Jessica Lawrence is a veteran special education teacher who holds a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education and a National Board Certification as an Exceptional Needs Specialist. She is presently enrolled as a doctoral student in Cognitive Diversity at Bridges Graduate School. Each year in her special education teaching career directed her further toward supporting the students who “fell between the cracks:” who were capable of grade-level or above-grade-level academic work, but who struggled in the general education classroom due to sensory, social-emotional, or behavioral needs. She has delivered presentations to parents and educators about autism, sensory processing differences, movement in the classroom, and social-emotional needs.
Jessica educated herself in the characteristics, parenting challenges, and educational opportunities for gifted and twice exceptional children out of necessity while raising and homeschooling her 2e daughter. Through this, she has also recognized her own twice-exceptionality. She has served as a Parent Education Coordinator for local parent-teacher organizations and also regularly provides informal supports to parents of gifted and 2e learners in the greater Seattle area.
Jessica has taught preschool and Kindergarten special education in self-contained, blended, and inclusive settings in public school districts in Washington and Wisconsin. During these experiences, she also taught autism-focused programs in three districts, which included designing and teaching an extended day program for preschool students with autism in one district and an integrated Kindergarten model in another. Each year of teaching, she has been responsible for training, supervising, and evaluating paraeducators and collaborating with therapists and families. In 2013, she was nominated by a family of a student as Teacher of the Year for the Longview/Kelso Chamber of Commerce.
In her district in Wisconsin, Jessica spearheaded a grant process to form a Preschool Options Committee (a collaboration among school and community early childhood professionals) to investigate options for supporting young children with special needs in natural environments. In Longview, she represented the school district as a member of the Longview Early Education Partnership, a coalition of early childhood educators dedicated to improving the quality of local preschool programming. She has presented workshops to audiences including parents, general education teachers, paraprofessionals, church groups, and community daycare and preschool providers.
As a consultant, Jessica has worked with schools (both private and public) and families to ensure appropriate educational programming for students demonstrating social learning differences. In 2015, she joined Tacoma Outdoor Ability Development (TOAD) School, an all-outdoor parent-child early education program, as an assistant teacher. In 2016, she completed Level II Forest Kindergarten Teacher Training at Cedarsong Nature School.
Jessica is committed to the idea that every child should be able to participate in any setting that interests them, and that their strengths and neurodiversities should be valued and embraced. All kids in all places.