10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Special Education Lawyer in NYC

We hired our first special education lawyer seven years ago. We were handed a retainer agreement, told what it would cost, and signed it. We didn't ask too many questions, at least not informed ones. We let the lawyers lead the way—and they were great. They fought for us. But if we'd had more information, our financial situation would be far different — about $150,000 different, between legal fees and the compounding cost to our son's future savings.

Here are the questions we wish we’d asked.

The attorneys who do this work well didn't stumble into it. Lisa Isaacs of Isaacs Bernstein PC came out of legal services and nonprofit work — she went into private practice specifically so she could use fee-shifting to work with families who couldn't otherwise access the courts.

Lloyd Donders of the Law Offices of Lloyd Donders navigated the IEP process for his own son before going back to study special education law. Gina DeCrescenzo of Gina DeCrescenzo PC built her practice litigating high-conflict cases involving dyslexia, autism, compensatory education, and private school placement disputes.

Michele Kule-Korgood of the Law Office of Michele Kule-Korgood was a special education teacher who realized that loving her students and showing up every day wasn't enough — that she didn't know how to get them what they were legally entitled to. After two years of begging Rotary Clubs for donations to get voice-assisted technology for a student, she went to law school to learn how to get them what they were legally entitled to.

Not every attorney who practices special education law came to it this way. Some crossed over from representing school districts. Some took on special ed cases because the fee-shifting math made it attractive.

The origin story tells you something about how an attorney approaches a case — whether your child is a file number or a reason they show up. Ask it. That moment — discovering that caring wasn't enough, that legal knowledge is needed to actually fight — is what sends the best attorneys into this field.

Ask ten lawyers about fee structure and you’ll get eleven answers. Retainers vary widely, and the number alone tells you very little about what you're actually getting. We've seen figures ranging from under $3,000 to well above $15,000.

One model worth knowing about before you sit down with anyone: some attorneys charge a percentage of whatever tuition reimbursement you recover — typically around 10%. That model ties the attorney's fee to the size of your win, which may not align with your interests. An attorney charging a percentage of tuition recovery has a financial interest in placing your child at the most expensive school, not necessarily the most appropriate one. More tuition means more fees, with no additional work.

Some retainers also include clauses worth reading carefully: automatic annual fee increases baked into the agreement, and provisions allowing the firm to take a percentage of whatever the DOE pays back in fee recovery before applying it to what you've already paid.

If you can't understand the retainer, ask the attorney to explain every clause before you sign. I’ve often said to our attorneys: “please talk to me like I’m in tenth grade.”

Lisa Isaacs identifies several red flags: stacked flat fees — one for taking the case, another large fee if it goes to hearing, separate large charges for things like pendency hearings. "Charging large amounts for very small tasks is impermissible," she told Lighthouse. She has seen billing timesheets where clients were billed by seven people who discussed the same case. "Improper," she said flatly.

Gina DeCrescenzo believes parents should clearly understand what is included in a fee arrangement upfront and not be surprised by charges for routine litigation steps.

Ask whether the retainer covers everything through a hearing, or whether litigation triggers additional charges. A flat fee that covers the whole case — intake through hearing — means your attorney has no financial stake in whether you settle or litigate. A retainer that caps at settlement, with hearing costs on top, means the meter starts running again if your case goes further. Know which one you're signing.

Ask for a line-by-line explanation of what the flat fee includes. Ask whether there's an annual increase built into the agreement. Ask what happens to any money the DOE pays back — and whether you'll see any of it.

And ask directly: will I need to go through this process again next year? For most families in NYC, the answer is yes — every year, same process, same retainer. Know that before you sign the first one.

Fee-shifting is the provision under IDEA that allows parents who prevail at hearing to have their attorney's fees paid by the DOE. It's why many special education attorneys can represent families at reduced upfront cost. It's also one of the most misunderstood parts of the process.

One thing most parents don't know, and that Lisa Isaacs was very clear about: you own fee-shifting. Not your attorney. “The lawyer does not own that fee shifting,” she told Lighthouse. The money recovered from the DOE belongs to you first — and any attorney who suggests otherwise is wrong.

Here's how it works: you pay a retainer. If you win, your attorney submits a fee application to the DOE billing their full hourly rate for all work done. The DOE negotiates that number down — Lisa Isaacs told Lighthouse the DOE typically settles at around 75-80% of what's billed, unless the timesheet looks inflated. Whatever comes back from that negotiation should be applied against what you already paid.

The key word is "should." Isaacs told Lighthouse she has seen parents pay an $8,000 retainer and receive $1,000 back after a DOE settlement — meaning their attorney kept $7,000 for what she said was about three hours of work. "The $7K retained by the lawyer is excessive for minimal work," she said.

