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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

Laotian

Taiwanese

Malay

Bhutanese

Tigrigna

Toishanese

Moldavian

Oromiffa

Indonesian

Dholuo

Large-print materials

Marathi

Ukrainian

Mandarin

Somali

Bulgarian

Urdu

Tamil

Hmong

Greek

Gikuyu

Polish

Laomong

Japanese

Swahili

Kannada

Wolof

Spanish

Kurdi

Cantonese

Mongolian

Native American languages

Interpreter services

Braille

Hindi

Hakka

Karenni

Czech

Audio materials

Fijian

Waray

Telugu

Armenian

Vietnamese

Hawaiian

Serbian

Oromo

Eritrean

Xhosa

Bicol

Swedish

Pashto

French

Teochew

Farsi

Punjabi

Pangasinan

Gujarati

Serbo-Croatian

Arabic

Nepali

Afghan

Turkish

Dutch

Portuguese

Mien

Khmu

German

Lao

Tagalog

Cham

Amharic

Thai

Zomi

Bosnian

Cebuano

Burmese

Hungarian

Multi-lingual materials

Dari

Samoan

Croatian

Russian

Khmer

Italian

Hebrew

Fujianese

Marshallese

Cambodian

Mon

Tongan

American Sign Language

Filipino

Korean

Latvian

Romanian

Asian languages

Shanghainese

Savji

Sennheiser hearing assistance devices

Ilocano

Bengali

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