Notre Dame Law grad pilots legal program for parents of children with disabilities

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 06:00 am

An occupational therapist turned lawyer is piloting a legal program, now midway through its first semester at Notre Dame Law School, to help children with disabilities receive the education they need. 

Veronica Webb helped launch the Special Education Law Clinic in November 2023 to enable parents of children with disabilities to maneuver the challenging legal realm of obtaining education for their children.

The clinic has a practical component, enabling it to offer free services, including legal aid, to parents of children with special needs. 

“Some cases are direct representation where we work directly with the families,” Webb told CNA. “In other cases, we’re doing consulting services, so we’re more behind the scenes, helping support the family as they work with the schools.” 

Webb says that special education “can be difficult for parents to navigate without legal support.”  

“The schools will deny certain services or disagree with what the parents think is appropriate for the child,” she said. 

Sometimes it’s a case of the school treating the diagnosis, not the child, Webb said.

“But we really have to look at what [a child’s] specific strengths and specific needs are to do him justice and support him in the most meaningful way to him specifically,” she explained. 

“We work really closely with their parents so that we really understand and get to know the child’s strengths and their needs,” she said. 

The clinic helps parents “to advocate for their child in a more effective and knowledgeable way,” Webb told CNA. “… All of these components and people kind of come together to support the child because the child is at the heart of everything that we’re doing.”

‘A desire in my heart’

Webb’s path to special education law began when she was young. 

“I have a cousin who has autism, and he and I had a very unique bond when we were growing up,” Webb recalled. 

Because of this, she decided to volunteer at her cousin’s summer camp.

“I found out through volunteering that I also had similar connections with other children with special needs,” she said. “And it really just kind of put a desire in my heart to serve them.”

Webb was interested in occupational therapy (OT) and law school “from a young age” but ultimately decided on OT because she “wanted to have a more hands-on impact with the children.” 

But after practicing in a sensory integration clinic in California for three years, she realized she wasn’t making “the impact … that I wanted to make.”

Webb would advocate for the kids as their therapist, attending meetings and trying to communicate their needs to the schools. But she lacked legal training.

“And so I went to law school,” Webb said. “I uprooted my life. I moved across the country.” 

She said the decision would have been hard to make without her faith guiding her. 

“I loved my occupational therapy job,” she recalled. “I was so happy there … But I felt such a strong desire for justice and just a strong calling that I had to respond,” she said. 

Shaped by faith  

Webb, one of six children, says that being Catholic has “shaped” her.

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“From a Catholic perspective, we’re called to serve those in need. We also have to protect them and do justice for them,” she said, adding: “I think being Catholic and very purposefully trying to discern God’s will for my life opened me to these experiences and undoubtedly led me to the work I’m doing now.”

Webb says she’s “very grateful to Notre Dame” and “the local community, who is inviting us into this very intimate, personal aspect of their lives.”

“It’s very humbling to be allowed to witness what is going on in their lives and serve them in this capacity,” she said of the families who work with them.

“I really am hopeful that we’re able to serve these families and provide justice and peace and support to their families and their children so that they don’t have to shoulder the burden alone anymore,” she continued.

Webb says that South Bend, Indiana — the city where Notre Dame is based — didn’t have the resources parents need for their children’s special education. 

“We saw a need in this area specifically, and it just made sense to fill it,” she said. “Especially at a Catholic university, where the mission of serving and supporting these families with special needs who are often marginalized and have a lot thrown at them — it so beautifully aligns with the Catholic Church’s mission and Our Lady’s university.”