Tanya A. Alvarado, Esquire

Tanya A. Alvarado is a shareholder with McAndrews Law Offices. She graduated from Cornell University in 1989 and from Boston University School of Law in 1992. She is admitted to practice before the bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

• Professional History

Ms. Alvarado was born in Ecuador, South America, emigrated to the United States at the age of four and is fluent in Spanish. Having two siblings with disabilities, Ms. Alvarado has dedicated her legal career to helping adults and children with disabilities. While at the Disabilities Law Project, Ms. Alvarado represented clients in federal court pursuing broad impact and individual litigation to secure the independence and successful integration of children and adults with disabilities in our communities. Her cases involved obtaining revisions to the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s employment policies that screened out applicants with disabilities, securing necessary overnight skilled nursing care services from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare for a parent whose child required frequent suctioning to avoid choking, obtaining a modification of a zoning policy to allow a ramp to be built at a home where the resident, a wheelchair user, could not leave independently, securing the removal of architectural barriers in Philadelphia to allow wheelchair users access to check cashing and public transportation sales facilities, obtaining policy modification of a national adoption agency that screened disabled applicants, and obtaining a modification of a preschool policy that prohibited a preschooler from moving to an age appropriate classroom due to her physical disability.

While working at McAndrews Law Offices, Ms. Alvarado continues to seek the successful integration and independence of children with special needs. Ms. Alvarado has represented numerous clients to obtain appropriate educational programs in the least restrictive environment, in an effort to enable them to become independent, contributing adults in their communities. Through representation in administrative due process hearings and in federal court, Ms. Alvarado has secured appropriate reading programming for students with significant reading disabilities, tuition at private schools designed for students with disabilities, payment for private evaluations to identify educational needs of the student, equine therapy, and successfully argued a federal court matter supporting the applicability of continuing violations to claims for compensatory education.

Since joining the practice with McAndrews Law Offices, Ms. Alvarado has thoroughly enjoyed representing children. She is continuously inspired by her clients’ ambition and desire to learn and by their many individual talents, including one client who is a three-time medalist in the swimming competitions of the Special Olympics.

• Professional Activities & Membership

Philadelphia Bar Association

Member, Legal Rights of Person with Disabilities, 2000–2005

Reach Out and Read, Advisory Board, 2006–Present

• Bar Admissions

Pennsylvania

• Practice Areas

Special Education Law

Civil Litigation