Jennie H. DunKley, Special Education Consultant & Advocate
Jennie DunKley (she/her/hers) has been a special education consultant and advocate for over 25 years representing hundreds of families, attending well over a thousand IEP meetings. A senior consultant trainer for the Federation for Children with Special Needs (FCSN), Massachusetts’s PTI, she also presents on numerous aspects of the special education process for all audiences – always promoting a steadfast focus on the “I” in every IEP.
A 2008 curriculum beta-test graduate of the original Special Education Advocacy Training (SEAT), Jennie has served as a co-instructor for The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA) SEAT 3.0 “The Business of Advocacy.” She is an active member with COPAA’s Government Relations, State & Local Advocates and Social Racial Equity Committees.
As a past, long-time member and Board member of Special Needs Advocacy Network, Inc. (SPaN), Jennie founded the School Fair, Same Side of the Table forum, and co-founded the Family Grant and IEP Clinic programs. She created and taught “Autism and the Law” for the Association for Autism and Neurodiversity’s (AANE) Massachusetts Professional Educator Autism Endorsement. In 2012, Jennie designed and coordinated the implementation of a transition program at the Ivy Street School.
Jennie is a past chair and a current representative on the Massachusetts Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP). She served on the SpedEx Advisory Committee, a pre-due process, collaborative Massachusetts dispute resolution option. She participated as a core stakeholder for Massachusetts Department of Education’s recent IEP Improvement Project.
Her latest work, Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol & the Special Education Process represents the culmination of insights gathered in her years as a special education consultant and from her prior career in crisis management, marketing and communications. This innovative approach to special education offers next-level strategies for understanding the whole child then building student-driven, multidisciplinary, inclusive and outcome-focused IEPs. “While we can't change IDEA from our seats at the IEP table, we can make the process more efficient, more effective, more successful – less adversarial and far less stressful.”
Jennie is a Special Education Surrogate Parent (SESP). Most importantly, she is an enormously proud parent of a TransitionED neurodiverse adult, her brilliant co-presenter for Collaborative Curiosity: The Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process, Sam DunKley.