Leigh Elizabeth Dalton

Dr. Leigh Dalton has dedicated her career to focusing on the needs of students, strengthening our schools, reducing truancy, and pushing for stronger community support in both government and nonprofit leadership positions in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She is a shareholder in the Saxton & Stump Education Group, bringing more than 20 years of varied legal and governmental education experience to her practice. In her practice, Dr. Dalton provides legal advice to her clients to address complex legal issues with practical implications in the daily operation of public school entities throughout Central Pennsylvania on issues such as special education, student services, compliance monitoring, Title IX, and student discipline. Dr. Dalton devotes a significant portion of her practice to addressing the policy needs of school entities, tracking updates and developments in federal and state laws and regulations.

Dr. Dalton came to Saxton & Stump in 2025, joining the firm with the attorneys and professionals of longtime York County law firm Stock & Leader. Before she rejoined Stock & Leader in 2019, Dr. Dalton served as the Director of Legal Services for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. At PSBA, she provided advice in all areas of school law, and focused particularly on the drafting of policies, the development of training, and the analysis of proposed legislation. While Dr. Dalton was with PSBA, she was the author and editor of the “School Law Information Exchange,” a biweekly newsletter of recent legal cases, decisions, legislative updates, and other statewide-impacting matters affecting Pennsylvania school districts. In 2021 and 2022, Dr. Dalton served as a peer reviewer in various United States Department of Education research-based grant funding opportunities.

As the Chief of Special Education Monitoring and Accountability for the Maryland State Department of Education in 2018, and then as a consultant for four years, Dr. Dalton directed/assisted in the statewide implementation of the Monitoring for Continuous Improvement and Results activities to ensure compliance with special education laws and regulations such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Code of Maryland Regulations.

Dr. Dalton also worked as the Director of the York County Truancy Prevention Initiative, a community-led effort housed at the United Way of York County. In this role, she established a youth-run truancy sentencing court, the Youth Court Alliance. She developed a training manual and restorative practices approach to train youth, administrators, and community providers to implement this diversionary program. The Youth Court Alliance was eventually granted sustainable funding and expanded to schools throughout York County. The International Association of Truancy and Dropout Prevention named it the “Program of the Year” in 2019, and in 2012 the Youth Court Alliance earned Dr. Dalton recognition as a “Person Who Matters” in York County. Dr. Dalton’s work with the Youth Court Alliance followed her position as manager of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Truancy Court Program.

In 2015, Dr. Dalton received a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and earned her law degree cum laude from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2008, with a concentration in Public and Governmental Service. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a political science major, part of which included study abroad at Rhodes University in South Africa in 2002.