Judith Gross
Doctoral Student and Research Assistant
University of Kansas
1200 Sunnyside Ave., 3123 Haworth Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045-7601
Office Phone: (785) 864-7603
Fax: (785) 864-7605
Email: jgross@ku.edu
Bio: Judith worked for seven years as a special education teacher in Northwest Montana. While working, she completed her master's degree, which focused on instruction and curriculum for children with severe disabilities. After seeing the challenges that families faced when trying to access needed and appropriate services for their children, she decided to come to KU for her Ph.D. She is currently a fourth year special education doctoral student working in the area of family and disability policy.
Education:
B.A. MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL (Special Education, Minor in Mathematics)
M.Ed. Montana State University, Billings, MT (Interdisciplinary Studies: Instruction and Curriculum for Students with Severe Disabilities)
Interests: Current research projects
- Family and Disability Policy
- Participant Direction of Supports and Services Qualitative Study
- Early Childhood Success Stories
My research has primarily focused on how public policy affects individuals with disabilities and their families, specifically with regard to their access to available supports and services to meet their needs. For my dissertation I am conducting a qualitative study of participant direction, which is a service delivery model in which the consumer and/or family/surrogate decision-maker has choice and control over the selection and delivery of supports and services. Participant direction differs from traditional agency-based services in that the consumer and/or family/surrogate decision-maker may choose their services, identify their service providers, negotiate wages for providers, and have choice and control over the development of an individualized budget and the distribution of the allocated monies.
What brought me here
I came back to school after seeing the challenges that families faced when trying to find and obtain needed and appropriate services for their children. I never understood why it was so hard to obtain the services that they were entitled to. I always felt it was my job to advocate for the families and children that I worked with as they tried to navigate the education and social services system. This interest drew me to the Beach Center on Disability.