When Denise Dwyer presents “Basic Special Education Law and Updates on IDEA” (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) at the West Windsor-Plainsboro Special Kids Special Parents group on Wednesday, February 21, in the Plainsboro Municipal Building, she will be acting as a parent and an attorney, but also as an advocate for parents and their children.##M:[more]##
“When my older son, who is now in eighth grade, began to display learning differences in first grade, I found myself in the same position many other parents do, learning to navigate the special education system,” says Dwyer. “At first, we had to press just to have my son tested.”
The test results showed both learning disabilities and giftedness, but the school district would only deal with the disabilities despite the fact that the state had passed a law two years earlier requiring programming for gifted students. “Since research clearly shows that students who are twice-exceptional, i.e. are gifted and have learning disabilities and/or ADHD, are much more likely to drop out of school and engage in risky or anti-social behavior, I began lobbying for changes in the district,” she says. “By the time my younger son showed a similar learning profile to his brother, I knew just what to ask for and how to do it.”
Dwyer, who started Educational Advocacy of Central New Jersey, will give practical information about special education laws and advocacy within the special education system. A member of both New York and New Jersey bars, she combined her experience as well as research and advocacy skills to help other parents learn to navigate the special education process. Dwyer is also president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation — her term will end June 30.
“My company evolved from my own experience advocating for my two sons and researching the laws that govern special education and educating gifted students,” says Dwyer. “It just seemed like a natural progression to offer my services to other parents who could benefit from my experience. Often, parents know that something isn’t working for their child at school, but don’t know what, whom, or how to ask for help.”
“I can help families get their child properly evaluated and can assist in developing an individualized education plan that meets his or her unique needs,” she says. “This empowers parents to become effective team members in their child’s educational planning as the IDEA requires.”
Dwyer talks about the basics of the laws that apply to special education, as well as changes in those laws and regulations. Both the federal and New Jersey agencies revised their special education regulations last year to comply with changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004.
A trial lawyer, Dwyer began her career as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and continued on to civil trial work before moving to West Windsor after her second son was born in 1996. She was fortunate enough to be able to stay home with the boys, yet still kept her hand in by trying a case occasionally when former colleagues got backed up.
Dwyer also did much of her continuing legal education requirements in the area of special education taking several workshops and seminars and handling pro bono cases. She has worked cooperatively with the school district on issues relating to special and gifted education and was part of the Gifted and Talented Resource Committee started by a former assistant superintendent to bring gifted programming to all grade levels. That project has become the district’s Exceptionality Initiative that seeks to identify exceptionally able learners and provide appropriately challenging work for them.
She has also met with both current assistant superintendents and with the supervisor of special services to discuss parental concerns. Together with Karen Rosnick, the teacher of the gifted and talented program PRISM at Community Middle School, she started a parent group for parents of exceptionally able students, along the lines of Parent Connection, the group for parents of students classified for special education. The new group, called Parent Action Committee on Exceptionality, or PACE, has brought nationally known speakers in the area of gifted education to the district including most recently, Susan Baum, who spoke in January about the needs of twice exceptional students.
She learned, however, that many parents, although they need unbiased advice early in the special education process, are reluctant to consult an attorney for fear of seeming too adversarial,” she says. “Although Educational Advocacy of Central New Jersey is a consulting and advocacy firm and my goal is to help parents work cooperatively with a school district, if they cannot reach an agreement about their child’s educational program, as an attorney, I can provide legal representation under a separate law practice.”
Special Education Law, West Windsor-Plainsboro Special Kids Special Parents, Plainsboro Municipal Building, 609-799-8036. Wednesday, February 21, 7:30 p.m.
