Dear Clients,
I am writing to assure you that our office is conducting all its usual business and we remain hard at work on your cases. Our staff are all able to work remotely when necessary and we are open and staffed during all business hours.
As you are aware, a number of special education schools our clients’ children attend have temporarily closed. Others are considering whether to do so. Several of our clients with medically fragile children have acted on specific medical guidance and are not sending their children to school. The potential impacts of these facts on your case are highly individualized and we cannot give blanket advice. Please contact your attorney case manager about your specific situation if you have concerns. Contact information for all of our attorneys is below this note.
If at any time you need to speak with someone, call or email as you normally would. If the person you need to reach isn’t physically in the office, they will call you back, generally within the day. If you do not get a response within 24 hours, please email me directly.
If you have an upcoming impartial hearing, please check in with your attorney; so far scheduled hearings have gone forward as usual. Our office is conveniently located within a short walk of the DOE impartial hearing office. We are in constant and frequent daily contact with administrators at the DOE and we are working collaboratively with them; specifically, we are encouraging as many hearings and meetings to be conducted by telephone as possible.
For now, all scheduled client meetings at our office are being done by telephone rather than in-person. If you have documents to drop off, we encourage you to send them FedEx/UPS or by certified USPS mail. If you would rather reschedule a meeting, we will happily accomodate you.
We encourage you to proactively speak to your schools and other educational providers about their policies. New York City has a guide for schools and families that is being constantly updated.
We will be sending periodic updates on specific topics related to this public health emergency. I know we will get through this with even greater resilience!
Regina
