Special education is not one interest among many for him. It is the center of his working life. Oakland public schools since 2018.
Students with disabilities are among the most underserved in American public education. Not because there are no laws protecting them, but because the laws are complex, the systems that implement them are stretched, and families are often navigating alone without enough information to advocate effectively.
His practice is built around a simple conviction: every student on his caseload deserves an adult who has actually read the file, understands the history, and shows up prepared to argue for something specific. Not a vague promise to do right by the student, but a plan that is clear, concrete, and built for that child rather than some generic idea of support.
"Rigor is something you earn with students, not impose on them."
In the classroom, he holds high expectations and scaffolds genuinely. He does not confuse accommodation with lowered standards. He is interested in what students can do when the conditions are right, which is almost always more than the file suggests.
Most case managers manage compliance. The paperwork has to be right, and it is. But the real work is knowing each student well enough that the documents actually say something true. He keeps a full secondary caseload and treats genuine familiarity with each file, and each family, as the baseline requirement, not the extra effort.
Parents are the only people at an IEP table who will be there for the student's entire school career. He invests in making sure families know what they are agreeing to, what they are entitled to, and when it is worth pushing back. Plain language, direct preparation, and enough time before the meeting to ask real questions.
He teaches English and study skills to secondary students who have often been told, in one way or another, that reading and writing are not for them. He does not believe that. High expectations, genuine scaffolding. He does not confuse accommodations with lowered standards. The goal is always what the student can do when the conditions are right.
A good evaluation tells the truth about a student. Not just what supports a particular eligibility determination, but what is actually happening academically, why, and what would help. He authors comprehensive reports used in eligibility and placement decisions. Clear enough for families to read. Strong enough to hold up.
Full caseload, grades 9 through 12. IEP coordination, academic instruction, structured literacy intervention, transition planning, family communication.
Taught in a continuation setting serving students with credit deficiency, chronic absence, and interrupted academic histories. Senior Capstone projects. Coordination on IEP and 504 accommodations.
World History, U.S. History, Government, Economics. Students ages 15 through 22. Accelerated curriculum using APEX Learning, condensed timeline, essential standards only.
Long- and short-term coverage across general and special education classrooms. Remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven sites, sustained familiarity with the district's student population and institutional culture.
Designed for parents who have never been in an IEP meeting before. No jargon, no assumptions about prior knowledge. What the meeting is, what you are being asked to agree to, what your rights are, and what to do if something feels wrong.