I'm Paul Hartung — a K–12 special education case manager and team lead in Chicago's northwest suburbs, the parent of two children who receive special education services, and the founder of Clear Educational Advocacy and Consulting.

I've spent more than twenty years on the school-staff side of the IEP table: managing complex caseloads, facilitating hundreds of meetings, and building the systems that make the process work. I've also sat in the parent chair — requesting evaluations for my own kids, preparing for the hard conversations, and learning what families actually need to walk in ready.

Everything in this shop comes out of that experience. The resources here are built for the three groups who carry the IEP process: school teams and district administrators, special education case managers, and parents working to understand and shape their child's plan. All of it is written in plain language and grounded in real Illinois practice — the deadlines, the forms, the meetings as they actually run.

My work is built on a single premise: when the process is clear, students win.

Learn more at cleareducationaladvocacy.com

B.S. Special Education, Illinois State University · M.S. Curriculum & Instruction, American College of Education · Director of Special Education Endorsement, National Louis University