Monica Drvota
Monica Drvota began her career in special education working at the Center for Special Needs Population providing technical assistance to State Departments of Education. Monica then went to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Office for Exceptional Children where she worked in the Dispute Resolution Section for over 18 years.
During her tenure with the Dispute Resolution section, Monica was the Complaint Coordinator and then Due Process Coordinator for the State of Ohio before becoming the Assistant Director of the Dispute Resolution section. As the Assistant Director of Dispute Resolution, Monica supervised staff responsible for managing complaints filed by families and advocacy organizations. This team led the development and redesign of early dispute resolution, mediation, facilitation, due process, and formal complaint processes for the State of Ohio.
These efforts facilitated equitable access to special education programs and services for all families of children with special needs. In the last few years with the Department of Education and Workforce, Office for Exceptional Children, Monica was the Associate Director who oversaw the Dispute Resolution, Supports and Monitoring and Urban Support sections.
In addition, Monica coordinated the State’s Advisory Panel for Exceptional Children, helping to build a trusting partnership between the Advisory Panel and the State Department. Additionally, Monica helped to design, implement, and supervised the State 5-year rule revision process for 16 regulations including the Operating Standards for the Education of Children with Disabilities, Developmental Delay rules and the Positive Behavior and Intervention and Restraint and Seclusion rule. The rule revision process which was developed included facilitated equitable inclusion of diverse stakeholder groups statewide.
Currently, Monica is the Operations Director with the University of Cincinnati Systems Development & Improvement (SDI) Center which is an applied research center within the University of Cincinnati that works to improve conditions and outcomes for students with disabilities and other marginalized groups of learners. The SDI Center fosters the development, implementation, and evaluation of education research and dissemination efforts that improve opportunities to learn for children and youth, their families and the professionals who support them. At the core of the SDI Center’s activities is a commitment to advocacy on behalf of all children with a focus on improving conditions and outcomes for students with disabilities and other marginalized groups of learners. As part of her work for the Systems Development & Improvement Center, Monica is responsible for leading partnership development efforts in the area of special education, technical assistance and managing national partnership efforts including activities related to research, program development and evaluation.
At the heart of Monica’s work is her passion for bringing families and districts together to form a partnership to help enhance the lives of special education students and other marginalized learners.