Welcoming Janine Solomon MAC's New Managing Attorney
Federal and state laws require schools to provide transition services for students with disabilities. The goal is to prepare them for life after high school, but historically, transition services have been loosely understood. Students with disabilities are frequently graduated without adequate skills. Then in 2008, in a ground breaking Massachusetts case, In Re Dracut Public Schools, a nineteen year old student with autism sued his school system for failing to provide adequate transition services. He won. The case set the standard for what schools must provide and ultimately resulted in a federal court decision that defined the scope of transition services under the IDEA. In the two administrative hearings that preceded the federal decision, the student’s lead attorney was Janine Solomon from the Disability Law Center in Boston.
MAC is pleased to announce Janine will be its new managing attorney. She will also be overseeing MAC’s Helpline and directing the Children’s Law Support Project which provides leadership through coalition building of the statewide legal aid system and coordination of a children’s agenda. She will continue MAC’s leadership role with the Education Law Task Force implementing the state’s school discipline laws and reforming the practices.
“I am grateful to do this work,” Janine says. “I am passionate about working with families on behalf of low-income children in Massachusetts.”
Janine brings a wealth of experience to MAC. She has spent eighteen years at the Disability Law Center (DLC) in Boston working first on discrimination law, and then later focusing in special education law. During her tenure at DLC she represented children in special education cases and represented adults with disabilities in court and administrative proceedings. She has also served as Of Counsel at the Boston law firm of Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, LLP (KCS), where she practiced in the area of Special Education & Disability Rights. She represented and advised parents in all aspects of special education, including at education Team meetings, mediations, and before the Bureau of Special Education Appeals (BSEA).
Janine has also testified on proposed amendments to the state special education law to enhance protection for students with autism, as well as to improve special education programs and to promote the successful transition of students with disabilities to post-secondary education, employment and independent living.
A graduate of Boston College Law School, Janine also holds a Master of Public Administration Degree from Columbia University. She is also the mother of a seventeen year old daughter with autism.
“We are very fortunate to have an attorney of Janine’s stature to assume this important role at MAC, and indeed for the whole legal aid community. She will join the senior staff and will become a leading voice for children in the Commonwealth”, says Jerry Mogul, executive director of MAC.
We are delighted to have Janine and warmly welcome her to the MAC family.