Jennifer Nestle

Jennifer is a founding partner of Batchis & Nestle.  She has practiced exclusively in special education for more than 15 years and brings her detailed and nuanced understanding of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or RA as well as the programs and systems through which school districts deliver special education services to each representation.  She represents students from early intervention until age 22.  Clients routinely commend Jennifer for her calm, compassionate approach to resolving programming and placement issues through the collaborative process codified under the IDEA.
 

Jennifer began practicing special education law as Associate General Counsel at The School District of Philadelphia, where she represented the District in IEP meetings, pre-hearing conferences, disciplinary hearings, due process hearings, federal proceedings and federal and state investigations.  Jennifer also worked closely with school administrators and educators on compliance with special education laws and regulations and presented professional development training sessions to principals, psychologists, and special education liaisons.  Jennifer’s experience allows her to bring unique insights on the thought process of the District and other districts in the 5-county region to each of her clients. 

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Jennifer has continued to represent families in the cooperative process of obtaining appropriate programming and placement for their children including through the IEP process and informal meetings and is highly skilled at obtaining programming to meet each student’s unique needs.  In those few cases where the collaborative process fails to provide appropriate programming, Jennifer applies her decades of experience with the IDEA’s dispute resolution process including through Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Dispute Resolution’s (ODR) procedures and successfully uses mediation, hearing officer settlement conferences, discipline hearings and manifestation determinations, due process hearings, and judicial review in federal court to obtain tuition reimbursement, compensatory education and  appropriate programming and placement for her clients who are eligible for special education under each of the IDEA disability categories, including Autism, Deaf-blindness, Deafness, hearing disability, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, speech/language impairment, Other Health Impairment, Emotional Disturbance, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and specific learning disability.

Through the administrative process, Jennifer also obtains independent educational evaluations and related services, including speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy. 

Jennifer has also been successful in maintaining students’ placements through manifestation determinations and disciplinary proceedings.

Most recently, Jennifer obtained compensatory education for a student with autism and an intellectual disability for the time that in-person education was unavailable for the student following the initial COVID-19 shuttering of schools in March 2020.  A.D. v. Upper Merion Area School District, No. 21-5468 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 28, 2022).

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Jennifer began in private practice at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP in Philadelphia where she represented national and regional companies in complex civil litigation and federal and state appeals.   At Schnader, she represented an approved private school as well as prisoners seeking habeas corpus relief pro bono. 

Jennifer earned her B.S. from Cornell University.

Upon graduation from the University of Minnesota Law School, cum laude, Jennifer clerked for two years for the Honorable Myron H. Bright of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  During her tenure, Judge Bright also sat by designation in other circuits including the Third Circuit and Jennifer gained insight into the unique workings of each of those circuits.  Clients of the firm continue to benefit from Jennifer’s appellate experience as the Firm advises them on the merits of appeals, the process, standard of review and potentially successful appellate issues.  

 

Jennifer lives in Delaware County with her husband and two sons, where her weekends are filled with sports and family.