Representing
Professionals in Education
Law Matters
At the law firm of Whitted Takiff LLC, we have decades of experience in education law matters.
Committed to Professionals
At the law firm of Whitted Takiff LLC, we have decades of experience in education law matters. We are available to provide representation to all professionals who handle issues related to schools and children, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors and others. Our attorneys represent professionals the greater Chicago area, Cook County, DuPage County, and the other collar counties, and throughout northern Illinois.
We are very knowledgeable about school, disability and mental health confidentiality laws, professional and fiduciary responsibility, and a wide variety of other issues of interest to professionals.
Our team of experienced lawyers includes a board president of an education corporation; a former school board member; former special education and elementary teachers; current and former law professors; a professor of psychiatry; a former juvenile court probation officer; a former attorney for the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian; former public defenders; a former judge; and a number of board members and directors of educational, youth, disability, and mental health advocacy groups.
We are very knowledgeable about school, disability and mental health confidentiality laws, professional and fiduciary responsibility, union organization and collective bargaining, and a wide variety of other issues of interest to professionals.
Practice Areas for Professionals
- IDFPR Complaints
- Breaking confidentiality
- Breach of duty to warn
- Mental Health and Confidentiality Law
- Contractual Issues and Education-Related Labor Disputes
- Civil and Criminal Litigation
The state agency, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, has the legislative mandate of both licensing and disciplining members of many professions represented in Illinois. These professions include social workers, psychologists, licensed clinical counselors and speech-language pathologists. The firm of Whitted Takiff LLC has substantial experience in representing these professionals in defense of their licenses in response to complaints filed against them with the IDFPR.
The Illinois School Student Records Act and the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act require school records confidentiality. This applies to all education records, including educational assessments, disciplinary records, mental health records, counseling notes, and psychiatric evaluations. If you feel your child’s school records confidentiality has been breached or that the record contains incorrect or inappropriate information, we can help.
The Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act (âMHDDCAâ), 740 ILCS 110/1 et seq., provides protection for communications between mental health practitioners and their patients. Pursuant to the MHDDCA, no disclosures of confidential information may be made to anyone without the express written permission of the patient except in a few, very specific, exceptions. One of those exceptions is the duty to warn.
WTH staff is extremely knowledgeable regarding federal and state mental health laws and has experience representing professionals in all areas of mental health and confidentiality laws.
Mental health professionals provide a valuable public service, which involves not only being able to navigate both the research-based worlds of therapy and education, but also the daily business-oriented tasks which can sometimes become overwhelming and extraordinarily time-consuming. Your own financial well-being must be protected as well. WTH has experience with a myriad of issues relating to how mental health and education services are provided, and is well-versed in the issues surrounding employment contracts and partnership agreements related to the employment of mental health professionals. We can represent you when these disputes occur, and can provide advise and consultation in order to prevent these disputes from occurring again.
WTH offers years of experience in the civil and criminal litigation arena, and our representation of professionals in the state and federal courts encompasses various areas, including contract disputes, arbitration issues, administrative hearing appeals, as well as to the areas of school, special education and mental health laws. While the firm prides itself on working to resolve disputes without litigation, we have the experience and knowledge to represent you in both civil and criminal law matters that are related to education and mental health issues.