three and it's time to go to school. So there's a The school district is required to find all kids that are suspected of having a disability. Whether they go to private school or public school, who in their community is a potential student. They are tasked as part of the law, finding those kids, assessing those kids and determining whether or not they need services.
So it starts as early as three and ends as late as 22 years old. That's their kind of framework or their range of liability.
So my job is to make sure that these kids get found, assessed. And support it.
Speaker 2 | 10:12
Okay. Yeah, that's really that. Okay. That's really cool.
Yeah. That's really cool. Can you describe a case or an experience that really impacted you and reinforced your passion for advocating for the rights of children with disabilities?
Speaker 3 | 10:25
Yeah, I'll give you my case, because my case is, I think, the classic case. It happens all the time.
So my kids were delayed. And as a result of those delays, the developmental delays, you know, one has ADHD and an auditory processing disorder. The other one, you know, she's got ADD and Other stuff. And basically, I went to the school site and I said, "My kids are struggling with reading. They come home every day and they say, 'Well, this kid can read it, this kid can read it, but I can't read it.'" So I went to the school and said, "My kid is struggling. What can we do?" And so typically what school sites do is they come back and they say, Well, let's have a student success team meeting or student study team meeting. SSTs is what they're called, I think, generically across the country. And, you know, they say, well, we'll try this and this. But none of those things work and they're not successful. Effectively implemented and your kid stagnates. And this can go on. For me, it went on for a year and a half. For some parents, they come to me after like four years, my kid is still doing an SST meeting.
Well, when you learn the law... Which is the key, you find out that all you have to do is literally ask the district to assess your kid, and they have 15 days to tell you whether or not they're going to assess your kid.
And then all of a sudden you wiped away this need for this SST meeting. It's not part of the law.
So parents kind of churn in this SST land. Meantime, if they knew, I could ask my school, hey, could you assess my kid in writing? Could you assess my kid? I think my kid has a reading disability. They're way behind. The district could say no, but then you have rights or the district could say, okay, fine. But they have to say something in 15 days. Meantime, parents are doing this for four years. And I did it for a year and a half. And what you do is you delay intervention, and you know, grind on the kids' confidence, and you create behavior problems, and you delay the kid in their learning.
So, you know, there should be a big sign in every you know, school office that says, if you think your kid has, you know, needs to be assessed, put it in writing. Here's the form. We have to tell you in 15 days.
Like to me. They should have a big notice and help parents out.
So that was the impetus of all of this. This happens more often than you know. And as soon as a parent comes to me, we can solve the problem.
You know, it's not always easy, but we could figure out how to proactively and collaboratively move forward to hook the kid up to help the kid and at the same time, maintain the relationship between the family and the school. Because after four years, the Parents are pretty angry about the neglect.
Speaker 2 | 13:50
Absolutely. Yeah. That relationship is fractured at that point.
Speaker 3 | 13:53
Exactly. Exactly.
So that is a classic case. It's happening every day across this country.
Speaker 2 | 14:00
Do you think it's intentional to make it difficult, this process by the schools? Do they not want to address certain things? Are they afraid too many parents are going to I don't know, overreact to things and try to manifest things that aren't there? What do you think the reasoning is for it to be? To be so difficult.
Speaker 3 | 14:19
So a few things. I think that there is a lot of ignorance and I don't mean that like in a condescending way. I think that there's a lot of school-based employees that have no idea.
Speaker 2 | 14:32
Yeah. If you haven't dealt with it, how could you?
Right? Right.
Yeah. You haven't been educated.
Speaker 3 | 14:36
Yeah. Exactly. And there's trainings.
I mean, that's why I would go to those meetings, because school districts and parents are invited to those meetings where they're required to have. And I'd explain this.
So I think that first of all, there is some ignorance with what their duty is. Secondly, there is a law on the books that basically says school districts can't automatically refer kids for special education. They have to try this response to intervention, which is the SST meeting. But that's only if the parents aren't asking for it.
Right? Like if they think if they're like doing their team meetings and they're like, Johnny here, I think he's got a problem. I think we should have an SST meeting. Okay. But you don't have to do it for two years.
So the law is school districts can't zealously refer kids, right? Because That could be a problem too.
So there's protections in place to not refer kids. Then there's the ignorance.
And then I would say this kind of insistence that It's just an overactive mom. Johnny's going to be fine. Just give him some time. He's young, right? Which is Yeah.
Speaker 2 | 15:52
Another thing. And I'm sure that happens, obviously.
Speaker 3 | 15:55
So I think, you know, school districts aren't wrong about everything. It's, I think that they don't always know what to do, and even their understanding of what response to intervention looks like could be wrong, right?
So there's not... Why I exist, right? There's not a lot of really good information out there in the public square for parents to go, I need a lawyer.
Like I'm constantly surprised that parents find me, right? Because I have my Yelp page. Parents will say all the time, I read your Yelp page and I had to call you. I love that. But my goodness, how did you figure out to find me? Find me, right? Because it took me forever to figure that out.
So I love the fact that parents are finding me and finding other attorneys out there that do this, but it's not. Commonly known. And that's, I think, if it were more commonly known, then parents would be like, "I'm getting a lawyer." this doesn't have to be a lifelong struggle. And we'd solve problems more quickly for the kids.
Speaker 2 | 17:06
Well, again, you can really sense your passion. It's personal. It's you know, something that you feel very strongly about. And it's very cool. I'm glad people like you do exist because it sounds like it's a much needed thing and probably not enough people, not enough advocates out there.
Speaker 3 | 17:22
No, in fact, it's, you know, I've had potential. Like lawyers out there who are saying, you know, I'm thinking about doing special ed. Would you mind if I pick your brain? No, let's go to lunch. Do you have a website? No, you can use my content. I wrote all my content myself. Use it, put it on your website, learn the law, come to an IEP meeting with me, you know, as like co-counsel or whatever. I think that that's a big difference between what I do and a lot of special ed attorneys. I'm like, in order for you to, you know, successfully advocate for your parents, you have to understand the case, you have to build the case, you have to know what their issues are.
So I actually do go to all my IEP meetings, you know, like some attorneys just take it at the lawsuit phase. I take it right at the very beginning phase, I go to the IEP meetings, I get to know my, clients, IEP teams.
You know, it's just kind of every lawyer does it a little different, but the truth is there aren't enough. Please come do this job. There's a lot of kids who need our help.
Speaker 2 | 18:33
Well, that's awesome. I'm excited to hear more about what you do in future episodes. And thank you for tuning into A Peaceful Path, special education, legal advocacy for families with children that have special needs. To connect with Michelle, visit michellebeckerlaw.com and like and subscribe to our channel. We have plenty of awesome content ready to come your way. Michelle, so great meeting you.
So great learning about what you do. I'm excited for future episodes.
Speaker 3 | 18:58
Thank you so much for having me, Kevin.
Speaker 1 | 19:01
Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button and leave us a review in the comments.
