Caroline A. Zuk
866-570-4173 (Toll Free)
Caroline A. Zuk is an accomplished special education attorney with over 25 years of experience in the fields of special education and the law. Her practice is dedicated to legal issues regarding the education of disabled students in California's public schools.
Ms. Zuk is uniquely qualified to help clients navigate the complex set of laws that govern a pupil's special education. She has conducted academic and psychoeducational assessments, written IEPs, designed intervention programs, analyzed hundreds of assessment reports and IEPs, trained parents and educators, and evaluated hundreds of cases regarding compliance with special education law. She developed and copyrighted a template entitled School Psychologists' Assessment Report, which incorporates legal and psychoeducational components for special education assessments.
Ms. Zuk started her educational career in British Columbia as a special education teacher. While continuing her teaching career in the United States, she earned a school psychology credential and was selected as the Outstanding Graduate, College of Education, California State University Long Beach. After earning her school psychology credential, she worked as a Diagnostic Educational Specialist at the California Department of Education's Diagnostic Center, Southern California, and attended Loyola Law School's evening program in Los Angeles. While there, she served as an Extern for the Western Law Center for Disability Rights. In 1998, Ms. Zuk graduated from law school in the top 5% of her class. Following law school, she worked as an associate at Paul, Hastings and at educational law firms before starting her own practice in 2003.
Her first-hand experience working within and on behalf of public schools provides her clients with a deep understanding of the inner workings of the IEP process. Ms. Zuk believes that no case is too big or small to receive caring, competent, intelligent, and thoughtful representation.
Areas of Practice
- Special Education Law
- Civil Rights
- Student Discipline
Bar Admissions
- California
- U.S. District Court Central District of California
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
Education
- Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California
- Juris Doctor (Cum Laude) - July, 1998
- California State University, Long Beach
- Major: Pupil Personnel Credential, School Psychology
- California State University, Long Beach
- Master of Science - 1991
- Major: Counseling
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- Bachelor of Education - May, 1984
- Major: Special Education
Honors and Awards
- Order of the Coif
- American Jurisprudence Awards: Civil Rights Litigation, Torts, Legal Writing
- First Honors Award - Evidence Seminar
- Sayre Macneil Scholar, Loyola Law School
- Faculty Academic Honors Scholarship, Loyola Law School
- Judge Barry Russell Federal Practice Award
- St. Thomas More Law Honor Society
- Outstanding Graduate, College of Education, CSULB
- Chi Sigma Iota (Counseling Honor Society)
- Kappa Delta Pi (Education Honor Society)
Professional Associations and Memberships
- American Bar Association
- American Psychology Association/American Psychology-Law Society
- Autism Society of America
- Council for Exceptional Children
- Learning Disabilities Association of America
- Association of Educational Therapists
- International Dyslexia Association
- Sara Jane Brain Foundation
