PEABODY — A Peabody lawyer is doing what she can to help the most vulnerable students, the “silent victims,” as she calls them, get the services they need.
Pamela Milman, Esq., senior attorney and founder of Education Consulting, Advocacy & Legal Service LLC, provides advice, training and representation in cases involving education, special education, and other youth-based matters.
Her business has exploded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Parents were fighting for special services even pre-COVID and now, with home services discontinued, it’s that much worse,” said Milman. “On good days, these families struggle, and now, with everything taken away and families at home, they are in an impossible situation and their kids are regressing. People don’t understand their day-to-day struggles, but yet people are concerned with when their nail salons will be open.
“For special ed families, it’s like learning how to fly a plane while it’s in the air and not even close to being able to think about landing because it’s still in the turbulence.”
Milman’s goal is simple: to help parents, children, and schools see that children receive the guidance, education and services they need.
“Schools didn’t have measurable goals to begin with, so they were already in a bad place, and now we are in a pandemic,” Milman said. “There is so much more to be done. It starts with changing things for one family and that spreads. I came up through ranks as a teacher and worked for the state education department, so I have sympathy for the schools, but not nearly as much as I have for families.”
When the pandemic struck, Milman, like millions of Americans, wondered whether her business would survive. A former Lynn EMT, Milman thought she might have to reinstate her license in order to pay the bills. Instead, her business took off.
“I was in panic mode and afraid that I was going to be out of work, but the opposite happened,” Milman said. “I have had an amazing number of interesting cases, like schools saying they have to have meetings, kids who have landed in hospitals after 911 calls and nobody knowing where to place them.”
Milman has seen a big uptick in families seeking private residential schools for their children, many of whom lost critical services Milman said they need, not just to learn, but to live.
“Families say, ‘you haven’t met my child’s needs,’ find a place that can,” she said. “It’s tough enough for schools to admit they aren’t meeting needs, and you add in the cost of these programs and it’s a huge problem,” adding that some day programs for significantly compromised children can cost more than $120,000 a year.
Help may be on the way for beleaguered families.
On July 9, the state Department of Education (DESE) announced its Guidance on Fall 2020 Special Education Services.
“I was hopeful in that there were more ‘musts’ and ‘shalls’ in the language especially regarding the mandate that schools must engage with families and they must document how they are going to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE),” said Milman. “I don’t know how they are going to do it. I am hopeful that the message from leadership, that this is doable, but this is beyond what the schools have ever done before.”
Milman has a strong background in education. After receiving a BS in Education and Special Education at Northeastern University in 1991, she taught special education for 11 years in various schools, also serving as a school administrator. An DESE education specialist, she earned a JD at Suffolk University Law School in 2003.
Milman says she is blessed to have a job that can help make a difference, but is ever-vigilant.
“I’m out there and watching them and want them to know that people are watching, too,” she said. “Districts now know they can’t get away with things that don’t work.”
