Brooklyn Letters
1139 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn
Miriam Nunberg is an attorney, advocate, and school founder. Her practice is designed to empower parents of children with learning, attentional, psychological, and physical differences to obtain support from the school.
Miriam s services begin with a close look at the child s educational and clinical history to match their needs with the legal requirements. She then guides parents through the IEP and 504 processes to help obtain powerful, child-centered educational plans in public, private and charter schools. She also helps obtain compensatory services for children whom the system has failed to serve properly and provides fierce advocacy when necessary.
Miriam believes that parents who understand their rights can get better services more quickly and without costly and time-consuming litigation. She helps navigate the maze at every step along the way to simplify the complex legal framework and help cut through confusing terminology and bureaucracy.
Her practice is a hybrid of coaching, consultation, and advocacy, rather than traditional legal representation. She works on an hourly basis (no large retainer required!) and offers a sliding scale.
Miriam Offers the Following Services:
- Assistance requesting evaluations from the DOE, including independent neuropsychological evaluations.
- Guidance in seeking a private neuropsychological evaluation and support obtaining reimbursement for private evaluations when possible.
- Coordination with private evaluators to obtain compelling recommendations for school-based services. The right recommendations can be game-changers in getting children legally-binding services and accommodations on IEPs and 504 plans.
- In-depth preparation for IEP and 504 meetings. IEP s have many layers that can be hard to understand, including management needs and goals. You will learn how to build your argument for creating sophisticated IEPs and 504 plans that serve your child s best interest – and what to do if you and the school disagree.
- Assistance seeking formal behavior plans at school and representation in disciplinary proceedings.
- Representation at IEP / 504 meetings.
- Support following meetings to clarify and strengthen key components of draft plans developed.
- Behind-the-scenes assistance in communicating with your child s school to ensure full IEP/504 implementation.
- Drafting of and representation in mediation/administrative complaints.
- Assistance obtaining compensatory vouchers for tutoring or related services.
- Support navigating the school choice process to identify schools best suited to meet your child s IEP / 504 needs.
- Assistance deciding when to seek private school tuition reimbursement.
Biography
Miriam Nunberg, Esq., EdM, is an attorney, advocate, and educational consultant. She currently advises and advocates for parents of students with disabilities, providing training, consultation, and advocacy around navigating the world of special education and school accommodations. She is a member of the expert panel of Understood.org and was Of Counsel to the Law Offices of Elisa Hyman, a firm that provides no-fee and low-cost representation to students with severe disabilities. She is also an active member of the school integration movement and provides training and consulting around systemic equity in schools.
As a staff attorney at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education, Miriam handled complaints of discrimination in schools and colleges based on race, national origin, sex, age, and disability for fourteen years. She also co-founded and led the startup of the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School, a middle school with the mission of serving students of all backgrounds and abilities in an integrated, hands-on setting. Miriam is a former special education teacher and holds a Master’s of Education from Smith College and a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is a proud public school parent of two boys and lives in Brooklyn.
Contact Miriam at [email protected].
Please mention that you found her services through Themba Tutors!