A parent-protective model, Isaacs told Lighthouse, looks like this: a modest clear advance fee that reflects the actual time involved, transparent billing to the DOE based on real time spent, and an explicit understanding that if the DOE pays fees in an amount greater than what you've already paid, you get that money back first. “I personally think $5K is at the high end, but I'm sure others do not.”

If you're paying a reduced rate on a sliding scale, the calculation changes. The discount upfront is the benefit — on a settlement, don't expect money to come back, because fee-shifting will go toward making the firm whole at its standard rate first. Know this before you sign.

Fee-shifting also works differently in settlements than in litigation wins. When the DOE settles — meaning they look at your case and decide not to fight it — your attorney will try to build their fees into the settlement agreement, but what the city agrees to pay is often less than a full hearing win would generate. In recent years, the DOE has been settling cases for as little as $1,000 — a deliberate strategy that makes fee-shifting uneconomical for attorneys and discourages them from taking cases to hearing. Your attorney should be able to tell you how they navigate that pressure.

Some attorneys waive their fee claim to the DOE entirely as part of a settlement, to make the deal go through faster. Ask directly whether your attorney does this — and what it means for what you get back.

Ask directly: how will any money recovered from the DOE be applied to what I've already paid — whether we settle or go to hearing? And if the DOE offers a low settlement, what is your strategy — and what are my options?

A good attorney will tell you if your case is weak before you sign anything. Lloyd Donders told Lighthouse he only takes cases he believes in. Lisa Isaacs said the same. Experienced attorneys self-select for winnable cases — a well-regarded attorney who is willing to take your case is itself a signal.

What losing looks like is worth understanding concretely. In a tuition reimbursement case, losing can mean you've been paying private school tuition — sometimes $80,000 to $145,000 a year — with no reimbursement.

In a services case, it can mean your child doesn't receive mandated therapy for another year. If you have pendency locked in— meaning your child's current placement is legally protected and continues automatically while a case is pending—losing at hearing is a different calculation. Your child stays put while you regroup. Ask your attorney what losing actually means for your specific situation given where you are in the process.

There is also a three-part legal test for tuition reimbursement cases that your attorney should walk you through before you sign:

All three matter. If any one of them is weak in your case, you need to know that before you file.

Ask what the realistic risks are. Ask what losing looks like specifically for your child, your placement, and your pendency status. If the attorney won't give you a frank answer, keep looking.

Michele Kule-Korgood told Lighthouse that the litigation rate in NYC has gone from roughly 5% of due process complaints under de Blasio's 2014 policy to approximately 50% now — a tenfold increase she attributes largely to the DOE making itself impossible to reach and resolve cases informally. "They've taken their phone numbers out of every single email signature," she told Lighthouse. "They don't want to be reached." A problem that could be solved in a 30-minute phone call becomes a full hearing. That costs everyone — including you.

It wasn't always this way. Under de Blasio's 2014 policy, cases were fast-tracked for settlement with strict timelines and consequences for DOE attorneys who didn't comply. Cases settled quickly and in ways that made sense. That policy eroded. Then OATH took over the hearings. Then the phone numbers disappeared. The tenfold increase in litigation is the result.

An attorney who settles everything may be leaving services and money on the table. One who litigates everything may be burning your retainer on cases that should have resolved quickly. Ask specifically: for cases like mine, what is your typical outcome — settlement or hearing? And why?

Lloyd Donders told Lighthouse that about 95% of his clients are on a fee-shifting basis — a reduced upfront retainer, with the DOE covering fees if the family prevails. That model only works if the attorney is taking cases they expect to win. Ask how they think about that balance.

One more thing to understand: in recent years the DOE has been settling cases for as little as $1,000 — a strategy that makes fee-shifting uneconomical and pressures attorneys to accept almost nothing rather than wait 20 months for a hearing outcome. Your attorney should tell you directly how they handle that pressure, and what your options are if the DOE makes a lowball offer. Do they accept it? Do they go to hearing? Do they have a strategy for pushing back?

Most parents have never heard of compensatory services, and not every attorney proactively looks for them. Compensatory services are makeup services — additional hours of speech, OT, PT, reading instruction, ABA, or other supports a child was owed but never received. A parent can go back up to two years. Waiting costs you.

"The DOE routinely violates the law and routinely creates IEPs that do not have what the child needs to be successful," Gina DeCrescenzo told Lighthouse. As a matter of policy, the DOE avoids specifying methodology on IEPs — even when a child clearly requires a specialized approach like ABA, Orton-Gillingham, or PROMPT speech therapy. That gap is exactly what compensatory services are designed to remedy. But only if your attorney is looking for it.

Ask any attorney you interview: do you look at compensatory services claims, and will you assess what my child may be owed going back two years? If the answer is no, or vague, you may be leaving significant services on the table before you've even started.

