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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.

Physical Address

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.

Fee

None.

Eligibility

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

Languages

Ukrainian

Somali

Cham

Marshallese

Pashto

Cantonese

Croatian

Hmong

Bengali

Armenian

Large-print materials

Hawaiian

Gikuyu

American Sign Language

Eritrean

Asian languages

German

Indonesian

Bulgarian

Marathi

Kannada

Dari

Hindi

Malay

Khmu

Tigrigna

Arabic

Karenni

Moldavian

Gujarati

Braille

Afghan

Pangasinan

Hungarian

Hebrew

Swahili

Bosnian

Mon

Fujianese

Oromiffa

Serbo-Croatian

Oromo

Toishanese

Mien

Vietnamese

Dholuo

Bhutanese

Amharic

Japanese

Taiwanese

Portuguese

Romanian

Thai

Teochew

Cebuano

Spanish

Ilocano

Punjabi

Serbian

Shanghainese

Korean

Polish

Waray

Tongan

Interpreter services

Filipino

Swedish

Latvian

Hakka

Multi-lingual materials

Farsi

Native American languages

Samoan

Savji

Mandarin

French

Italian

Tamil

Turkish

Wolof

Laomong

Khmer

Telugu

Laotian

Kurdi

Lao

Nepali

Urdu

Xhosa

Zomi

Sennheiser hearing assistance devices

Bicol

Russian

Greek

Tagalog

Dutch

Mongolian

Fijian

Cambodian

Audio materials

Czech

Burmese

Service area

WA

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