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Conflict Resolution offered by Office of the Education Ombuds

Helps resolve disputes, complaints and conflict between families and schools through facilitation.   Acts as a confidential, neutral third party not associated with the public school system.   Promotes school-family partnerships and provides information about the education system and referrals to education-related resources.   Helps parents concerned about a child being bullied at school.   Provides workshops and presentations and publishes materials designed to help families understand and navigate the K-12 education system.   Publications can be downloaded from the website or mailed.   Publications are translated into several languages.   The Education Ombudsman does not help with issues regarding:   -  Elected officials (such as school board members)   -  Private schools   -  Private organizations or businesses   -  Preschools, colleges and universities   Does not have the authority to force a school or school district to take a specific course of action and cannot discipline or terminate school or school district employees.   Does not provide legal advice or services.

Hours

M Th, 9:30am-5:30pm Tu W, 8am-6pm.

Application process

Call for information or to schedule an appointment with an ombudsman for consultation.   Visit the website for more information and free publications.

Eligibility

Parents, legal guardians, family members or students enrolled or eligible to be enrolled in the K-12 public school system in Washington state.

Fee

None.

Languages

Teochew

Eritrean

Dari

Multi-lingual materials

Serbian

Bicol

Kannada

Marshallese

Sennheiser hearing assistance devices

Lao

Dholuo

Swahili

Ilocano

Pangasinan

Karenni

Tamil

Punjabi

Dutch

Cambodian

Pashto

Laomong

Oromiffa

Greek

Polish

Farsi

Interpreter services

Tigrigna

Amharic

Mon

Croatian

French

Oromo

Khmu

Moldavian

Ukrainian

Hindi

Telugu

Tongan

Somali

Urdu

Native American languages

Kurdi

Serbo-Croatian

Savji

Swedish

Waray

American Sign Language

Toishanese

Gikuyu

Hmong

Arabic

Shanghainese

Braille

Taiwanese

Filipino

Afghan

Gujarati

Vietnamese

Khmer

Latvian

Hebrew

Czech

Samoan

Fujianese

Fijian

Portuguese

Japanese

Italian

Tagalog

Xhosa

Russian

Indonesian

Hawaiian

Wolof

Spanish

Bengali

Thai

Cham

Bulgarian

Hakka

Hungarian

Cantonese

Mandarin

Bosnian

Laotian

Turkish

German

Cebuano

Korean

Large-print materials

Audio materials

Armenian

Marathi

Bhutanese

Asian languages

Malay

Nepali

Burmese

Zomi

Mongolian

Romanian

Mien

Agency info

Office of the Education Ombuds

Listens to concerns and address questions about the K-12 public education system; Uses informal conflict resolution tools to support collaborative problem-solving and promote education justice; Provides coaching, facilitation, and training about family and community engagement and systems advocacy; Collects data and identifies trends to guide our education policy recommendations. OEO assists anyone with questions or concerns about Washington’s K-12 public schools by providing information, referrals, toolkits, and other resources. OEO’s legislative mission is to reduce opportunity gaps. OEO's strategic plan priorities concentrate on education justice, especially for communities most affected by COVID-19. OEO is focusing its limited conflict resolution resources, such as informal mediation and coaching, on K-12 students who are: • Out of school, including students with disabilities receiving partial school days • People of color, Black, or indigenous • Experiencing homelessness • In kinship or foster care • Involved with the juvenile justice or juvenile rehabilitation systems • Immigrant, refugee, asylee, or migrant, or students or families whose primary language(s) is not English, or • Receiving Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe) or Children’s Long Term Inpatient Programs (CLIP) supports