Ms. April Kelly Neal

Neal Student Support Advocacy & Disability

A Kelly Neal, Esq. is 56 years old and she was raised in Wrightsville, Georgia, but now calls Macon, Georgia, her home. 

As for her personal life, Ms. Neal enjoys exercising, hanging out at dog parks and cruising to new places around the world. She has a son with autism that is a 22 year old college student majoring in homeland security, and he is a member of the Georgia National Guard. Ms. Neal also has an 18 year old daughter with dyslexia that will be graduating from high school this year with hopes of starting a dog grooming business.

Ms. Neal graduated high school from Johnson County, Georgia in 1985 and she has a degree in business administration. She is a proud 2005 graduate of John Marshall Law School in Atlanta where she attended school at night while working full-time with the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings Operations. Ms. Neal continues to take nealy all of her continuing legal education in education related law and is a 2018 graduate of the William and Mary Law School’s Instute of Special Education Advocacy. She has participated in the Pacific Northwest Instutite of Special Education Law as well as the Special Education Symposium at Leigh University. She has a 20 year career with the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings Operations and she will be retiring in January 2024 to launch her own law firm handling disability and education cases.

Ms. Neal found her passion for eduction law after her son’s diagnosis of autism and later her daughter’s diagnosis of dyslexia. Her children were not getting the appropriate supports, accommodations, and services they needed to succeed academically. Ms. Neal knew things had to change when the only qualified attorneys she found in the area of education law represented school systems and not parents or students. 

Ms. Neal is a member of the Georgia Bar’s Advocates for Students with Disabilities Committee, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), and GeorgiaCAN. She has hosted the Wrightslaw Special Education Law & Advocacy Conference in Georgia three times and volunteers with Georgia Legal Services Program representing students in education matters. Ms. Neal’s mission is to inform the public of their rights as it relates to education in Georgia so that public educaiton is better for everyone.