Betsy
Combier
ADVOCATZ’ President and paralegal Betsy Combier started in 2003 to examine, investigate and report on tenure rights, teacher discipline and evaluation, as well as the “Rubber Rooms” in New York City. She now has completed more than 70 arbitration cases and is considered an “expert” in the so-called “teacher trials, or 3020-a arbitration hearing process as well as in using the underlying laws which supposedly apply to the discipline process for tenured employees. In 2018 she won a case in the NY State Supreme Court which highlighted the denial of due process rights for teachers charged with incompetency and/or misconduct and has won acclaim for her successful efforts to bring change to the due process hearings in New York City.
She has worked with members of the AFL-CIO, United Federation of Teachers and Local 32 B&J for 17 years, and was the Special Representative handling all 8 of the New York City original Rubber Rooms for the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), 2007-2010.
Betsy is also President/Director of Theater Kids, Inc.; and President of The E-Accountability Foundation, a 501(C) 3 not-for-profit company which funds exposure of public corruption, fraud and misconduct.
As an advocate for due process, Betsy has successfully assisted parents, children, and caregivers with the educational needs of their children in Impartial Hearings, and has won several cases in the New York State Supreme Court and Appellate Division First Department. She moved to Cairo, Egypt, in 1979, where she worked with major network TV News organizations and the American University of Cairo. She designed and implemented a project using solar-powered video technology in the Nile Delta area to establish participatory local management of rural development projects. Betsy's dad P. Hodges Combier was the Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York for 30 years, working with Louis Lefkowitz.
She is a graduate of NYU, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern University, and is listed in more than 20 Who’s Who books. In 2015 Betsy received a Certificate in Dispute Resolution - Arbitration, Mediation, and Negotiation - from New York University. She edits the following websites and blogs:
Advocatz.com
NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Parentadvocates.org
Inside 3020-a Teachers' Trials
National Public Voice
NYC Public Voice
Courtbeat-New York Court Corruption