Jennifer Rosen Valverde
Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, and Professor Nadine Taub Scholar
Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Clinical Professor of Law and Professor Nadine Taub Scholar, has dedicated her career to working with children with disabilities and their families, particularly in the areas of special education, early intervention, and social determinants of health advocacy. In the law school's Education and Health Law Clinic, Professor Valverde has fostered interprofessional education and collaboration by teaching and supervising graduate students in law, social work, medicine, and public health as they engage with and provide assistance to families and the community to address the non-medical causes of poor health using a preventive law approach. Professor Valverde has expertise in special education law; the intersection of poverty, health and law; and interdisciplinary education. She has a Master Degree in Social Work and holds a dual appointment as Professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Biography
Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Esq., M.S.W., is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law in the Education and Health Law Clinic (EHLC) at Rutgers Law School, and holds a secondary appointment as Professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. Professor Valverde co-teaches a course on Special Education Law, and supervises graduate students in law, social work, public health and, at times, medicine, in the EHLC 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. Professor Valverde and her students provide assistance to children with disabilities and their families in the areas of special education, public benefits, and more, through multi-tiered interventions following a preventive law approach. The assistance and advocacy take many forms, including social work case management services; legal advice and consultation; direct legal representation in meetings with school districts and state agencies, mediation, the N.J. Office of Administrative Law, and the federal court system; and policy advocacy at the local and state levels.
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, A Panoramic IDEA: Cabining the Snapshot Rule in Special Education Disputes, 55 Ariz. St. L. J. 1445 (2023).
Barajas-Ochoa A, Mackie TI, Fofana B, Rosen Valverde JN (2023). On Legal Guardianship: An Exploratory Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Resident Physicians. Medical Teacher, 2023 Sep 18:1-7. DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2023.2256965.
Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Using Narrative Therapy to Re-Author the Dominant Law Student Narrative, Foster Professional Identity Development, and Rediscover Hope, 28 Clin. L. Rev. 329 (2021).
Traba C, Jain A, Pianucci K, Rosen Valverde J, Chen S. (2021). Down to the Last Dollar: Utilizing a Virtual Budgeting Exercise to Recognize Implicit Bias. MedEdPORTAL. 2021 Dec 6;17:11199. DOI: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11199.
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).