Miriam Freedman has been an attorney at Stoneman, Chandler and Miller LLP since 1988, representing public schools in special education, Section 504 and school law. She is currently of counsel. She was a Massachusetts hearing officer for eight years and a public school teacher in California, New Jersey, and New York before that. 

An avid public schools supporter, she works with people who want better public schools, helps educators to meet legal requirements to prevent lawsuits and get back to the mission of educating ALL students, and promotes special education reform. She is a co-founder of Special Education Day and the Special Education Day Committee (SPEDCO) to honor special education’s achievements and spur reform. These reform efforts (including SpedEx, an alternate dispute resolution model currently offered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education), were recognized in 2007 and 2004 by the Pioneer Institute in their Better Government Competition.

Ms. Freedman has authored six books in the education and law fields—most recently, Fixing Special Education—12 Steps to Transform a Broken System. Her articles have appeared in Education Next, Hoover Digest, Education Week and on the web at Education News.com. Forthcoming articles will appear at The Atlantic.com, and the University of Chicago Law Review on line. Ms. Freedman blogs at www.schoollawpro.com.

Ms. Freedman is a member of the National Speakers Association (former board member, New England chapter), the Massachusetts Bar Association, and SPEDCO.

Ms. Freedman received her law degree from New York University, masters in history from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and bachelor of arts from Barnard College. Since 2004, she has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University for several months per year.