When you are seeking private placement, it is almost always best to go straight with the lawyer. You're asking for public funds to be used for a private school, that's a fight best fought with ultimate weapons. Prepare yourself for a long, costly fight. Unless, of course, you have proof that the school has been out of compliance, endangered your child or has been outright refusing to give your child the help he/she needs. If it is clear cut, you could begin with an advocate, but it's usually not like that.

You hire an advocate to make things work at the public school. If you need someone to give advice as to which private schools may be a good match, then either an educational consultant who specializes in this or an IQ tester who works a lot with private school kids (SN and NT) would be able to make suggestions.

Are you considering suing to get the public school to pay for private placement? If so, find the best lawyer, but as far as I know it is very rare to win.

Different lawyer and advocates may work with MCPS, vs. PGPS, etc. That is why people are asking. Not about licensed to go to court. More experience with a specific school system. You will likely not be outed by identifying your county. Just trying to help.

OP: thanks. I thought of that, but at this point I prefer to keep our specifics out of it. We are in Maryland so we would need an attorney licensed there utlimatley if we were to go to court.

You will get more info if you put where (DC, MoCo, FC) and what are the issues.

My DH and I have decided that we need to pursue private placement of our SN child. How long this will take and how much $$$ we will need to spend is up in the air, but we've made the decision that this is the route we are taking.

Given our goal, what's your thought/experience on

1. what kind of advocate would work best in getting us (if it's possible) what we want? A demanding tenacious bull dog type or more patient, collaborative type that will not alienate the school system, but will slowly help us build the case we need to convince of the need and the facts in our favor?

2. Whether we should hire the educational consultant first, or the lawyer first? I realize they refer back and forth, but which makes the most sense to start with given what we ultimately want?

And, of course, if you have recommendations on who you've used, please provide some names.