About JDK Communications: Special Education Consulting
Special Education Consulting, Advocacy & Training
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Jennie provides a comprehensive multi-disciplinary Team approach to address the whole child's educational needs -- academic, social, emotional and adaptive functioning. We work collaboratively with families, students, related service providers, and districts to create a comprehensive programs to meet the unique needs of each child and each classroom.
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Whenever we perceive something as inaccurate, unexpected, or unjust, we get stuck. We freeze, flee, or fight – sometimes a little, other times, a lot. Learn how to help prevent that first sign of uncertainty from becoming a problem that needs solving. Being stuck is not a problem; it’s an opportunity. It’s an in-the-moment chance to resolve our initial perception and prevent a glitch from growing into a cycle of bigger and bigger problems – a practice for addressing stress before it becomes distress.
This transformative approach to inclusion empowers child-first, whole-school, whole-team collaboration. Collaborative Curiosity pushes beyond the WHY we need inclusive learning environments and proactive management tools and provides a novel, no-cost functional practice for HOW TO make inclusion less stressful and more seamless.
K-12+ educators, administrators, support staff, related service providers, parents and students will learn how to: respond to a raised eyebrow; think about maladaptive behavior as ineffective communication; reduce the need for discipline; increase the effectiveness of evidence-based methodologies; translate the foreign language of evaluations; and combine information to create holistic and integrated IEPs that maximize independent generalization.
The most important take away from this curriculum is for schools, families and students to expand from a trauma-sensitive mindset to a neuroceptive-responsive practice. You will learn novel approaches for:
- understanding the interconnected functions of cognitive domains, executive functioning, and sensory integration processing;
- how to apply the Unstuck Protocol, a practice for preventing escalation and empowering meaningful inclusion; and
- a reimagined approach to student-first IEP development and implementation.
Rethink "Time Out" Implementation Maximize Meaningful Inclusion
Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol and the Special Education Process
Rethink "Time Out" Implementation Maximize Meaningful Inclusion
The best way to prevent “time-out” is to not have a reason to consider it.
If all you have is a hammer, you need to build a bigger toolbox. The concerning aspect of the new regs and DESE Guidance is the myopic, backwards, unimplementable approach.
Jennie H. DunKley, Special Ed Consultant & Advocate
Jennie DunKley (she/her/hers) has been a special education consultant and advocate for over 26 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, Social Racial Equity and Conference 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.