Engler Callaway Baasten & Sraga, LLC offers a dedicated team of lawyers with recognized experience representing public school districts and special education joint agreements throughout Illinois. Our long-standing knowledge of the education community’s policies, procedures, and practices allows us to thoroughly serve our clients’ needs within the context of an increasingly broad array of federal, State, and local laws and regulations that govern school districts and joint agreements.

We routinely provide counsel to our clients regarding a full range of education and employment law matters. Our school law practice areas include board policy and procedures; ethics and open meetings; freedom of information; labor and personnel, including personnel management and teacher and support staff discipline and dismissals; collective bargaining; special education and other student matters, including discipline, residency, records, and constitutional issues; architect and construction contracts; property acquisition and sale; and civil rights and other school-related litigation.

All of our attorneys are active members of multiple legal and educational professional organizations such as the American, Illinois, and Chicago Bar Associations, National and Illinois School Board Associations and Councils of School Attorneys, and the Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education. Our attorneys are frequently called upon to present on school law issues at local, state, and national seminars and conferences, as well as writing on school law topics for various publications.

We equip our clients with proactive guidance for risk management and to conserve fiscal and human resources consistent with each educational institution’s mission. This includes, but is not limited to, composing clear and consistent policies, procedures, forms, and handbook provisions to ensure compliance with applicable laws. We keep our clients updated on emerging issues in school law through periodic legal update bulletins, seminars, and in-service programs on breaking legal news; we also develop in-service programs that are tailored to clients’ specific concerns.