Pasco County Public Schools staff run the IEP meetings in Port Richey. These advocates sit on your side of the table.
3 based in Florida · 3 virtual advocates who work with Florida schools
An advocate is a paid professional who reads the evaluation reports, drafts your concerns, sits beside you at the IEP table, and follows up on whatever the school agreed to do.
Parents in Port Richey usually start looking for an advocate when a meeting is already on the calendar.
Advocates also coach. Some Port Richey parents hire one for two hours of prep and go into the meeting alone.
Pasco County Public Schools keeps progress data on every goal in the plan. Ask for it as a table of dates and numbers rather than a paragraph.
No advocate in this directory lists Port Richey 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 Kansas City, MO · works with Florida schools
Navigate Special Education with Clarity and Confidence - Guiding Families. Building Futures.
Dr. Diane is a special education advocate and founder of Steppingstone Services, LLC. She holds a Ph.D.
Virtual · based in New York, NY · works with Florida schools
Special Education Advocate
Clara Liriano, M.S., is a Special Education Advocate and New York State Certified Special Education Teacher with more than 20 years of experience supporting children and individuals with…
Virtual · based in Midland, TX · works with Florida schools
Special Education Advocate
Kate Keenan is a special education advocate serving families in Midland, TX.
Pasco County Public Schools runs the IEP meetings for most Port Richey students, and its special education staff will be on the other side of the table when you walk in.
Charter and magnet enrollment changes who owes the service. Ask which agency is responsible before the first meeting.
Confirm your child's district by address before you send a letter or name a district-specific process.
A written request for an evaluation starts a second clock in Florida, and the district has to answer inside 30 days.
Ask the Port Richey team for the evaluation report before the meeting, not at it, because nobody reads a long report accurately while the rest of the team waits.
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.
Certification programs exist and some advocates hold them. None of them is issued by the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, and none of them is required to sit in a Florida IEP meeting.
Pasco County Public Schools does not approve or bar advocates. Federal rules let a parent bring anyone with knowledge of the child to the meeting.
Hiring an advocate does not pause a deadline or undo a meeting that already happened. The work starts from wherever the Port Richey file sits today.
What worked for a family in Holiday may not fit yours. Ask the advocate what is different about your file before you copy anyone.
Rates and openings decide most of this. An advocate who cannot meet before your Port Richey meeting date is the wrong hire, and the second-best advocate who is free this month usually beats the best one who is not.
Read a profile for what the advocate actually did, not for what the profile claims. Case detail is the tell.
Answers about hiring a special education advocate in Port Richey, Florida, including cost, timing, virtual support, and Section 504 help.
What is the hourly rate for a parent advocate?
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.
When should I hire a special education advocate in Port Richey?
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.
Does Pasco County Public Schools cover every Port Richey address?
Most of the city sits inside Pasco 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.
Does Port Richey have a good special education program?
41 of 65 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.
How do I get my child school records?
Ask for the full file, which means every evaluation, the progress data behind each goal and any email where the school said no. Put it in writing and keep the date.
Official Florida links for parents in Port Richey.
Last reviewed 2026-08-11.
The same Florida rules apply in Holiday, Orange Park, Dade City, Hudson and the other cities listed here, or see every Florida advocate.
Print the current IEP and bring it to the first call. Every advocate on the Port Richey list will ask for it.
Say the name of your school and Pasco County Public Schools in the first message. That is enough for an advocate to know whether they can take the case.
