Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, Professor Nadine Taub Scholar
Jennifer Rosen Valverde
Rutgers Law School
404A
S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice
123 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102
973-353-3181

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Clinical Professor of Law and Professor Nadine Taub Scholar, is the Legal Director of H.E.A.L. Collaborative, a joint project of the law school's Education and Health Law Clinic and Rutgers-NJ Medical Schools' Pediatric Primary Care Clinic. Professor Valverde educates graduate students in law, social work, medicine and public health to address the non-medical causes of poor health using an interprofessional, preventive law approach. This includes providing multi-tiered interventions ranging from social work case management services to direct legal representation and policy advocacy. Professor Valverde is an expert special education law; the intersection of poverty, health and law; and interdisciplinary education. She also has a Master Degree in Social Work and holds a dual appointment as Professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health.

  • Biography
  • Publications
  • Courses Taught
  • Expertise
Biography

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Esq., M.S.W., is a Clinical Professor of Law at Rutgers U. School of Law in the Education and Health Law Clinic, and Co-Founder/Legal Director of H.E.A.L. Collaborative® (Health, Education, Advocacy & Law), a medical-legal-social work partnership and joint project with Rutgers-N.J. Medical School’s Pediatric Primary Care Clinic. Professor Valverde co-teaches a course on Special Education Law, and supervises graduate students in law, social work, medicine and public health as they collaborate with each other, with families, and with the Greater Newark community to address the non-medical causes of poor health and well-being, i.e. social determinants of health. In H.E.A.L. Collaborative, Professor Valverde and her students provide assistance to families and the community in the areas of special education, public benefits, health insurance appeals, and more, through multi-tiered interventions following a preventive law approach. H.E.A.L.'s assistance and advocacy takes many forms, including social work referrals and case management; public benefits advocacy at the agency level; legal advice and consultation; direct legal representation, including litigation; and policy advocacy. 

 Professor Valverde has published numerous articles on special education law, cross-systems educational advocacy, social determinants of health, and interprofessional collaboration. She frequently provides training to attorneys, state agency staff, medical and health professionals, and social service organizations, and presents at local and national conferences on these and related topics. Before joining Rutgers in 2001, she represented children at the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian and the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. Professor Valverde received her B.A. in sociology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and is a magna cum laude graduate of the Loyola University–Chicago Schools of Law and Social Work.

Publications

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Jeffrey Backstrand, Laurie Hills & Hanan Tanuos (2019), Medical-Legal Partnership Impact on Parents' Perceived Stress: A Pilot Study, Behavioral Medicine, 45:1, 70-77, DOI: 10.1080/08964289.2018.1481011

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Preparing Tomorrow's Lawyers to Tackle 21st Century Health and Social Justice Issues, 95 Denver L. Rev. 539 (2018)

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, An Indefensible Idea: Eliminating Individualization from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 46 J. L. & Educ. 235 (2017)

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Statute of Limitations Decisions Cement Second-Class Remedial Scheme for Low-Income Children with Disabilities in the Third Circuit, 41 Fordham Urb. L. J. 599 (2014) (cited by the Third Circuit in G.L. v. Ligonier Valley Sch. Dist. Auth., 802 F.3d 601, 624 (3d Cir. 2015))

Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Hindsight is 20/20: Finding Teachable Moments in the Extraordinary and Applying them to the Ordinary, 20 Clin. L. Rev. 267 (Fall 2013).

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Integrating Educational Advocacy into Child Welfare Practice: Working Models, 20 Amer. U. J. Gender, Soc. Pol’y & L. 201 (2011) (symposium issue) (with Cara Chambers, Megan Blamble Dho & Regina Schaefer).

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Early Intervention Services, in SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCACY (Ruth Colker and Julie K. Waterstone, eds., Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., 2011).

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde and Randi Mandelbaum, Child Welfare and Special Education, in SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCACY (Ruth Colker and Julie K. Waterstone, eds., Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., 2011).

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?  How Perspective Determines Winning and Losing in a Special Education Clinic, in YOU CAN TELL IT TO THE JUDGE AND OTHER TRUE TALES OF LAW SCHOOL LAWYERING (Vandeplas Publishing, 2009).

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, A New IDEA for Improving the Education of Children with Disabilities in Foster Care:  Applying Social Work Principles to the Problem Definition Process, 26 Children’s L. Rights J. 14 (2006).

Courses Taught
  • ADV EDUC&HLTH CLINIC
  • ED&HEALTH LAW CLINIC
  • LAW & INEQUALITY
  • SPECIAL EDUC LAW SEM
  • Special Education Law Seminar
Expertise
  • Clinical Legal Education
  • Education Law
  • Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
  • Health Law
  • Poverty Law