Miami-Dade County Public Schools staff run the IEP meetings in North Miami Beach. These advocates sit on your side of the table.
3 based in Florida · 3 virtual advocates who work with Florida schools
Hiring one is optional. Nothing in federal law requires a parent to bring an advocate to an IEP meeting.
North Miami Beach parents tend to call at one of two moments. The first is before an initial evaluation and the second is after a service quietly disappears from the plan.
The meeting itself is the smallest part of the job. Nearly all the hours go into records and email before the North Miami Beach team ever sits down.
Note what changed at home. Teachers see one room for one hour and parents see the rest of the day.
No advocate in this directory lists North Miami Beach as their home base. These advocates work from other parts of Florida, and each card names the city.
Based in Wesley Chapel, FL
Special Education Advocate
With 24 years of experience in the K-12 sector, I serves as a Student Support Specialist specializing in academic and behavioral ESE services.
Based in Leesburg, FL
CEO IEP Advocate Espanol
Evelyn Roman-Santos is a bilingual Special Education Advocate with 30 years of experience as a School Social Worker.
Based in Hialeah, FL
Advocate
Hello! I look forward to helping families and their students get the crucial support they need. I have varied experience working with families and educators at the state and local levels.
These advocates are not based in Florida. They join IEP meetings by video or phone, which IDEA allows when you and the school agree.
Virtual · based in Leonardtown, MD · works with Florida schools
Special Education Advocate
Douglas Hubscher is the Founder and President of Kids Are First, LLC, a special education advocacy firm dedicated to helping families navigate the IEP and 504 process with confidence, clarity, and…
Virtual · based in Arlington Heights, IL · works with Florida schools
Special Education Advocate
I am a former special education teacher, with experience in public and therapeutic day schools.
Virtual · based in Harrisburg, PA · works with Florida schools
Special Education Advocate
I’m a special education teacher with experience supporting students with behavioral, intellectual, and learning needs.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools met 41 of 64 state special education indicators in the most recent Florida report.
Parents in Cutler Bay face the same paperwork. Rules do not change from one town to the next inside a state.
Confirm your child's district by address before you send a letter or name a district-specific process.
Federal law lets a state write its own evaluation deadline instead of using the national one. What Florida actually requires is 60 calendar days.
Put the request in writing and date it. An email to the North Miami Beach school counts as writing.
Florida gives a school district 60 calendar days to finish an initial special education evaluation. A written request for an evaluation has to be answered inside 30 days. Missed deadlines are handled by the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, which takes written state complaints from parents.
Training varies, and so does what it proves. A parent who asks how many North Miami Beach IEP meetings an advocate sat in last year learns more than a certificate would show.
Check the references and not the letters after the name. Two calls to past clients settle it faster than any credential list.
Advocates do not decide complaints. The Florida Department of Education does, and only after someone files one in writing.
Advocates who have never seen the file cannot tell you what is missing from it. Send the records first and book the call second.
No advocate is listed in every city. A remote advocate who knows Florida rules is usually a better hire for North Miami Beach than a local one who does not.
Ask whether the advocate has sat in a Miami-Dade County Public Schools meeting before. The answer is a yes or a no and it tells you a great deal.
Answers about hiring a special education advocate in North Miami Beach, Florida, including cost, timing, virtual support, and Section 504 help.
What do special education advocates charge in North Miami Beach, Florida?
Flat fees are common for a single meeting and hourly billing is common for everything else. Many advocates give a free first call. Nobody bills you through this site, so ask each person how they invoice.
Do I need an advocate for a routine annual review?
No fixed trigger exists. The useful test is whether you can tell from the paperwork what the school is actually offering, and whether the last thing you asked for came back in writing.
Who runs special education for North Miami Beach schools?
Most of the city sits inside Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The district writes the plan and holds the special education budget, which is why a complaint about a missed service names the district and not the school.
How is Miami-Dade County Public Schools doing on special education?
41 of 64 indicators met. Read that as a compliance signal rather than a rating, because a district can meet the indicator and still miss the service your child needs.
What is the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan?
The short version. IEP means the school changes what is taught and how, and Section 504 means the school changes the conditions around it.
Official Florida links for parents in North Miami Beach.
Last reviewed 2026-08-11.
The same Florida rules apply in Cutler Bay, Plant City, Coral Gables, Hallandale Beach and the other cities listed here, or see every Florida advocate.
You are not limited to advocates inside North Miami Beach. The closest listed office is in Leesburg, and distance matters less than whether that person has worked a case in your district.
Have the most recent Miami-Dade County Public Schools progress report open on the first call. It shows whether the goals moved at all.
