ABOUT RESOLVED
BETTER FAMILY–SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS BEGIN WITH UNDERSTANDING.
ResolvED was built around a simple idea: schools cannot strengthen a relationship they cannot fully see.
Families and schools can care deeply about the same thing—the success and well-being of children—while experiencing the relationship very differently.
Some families struggle to participate in traditional school engagement. Others are highly involved but may hold different expectations about communication, support, responsibility, or how disagreement should be handled. In both cases, important information can get lost between families and the institutions serving their children.
ResolvED creates another way to listen, learn, and respond.
Drawing from backgrounds in family engagement, social work, mediation, education law, conflict resolution, and systems change, we build learning and insight systems that help families participate meaningfully while giving school leaders a clearer understanding of the communities they serve..
WHY WE BUILT RESOLVED
Throughout our work with families, children, educators, and school systems, we kept encountering the same problem: some of the most important information lives between the formal structures.
It is in the concern a parent doesn't know how to raise. The expectation an educator assumes is understood. The family that wants to participate but cannot attend another evening meeting. The disagreement that escalates because the people involved are operating from different understandings of what should happen next.
Schools collect enormous amounts of information. They hold meetings, conduct surveys, communicate with families, and respond to individual concerns. But those interactions don't always reveal the patterns shaping the broader family-school relationship.
We created ResolvED to help schools see those patterns—and respond to what they learn.
Our combined experience in family engagement, social work, mediation, education law, conflict resolution, and program design shapes an approach that does more than gather feedback. ResolvED creates opportunities for families to learn and reflect while giving schools structured insight into what families are experiencing, where barriers or misalignment exist, and what stronger partnership could look like.
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SANDRA RODRIGUEZ
Co-Founder of ResolvED
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Deborah Jacobson is a trained mediator, attorney, and systems-change advocate with more than 15 years of experience in high-impact litigation, civil rights, education, and special education law. Representing children throughout her career, she pioneered "relationship-based lawyering" — a practice that prioritizes empathy and trust-building over adversarial argument. Deborah completed the rigorous Mediation Training Program for the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, and is admitted to serve and is an active Member of the Court's Mediation Panel. Through Jacobson Resolutions, she built an ADR system from the ground up and now serves as an active daily mediator for the Oakland Unified School District, where she resolves disputes and transforms systemic conflict into sustainable agreements. Her process ensures every voice is heard while protecting the integrity of the outcome.
SANDRA RODRIGUEZ
Co-Founder of ResolvED
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Sandra Rodriguez is a clinician, social worker, program designer, and family-engagement practitioner whose work has centered on the relationship between families and the institutions that serve them.
Her experience working directly with children and families, educators, and community-based programs has shaped her understanding of the barriers families face, the dynamics that influence family-school relationships, and the importance of creating meaningful ways for families to participate and be heard.
Her experience working directly with children and families, educators, and community-based programs has shaped her understanding of the barriers families face, the dynamics that influence family-school relationships, and the importance of creating meaningful ways for families to participate and be heard.
Sandra brings a background in clinical social work, family engagement, conflict resolution, and program design to ResolvED. She leads the development of ResolvED’s Parent Learning Experiences, family-engagement systems, assessments, and insight reporting—turning what families experience into information schools can understand and act on.