ABOUT EXCEPTIONAL ADVOCACY

Exceptional Advocacy started with a simple premise: Empower parents to secure an appropriate education for their child with a disability to ensure the best possible outcome. 

Our goal is not only to lead parents through the overwhelming and confusing maze of special education but to teach them how to maintain the foundation we build together. This same idea still drives us today, some 20 years later. The track record we've accumulated over the years speaks to our commitment to disabled students, their families, and the community at large. 

We'd love to meet with you for a free consultation on how we can map out a plan that's tailored to ensuring your child receives the educational, behavioral, social and emotional services they are entitled to. 

We can meet all your special education advocacy needs.  

Judy is a highly skilled non-attorney advocate and educational consultant with more than 20 years of experience serving families in Illinois. Her career has focused on educating parents about the rights of their disabled children and advocating for those rights in the schools.  She is a trained mediator through the Center for Conflict Resolution, has consulted for the Illinois State Board of Education on issues related to special education, a long-time board member of the Learning Disabilities Association and formed the Illinois Parent Education & Resource Center, a non-profit organization providing advocacy and training for parents of disabled students.  Her strong negotiating skills and calm demeanor bring about results-oriented IEPs and programming for her clients while protecting the fragile but vital school-family relationship. 

In addition to completing hundreds of hours of special education training and professional development through Wrightslaw and other organizations, she is a SEAT graduate of the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA). SEAT  is the most intensive training of its kind, and the only field tested program created under an independent national review advisory board.