Emily Stewart Haynes

My son was completing his doctorate degree and was not able to pass his internships. The University was in the hearing process to dismiss him from the program. His GPA for classwork was honors level but he was having difficulty with organization and interpersonal skills. After completing testing and ...finding a disability Emily assisted my son with his appeal and he was allowed to continue with accommodations. The hearing process was long and difficult and without Emily I don’t believe we would have won. She was very kind and honest with my son and helped him develop his voice to advocate for himself. My son completed all three of his internships successfully and will be graduating this week with his Doctorate degree. We can’t thank Emily enough!!

We decided to seek legal counsel after encountering ongoing IEP documentation errors, repeated communication failures, and a lack of follow through on district policies during our son's kindergarten year. The building was under new leadership, and difficult encounters with the principal began to pil...e up with surmounting frustration. Our kindergartener had an IEP and BIP in place in which the goals primarily centered around social language and behavior. One of the first items Ms. Haynes tackled was identifying the high volume of social speech verbiage noted on the IEP and BIP. This prompted Ms. Haynes to submit a request for a speech pragmatics evaluation. It was found that our son was also delayed in speech pragmatics and is now set up to receive speech services for the next academic year. Ms. Haynes also went to bat in advocating for an IEE for an Auditory Processing Screening (based on the results of the speech evaluation). In addition to social delays, our son also has food allergies/sensitivities that correlate with his medical condition. Despite providing the district with physician documentation, they refused to place our son's dietary restrictions in his IEP. Ms. Haynes went to work collecting data and research, on local, state, and national levels, in support of safety and inclusion in elementary schools. She cited research from the Office of Civil Rights, Ohio Revised Code, Food Allergy Resource and Education, the Center for Disease Control, USDA, and our local district's Board Policies. Several IEP meetings transpired with no movement from our district regarding our reasonable requests for non-edible classroom manipulatives or in the secondary, classroom edibles to be taken from a safe snack list. Emily Haynes made a key decision to request ODE mediation for what ended up being our most productive IEP meeting. It was during that meeting that we were finally able to reach agreements in keeping our son safe and included in the classroom and building. Ms. Haynes laid out a thorough and productive plan to streamline communication between the district and parents. Emily Haynes brought to the table an immense amount of professionalism, knowledge, strength, compassion, and persistence. The time she allotted to research was phenomenal and, in our opinion, was a catalyst for forward progress during IEP meetings. She remained sharp and on time with communication between all parties involved. Ms. Haynes was conscious of our time and financial commitment when making decisions. At no point did we feel our finances were not put to good use nor did we ever feel out of the loop in the decision making. We can say with certainly, Emily Haynes was instrumental in setting up our son for success on a classroom level for his first grade year. We would highly recommend the services of Ms. Haynes to parents searching for guidance in a committed professional. Her knowledge and experience in special education law was a key asset to our success. Should we need future assistance, we would eagerly request the counsel of Ms. Haynes again.

Emily and team worked very quickly and professionally in a tight time frame to address our move involving an education matter that was in our best interest.... They worked for a win / win situation for everyone involved .... Our options were outlined quickly and the best outcome was achieved. We ap...preciated the quick review and communication, steering us to the best solution not only for us but for everyone involved... Would highly recommend.... A pleasure to work with especially considering the tight time frame and stressful situation. Also -- for what it is worth, I rarely, if ever write reviews or recommend services..... :)

I cannot say enough positive things about my experience with Emily. She spent the time working with us on prepping for our transition IEP meeting and inquiried about things I would never have thought of during the meeting. She helped us rewrite the document and was an absolute essential part of our... team.

Emmy reviewed 2 years of emails and IEP documentation to support us through a difficult conflict with our daughter's school. With Emmy's help, we were able to see the merits of what the school was offering as supports for our daughter. In addition, she helped us to transition from an IEP to a 504 whi...le fighting for what is best for our daughter. We are pleased with Emmy's services and will retain her again in the future if necessary.