With over 20 years of experience in school and public sector law, Laura Schulkind has developed an extensive background in the successful resolution of many employment and education-related issues and is experienced in all phases of school and employment law. Her areas of expertise include board governance and the Brown Act, student rights and discipline, certificated and classified evaluation and discipline, employee leave rights and the interactive process, contract grievance arbitration, harassment, employee investigations, education services for non-English speakers, employment and educational testing and accountability, school safety planning and hate crime prevention, OCR investigations, special education, desegregation, and designing lawful strategies to promote employment diversity. She is currently on the Board of Governors Title 5 Task Force, where she is assisting with revising the EEO and hiring regulations for community colleges.
Laura leads the firmwide practice regarding students with special needs--including the IDEA and state special education law, Section 504, and the proper use of general education services and "Response to Intervention" strategies to serve students within the general education program. Laura's expertise includes the proper designation of Section 504 eligibility and accommodations, serving students with diabetes, developing IEPs for students with autism, and the administration of medication at school. Under Laura's leadership, the Firm takes a highly collaborative approach to special education issues, looking for creative and cost-effective solutions that help forge lasting, positive relationships between educators and parents. Laura has successfully negotiated numerous resolutions that keep special education students in public schools.
Prior to joining Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, Laura was a partner at a Bay Area law firm that specializes in education and employment law. While there, she represented school districts and other public entities on a wide range of school law and employment issues. Among other things, she twice represented coalitions of school districts challenging aspects of the STAR testing program and has a particular interest in psychometrics and legal issues relating to testing.
A sought after presenter, Laura regularly conducts workshops for school districts, community college districts and professional organizations across the State in areas such as the Brown Act, conflicts of interest, harassment, best practices in management, certificated evaluation and discipline, school safety, employee leaves, student discipline, special education and EEO hiring. She is an Instructor at the University of California at Berkeley, School of Education, where she teaches education law in the Principal Leadership Institute and School Psychology Program. She also served as the legal member of the State Department of Education's hate crime prevention training team.