When Nicole Farrow began working as a special education teacher two decades ago, she brought care and commitment to her students. They were learning, and their families seemed satisfied. What she lacked was formal preparation for the role — and a clear understanding of how special education law and policy should shape her classroom.
“Over the years I really came to understand what strong special education practice required, but when I first started in teaching, I felt like I was operating the ship with no direction.” Farrow said. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”
That changed when Farrow moved into school administration and became a special education coordinator. Compliance reports, audits and district-level meetings introduced requirements she had never been taught: how individualized education programs should be written, how services and accommodations should be delivered, and why timelines matter.
“The more I learned, the more I realized how much policy affects our ability to deliver effective instruction,” she said. “Not knowing these things is not okay. It isn’t just paperwork. Not doing it right means that, in real time, children aren’t getting what they need.”
The realization is part of what inspired Farrow to pursue a doctorate in special education and gave her work a lasting direction. Today, as a faculty member in the University of the District of Columbia’s School of Education and Learning Sciences, she works at the intersection of special education policy, educator preparation and practice, helping future educators bridge the divide between what policy promises and what students experience.
Moving Beyond the Paperwork
Farrow still calls herself a practitioner. After two decades in special education, her teaching at UDC remains grounded in what educators face in schools.
She teaches practicum and field-experience courses for education majors, along with special education courses. Many of her students are working adults who spend their days in schools as dedicated aides, paraprofessionals or instructional aides. They arrive with questions from their classrooms and a desire to ensure their work complies with the law while meeting each child’s needs.
Farrow serves as both instructor and thought partner. Together, they examine what is happening, what the law requires and what effective support should look like. The goal is not simply to produce technically correct documents, but to make them matter.
“As I tell my students, I see the IEP as a living document,” she said. “It may have all the right boxes checked. It may be beautiful paperwork. But if we can’t make it live in the classroom, what is the point?”
That effort is at the heart of her work: turning legal requirements, services, goals and accommodations into meaningful instruction. Even a well-designed IEP cannot help if a teacher does not know how to implement it amid the competing needs of a classroom.
“An IEP can say one thing, but how does a teacher carry it out effectively in a classroom of 25 children?” Farrow said. “Even in a small classroom, it can be a challenge for a young teacher to ensure that each student gets what they need. My goal is to help them navigate that challenge.”
Challenging Assumptions About Learning Differences
Farrow’s research examines what happens when educators fail to recognize how disability presents differently among students. Her doctoral research focused on autism and gender, including teachers’ perceptions and the ways autistic girls may be misdiagnosed or identified later than boys on average.
During her years as a high school special educator, Farrow saw girls referred for evaluation as late as 11th grade, sometimes after escalating social demands had made it difficult for them to remain in school.
“I would think, ‘How did she get to 11th grade with no one seeing the underlying issues?’” she recalled. “The signs were there all along, but they were overlooked because the student was quiet, ‘a little quirky,’ reserved or compliant.”
Those experiences have made Farrow vigilant about the assumptions educators bring into the classroom. Instruction has too often been designed around a narrow idea of how students should learn, behave or communicate, she said. Those who fall outside that model may be viewed as the problem rather than as learners whose needs have not been understood.
“You’re not teaching a set of robots,” Farrow said. “Every person comes in with their own experiences, strengths and challenges. We have to meet students where they are.”
Building a Wider Lens on Learning Differences
UDC’s special education minor extends that preparation beyond those who plan to become special education teachers. Open to any major, it is designed for students whose careers may intersect with people with disabilities and their families, including future teachers, counselors, speech-language professionals and social workers.
“The minor creates space to build an understanding of how the brain works and how we all learn and access information differently,” Farrow said. “It might be a disability, a learning difference or simply the way someone engages and shows up. The point is to broaden that lens and understand how to be effective in whatever your practice is.”
That broader lens matters because disability does not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. Missed diagnoses and inadequate or nonexistent supports can affect people throughout their lives.
Farrow wants students to understand both the mechanics and the moral stakes of the work. Her courses begin with why it matters and how it connects to students’ lives and communities.
“I’m not going to tell you only how to do it,” she said. “I’m going to tell you why, and make it personal so there is investment. This is service. You are serving your community, and you have an impact on a child’s entire life trajectory — make it a good one.”
Preparing Teachers as Advocates
For Farrow, special education is inseparable from civil rights. Protections for students with disabilities and investments in special education emerged through disability-rights advocacy alongside the broader civil rights movement. The system has improved, but it still has far to go to ensure that all students can learn alongside their peers.
“Right now, we’re bandaging and trying to figure it out as we go,” she said. “But in many ways, it would be effective to dismantle, rethink and rebuild school systems from the ground up.”
Part of that rebuilding must begin inside schools, Farrow believes, with educators who understand the law, possess a deeper instructional tool kit and see themselves as advocates as well as teachers.
“I often tell my students: You are not just teachers; you are advocates,” she said. “Parents aren’t sitting in the classroom six hours a day with their children. You have to be the voice on behalf of their children. You have to have that same level of passion and commitment.”
She is equally candid about the demands of the profession. Teaching can be emotionally taxing, particularly for educators who enter the classroom determined to make a difference but unprepared for the complexity of students’ lives and needs. Strong preparation must therefore be paired with meaningful support once teachers enter the profession.
“You’re not just teaching that room full of students,” Farrow said. “You’re giving access to parents, families and the community surrounding the school. We have to do a better job of preparing people and supporting them once they enter these roles.”
Extending the Work Beyond K Through 12
Farrow is extending her research and teaching into higher education, examining how faculty practice and institutional systems can better support students with disabilities. She encounters college students who remind her of those she taught in high school: students managing anxiety, attention differences or other disabilities while worrying that professors will misunderstand or judge them for requesting accommodations.
The legal and support structure changes after high school. College students may choose not to disclose a disability or request accommodations, even when they previously received special education or counseling services. Farrow wants to explore how colleges can help faculty understand and respond to those students.
“I see the anxiety and the fear of not being understood,” she said. “How do I extend the same skill set I’m pouring into pre-service educators to faculty and to the systems within higher education institutions like ours? We have to be responsive to the need.”
Across her work, one question remains: Are educational systems providing meaningful access, or merely documenting that they tried?
“Education, and quality education, is a right,” Farrow said. “Every person should have the opportunity to learn, navigate and exist successfully in society. It starts at home, and schools have to be partners in that work.”
Learn more about UDC's Early Childhood Policy Certificate program.