We recently connected with Sarah Baum and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I’m a former special education teacher, turned non-attorney special education advocate. You may be wondering what that means. This is a relatively new field, so many people don’t understand what a non-attorney special education advocate is, or what we do.

Simply put, I help parents navigate the special education system to ensure their children with exceptional needs receive appropriate support at school. Ensuring appropriate educational support helps these children reach their full potential, and can in fact change the entire trajectory of their lives.

The name of my company is “Empower You Advocacy.” The “Empower” part of the name is another mission of mine- My goal is to empower my clients to become their own best advocate for their child. If I “work my way out of a job,” then I truly know that I did my job well.

What led me to this? I was an education specialist (interchangeable with “special education teacher”) for years in the public school setting. I LOVED my job. Helping students with disabilities learn and make progress at school was incredibly rewarding. Over time, however, I came to realize that my students whose parents had an advocate or an attorney involved received a much higher quality of education than those that did not. This led me to private practice advocacy.

What can a special education advocate do? The special education system is not set up in a “parent-friendly” way- meaning the educational/legal jargon used in meetings and emails is confusing to understand, and schools don’t readily share what resources are available to support these students (due to budgetary constraints). My role is to take the control and put it back in the parents’ hands, through parent education, communicating with school districts (using language that gets results), and using data and special education law to leverage the best educational outcomes for my clients’ children.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

What sets me apart from other special education advocates? It’s important for parents to know that special education advocacy is a new and unregulated field. Anyone can hang up a shingle tomorrow and call themselves an “advocate.” There are horror stories of advocates taking financial advantage of clients and/or making situations with the family’s school worse.

When you’re looking for an advocate, you want to hire someone who knows what they’re doing. Don’t be afraid to ask questions during the interview process to determine the advocate’s knowledge, style, and credibility. Most importantly, trust your gut. Is this someone you feel you can trust to always advocate for the best interest of you and your child?

A couple of things set me apart from most other advocates- First, my experience as an education specialist. I’ve written hundreds of IEPs, conducted special education assessments, and have vast experience facilitating IEP meetings and implementing education plans for the students I served. I hold a Master’s degree in special education, so my knowledge and expertise from that has guided me in this role- I know what an IEP “should” look like, how the school team thinks, and how to effectively respond if there’s a problem.

Second, I worked for over a year with an experienced and highly-regarded clinical/educational psychologist to help write educational assessment reports. This gave me insight into what an independent educational evaluation (IEE) should look like, and how this can tie into the legal process (IEE assessors are expert witnesses at due process hearings).

Lastly, I interned with a successful special education attorney to even better understand special education law, which is complex and multifaceted, and how to leverage those laws to help my clients. I also learned when to refer a case to an attorney, and how to set up my cases so as to avoid legal proceedings, while also documenting to make a case stronger if legal action is required.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Transitioning from a public school district special education employee to a private special education advocate was very mentally challenging. I had to “unlearn” some of the things I’d been taught as a district employee, which required a complete paradigm shift.

I still have great respect for the IEP team members on the “other side of the table;” I know firsthand how hard they work and how unappreciated they are. However, during my transitioning process, I started focusing on what my clients’ children were legally entitled to in order to receive an appropriate education. This meant less thinking about the financial burden or staffing shortages in a district, and more thinking about what my clients’ children truly needed.

I still have a lot of empathy for school IEP team members- They do not have the resources or staffing to be set up for success. The responsibility to provide appropriate equipment, staffing, and training lies with the school district, not the individual IEP team member professionals. When personnel higher up in the District need to approve requests to achieve this, I always loop them in and make the requests to them directly.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’m a parent myself, so I try to put myself in the shoes of my clients and think about what they need from me to ensure a successful outcome for their child. To that end, I prioritize listening carefully to my clients to ensure truly understand what their goals are and what motivates them. This allows me to individualize my advocacy strategy to match each client and each unique case.

I ‘m committed to clear and consistent communication, collaboration, and professionalism when working my cases. Often when clients initially reach out to me, they feel angry, hopeless, and overwhelmed. I see part of my job as providing reassurance and emotional support to my families. My clients are often trying to advocate and care for their children’s complex needs, which becomes a full-time job for them. This usually leads to burn-out. I try my best to meet my clients where they are at. I want to remove some stress from their plates by freeing them up to be “the parents,” instead of worrying about all of the special education processes and minutia.

My priorities of clear communication, collaboration, and professionalism also apply to my interactions with IEP team members and district personnel, and even school district attorneys. I’m very passionate about this work, but I also typically have a calm approach during tense meetings, in attempts to diffuse some of the stress from all involved. This facilitates bringing the parents and school together as a team, when possible, I find that this is the best approach to efficiently obtain results for my clients.

My work ethic, passion, and commitment to providing high-quality services has resulted in many “word-of-mouth” referrals, positive reputations in school districts, and respect among other professionals in my field, including other advocates, attorneys, psychologists, and other service providers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.empoweryouadvocacy.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-baum-799733290/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmpowerYouAdvocacy
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/empower-you-advocacy-newport-beach?osq=Empower+You+Advocacy

Image Credits

D. Park Studios