Today we’d like to introduce you to Jazmine Gelfand.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jazmine. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I earned my undergraduate degree at SDSU in Early Childhood Development, but decided during my final year that I wanted to continue on to law school. It was a confusing decision for a lot of my friends and family, since you don’t typically see Child Development as a major that would feed into legal studies. I had thought that I would use a law degree to pursue work in foster care policy, or something similar. However, once I started at USD School of Law, I became involved with a new student organization, Advocates for Children and Education (ACE). Through ACE, we developed clinics to teach primary school students about their legal rights on campus. We also worked with the Escondido Youth Court to develop a similar clinic for their diversionary program for first time misdemeanor youth offenders.
My first legal internship was with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program’s Education Law Project, which works with foster families with kids with special education needs. I later started working with a private special education attorney in San Diego. After working with her office throughout law school, my employer eventually offered to sell me her practice shortly after I passed the Bar Exam. Even though I had minimal experience as an attorney at the time, I had been working in the field for several years and felt confident taking over her firm. Now I have been on my own for about two-and-a-half years.
Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest adjustment to going solo was not having another person to bounce ideas off of. For so long I was used to brainstorming and problem solving with the other attorneys and staff in the office, so when it became just me, it was definitely an adjustment to have to make all of the decisions on my own. It took a while to build up my confidence and trust myself professionally. Fortunately, I have a great support network in the community, so if I’m ever really stuck there are a lot of great people I can reach out to.
Of course, it can also be an emotional struggle working with families of students with disabilities. Any time I feel a family getting anxious or frustrated, I take that to heart. When your job is to support families who feel their kids’ needs aren’t being met by the school system, it can be hard to take the emotions out of it and just focus on the legal issues.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My practice focuses solely on representing families of students with special education needs. Specifically, I work with families to obtain or improve special education services for their children within public school districts. That can include representing them through the § 504 or IEP process, or filing due process complaints. My office also files compliance complaints with the CA Dept. of Education, and discrimination complaints with the Office of Civil Rights. I also represent families in petitions to be appointed limited conservatorship of their adult children with developmental disabilities.
I approach my cases very collaboratively, understanding the many families will continue to work with the school district after their case has been resolved.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I am hopeful that new Dyslexia legislation will encourage school districts to develop appropriate programs for students with significant learning disabilities. I am also hoping that the focus on supporting people with mental illness will continue to grow, so that awareness can lead to positive changes within our school system.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4275 Executive Sq. #200
La Jolla, CA 92037 - Website: SpecialEdLegalCare.com
- Phone: 6192207041
- Email: Jazmine@specialedlegalcare.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpecialEdLegalCare
Small schoolboy sitting by his desk
Preschoolers in a classroom learning.
Little girls playing on a tablet computing device – laying on the floor
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