Jill Pearns, parent advocate, has participated in improving educational programs for children and youth with disabilities across Arizona for more than 20 years. As a parent of three boys, including a son with Down syndrome, Jill understands that being a parent is a wonderful but challenging job.

For  the past several years Jill had been providing special education and 504 support to families and professional across the state of Arizona as  a Family Support Specialist for Arizona’s  Parent Training and Information Center(PTI) , a program funded by the US Department of Education. In this role Jill was involved with assisting over 10,000 families annually. In addition Jill has worked and continues to work with colleges and universities presenting information about special education to pre-service teachers. Recently she partnered with ASU in preparing a state wide conference “Mentoring Special Education Teachers”.

As an expert in promoting effective as well as positive team collaboration, Jill continues to focus on helping students succeed in reaching their full potential by partnering with school teams to develop strength-based IEP’s that include effective programming as well as establish challenging expectations and goals. Today her work includes providing individual consultations and advocacy services for families who have children with special needs as well as presenting workshops on special education to professionals and various disability support groups.

Jill enjoys being the catalyst to make things happen. Her areas of involvement and accomplishment in the special education arena include the following endeavors:

·         Member of COPAA, Council of Parents Advocates and Attorneys, Nationwide professional organization for non district special education attorneys and advocates.

·         Family Support Specialist in Education and Training, Raising Special Kids (PTI)

·         Served as a committee member for a Support Cadre that developed and promoted diversified learning in middle school.

·         Committee member for the hiring of Assistant Superintendents, Principals and Teachers.

·         Developed a recreational basketball team which "buddied" children with special needs with typical children.

·         Paved the path for inclusion in a Phoenix area school district.

·         Established parent support groups for children with disabilities in multiple school districts.

·         Was a driving force in systematic change in a high school special education program.

·         Presented at a National Conference of Speech Therapists for Southwest Human Development (SWHD) in delivering a parents' perspective of best practices for therapists working with families.

·         Train the Trainer for SWHD - Trained DDD care coordinators on best practices in working with diverse families who are raising a child with a disability.

·         Presenter at the International Early Intervention Convention for SWHD - best practices for professionals interacting with families who have children with disabilities.

·         A team member that designed, located and raised funds for a new site that provided early intervention and therapy services for infants and toddlers with special needs.

·         Raising Special Kids parent-to-parent support volunteer to parents of children with Down syndrome.

·         Raising Special Kids Board member for three years.