Home

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

Oromiffa

Cebuano

Samoan

Pashto

Fijian

Laomong

Somali

Polish

Ukrainian

American Sign Language

Greek

Urdu

Indonesian

Romanian

Large-print materials

Toishanese

Italian

Filipino

Marshallese

Fujianese

Khmu

Dutch

Amharic

Cham

Braille

Waray

Hawaiian

Karenni

Laotian

Wolof

Eritrean

Kurdi

Portuguese

Gujarati

Spanish

Hindi

Tongan

Oromo

Armenian

French

Pangasinan

Arabic

Native American languages

Marathi

Bengali

Afghan

German

Zomi

Burmese

Dholuo

Nepali

Teochew

Audio materials

Vietnamese

Malay

Taiwanese

Tagalog

Asian languages

Hmong

Bhutanese

Czech

Shanghainese

Mien

Swahili

Mongolian

Moldavian

Xhosa

Farsi

Telugu

Punjabi

Croatian

Hebrew

Turkish

Dari

Thai

Multi-lingual materials

Latvian

Serbian

Tigrigna

Serbo-Croatian

Tamil

Savji

Lao

Hungarian

Cambodian

Korean

Swedish

Mon

Gikuyu

Bicol

Hakka

Bosnian

Bulgarian

Khmer

Japanese

Ilocano

Sennheiser hearing assistance devices

Mandarin

Cantonese

Interpreter services

Russian

Kannada

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