Since 2023, special education hearings in New York City have been administered by OATH — the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Lloyd Donders has FOIL data going back to 2000 and has identified hearing officers with 40 or 50 decisions appealed — the same names, over and over. "For many of us parent attorneys, we've never had to appeal so many decisions in our careers," he told Lighthouse. “And those names are exactly who you'd expect if you practice in this area: they're known for being hostile to parents.”

He uses that data to advise clients on what to expect before a hearing starts. That's information you cannot get anywhere else — and it can shape your entire strategy before you ever walk into a hearing room.

“And those OATH officers with many decisions appealed, they are exactly who you'd expect if you practice in this area: they're known for being hostile to parents.” — Lloyd Donders

Lisa Isaacs told Lighthouse the DOE is now sending families to hearing even for pendency — the automatic stay-put right that kicks in the moment you file a due process complaint, which requires no hearing at all. "They're sending people to hearing for pendency, which is automatic," she said. Your child's seat shouldn't require a hearing. The fact that it sometimes does tells you something about the environment your attorney is navigating.

An attorney who knows the landscape — which officers are fair, which ones have track records worth knowing — is giving you information you cannot get anywhere else. Ask what they know about the current hearing officer pool and how that shapes their strategy.

Lisa Isaacs flagged this directly: she has seen timesheets where clients are billed by seven people for discussing the same case. Before signing, ask who will handle your file day to day. Is it the attorney you're meeting with, or will it be passed to associates or paralegals? Will you be billed for every person who touches it?

Also ask: how will you keep me informed about fee submissions to the DOE? Fee recovery requires your attorney to actively submit invoices. If that doesn't happen — and there are cases where it hasn't — you may not find out until it's too late to do anything about it.

NYC's special education landscape is hyper-local. An attorney who knows the principals, the CSE chairpersons, the DOE litigators assigned to your borough, and the hearing officers who handle your type of case is operating with information that a generalist simply doesn't have.

Lisa Isaacs noted that where the principal is good, cases don't end up in litigation — meaning the attorney-DOE relationship at the school and district level shapes outcomes before a hearing request is ever filed. Some private schools also have in-house legal staff who work closely with outside attorneys on cases — and an attorney who knows that relationship, and has worked within it before, is starting several steps ahead.

Ask specifically whether they've worked with your child's school or district, and what they know about the people on the other side of the table.

Bussing is one of the most overlooked — and most contentious — parts of special education in New York City. Sharon and I have bussing nightmare stories that rival Quint's U.S.S. Indianapolis speech in Jaws — the one where he describes waiting in the water for days after being torpedoed, watching the sharks take the men around him one by one, and no one came to rescue them. For us, it was the bus para who didn't show up.

A quarter of every special education dollar the city spends goes not to services or instruction but to transportation. Getting a child with disabilities to school and back is its own legal and logistical labyrinth, with its own disputes, its own timelines, and its own due process cases. Most parents don't find this out until something goes wrong.

For families whose child attends a private special education school — which means a school often far from home, sometimes in another borough — bussing is not optional. It is mandated. And when the DOE fails to provide it, or provides it inadequately, that failure can mean a child misses school entirely.

Ask any attorney you interview: do you handle bussing disputes, and is that work included in the flat fee or billed separately? If they say bussing is outside their practice, ask who they refer those cases to. An attorney who handles placement but not transportation is leaving a significant gap in your representation — one that may only become apparent after your child has already missed weeks of school waiting for a bus that never came.

You own your file. That means the retainer agreement, time records, billing submitted to the DOE, and any fee settlement. Lisa Isaacs was explicit: "You own the file. You have the right to look at everything. Any attorney who suggests otherwise is wrong."

If you have a fee dispute, New York's Part 137 fee arbitration program — run by the Office of Court Administration — provides a structured process for disputes between $1,000 and $50,000. You don't need another lawyer. You file, a neutral body reviews the fees, and issues a determination. Isaacs told Lighthouse: "You shouldn't have to hire another lawyer just to talk to your lawyer about your fees."

And if you have a broader complaint about attorney conduct — not just fees — the New York State grievance committee handles attorney discipline. That is a higher bar and a slower process, but it exists.

Look both up before you need them.

Here’s something to understand before you get to the table.

The DOE offers three-year stipulations of settlement. On the surface, that sounds like stability — three years without having to refile. The reality is more complicated. If your school raises tuition, you're out of luck — the settlement locks in a dollar amount. The DOE retains the right of refusal in subsequent years, meaning they can decide to litigate if they want to. You cannot.

The three-year settlement benefits the city. It does not benefit you. Before accepting one, understand exactly what you're giving up.

These questions come from original interviews with attorneys who represent parents — not school districts — in New York City: Lisa Isaacs of Isaacs Bernstein PC, Lloyd Donders of the Law Offices of Lloyd Donders, Michele Kule-Korgood of Forest Hills, and Gina DeCrescenzo of Gina DeCrescenzo PC in Westchester. Other material is on background from unnamed lawyers and hearing officers.