Jessica Werner, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of Northshore Learning, has spent more than 20 years as an educator, specialist, and advocate for students with complex needs. But the turning point in her work didn’t come in a classroom or at a conference. It came the day her own son was asked to leave preschool.
Her son, who has a behavior disorder, was struggling in a setting that wasn’t prepared to support him. Eventually, the preschool told Jessica that his needs were too complex and that he could no longer attend.
In an instant, the roles shifted. Jessica, who had spent years helping schools strengthen their systems and better support students, suddenly found herself on the other side of the table — as a parent being told that her child didn’t fit.
“He won’t be the last child you see like this,” Werner told the preschool administration. “While I understand that you can’t support him now, just know, there will be more coming.”
She was right.
A Full-Circle Moment
Several years later, the same school reached back out to Jessica.
They were now seeing more students like her son. They saw children with higher needs, complex behaviors, and significant regulation and emotional challenges. Their teachers were overwhelmed. Their existing tools, training, and systems weren’t enough.
They needed help.
Jessica agreed without hesitation. Today, she partners with that school to train and mentor its teachers. The same system that once had to ask her son to leave is now working with her to build capacity, compassion, and practical tools for the next generation of students.
What was once a personal heartbreak has become a catalyst for change.
“The Hardest Part of Teaching Wasn’t the Teaching”
Jessica’s journey started like that of so many teachers: with passion, heart, and a deep belief that she could make a difference.
She did not expect what she experienced in her first year.
“The hardest part of teaching wasn’t the teaching,” she recalls. “It was the behavior, regulation, and emotional needs of my students, and I wasn’t prepared.”
Like many new educators, she had strong content knowledge and a solid academic foundation. But she quickly realized that her students needed more than lessons. They needed support with self-regulation, behavior, and emotional safety. And she needed a different kind of training to meet those needs.
Determined not to leave the profession, Jessica made a decision that would shape the rest of her career. She spent an entire summer interviewing experts, seeking out mentors, attending trainings, and rebuilding her approach from the ground up.
She returned to the classroom as, in her words, “a completely new teacher.”
A Story Playing Out in Schools Everywhere
Jessica’s experience is no longer an exception; it is increasingly the norm.
Schools across the country and around the world are grappling with a similar reality:
Teachers are overwhelmed by rising student behavior and mental-health needs.
Parents are navigating systems that are stretched thin and often not designed for the level of complexity they now face.
Administrators are struggling to support staff and maintain stability in a post-COVID landscape.
Schools are searching desperately for tools, training, and models that actually work in today’s classrooms.
The gap between what students need and what schools are prepared to provide has grown too large to ignore. Teachers report burnout at record levels. Classrooms are more complex than ever. And children like Jessica’s son are often the first to fall through the cracks when systems can’t keep up.
Bridging the Gap
Jessica’s work now sits directly in that gap.
Drawing on her experience as a teacher, specialist, and mother of a child with a behavior disorder, she partners with schools worldwide to:
Train and mentor educators in behavior and regulation support
Help schools build systems that are proactive rather than reactive
Equip staff with practical tools for de-escalation, connection, and co-regulation
Support administrators in creating sustainable, teacher-friendly frameworks
Her mission is simple, but profound: support teachers, understand students, and prepare schools for today’s classrooms.
That mission is rooted in both research and lived experience. Jessica knows the strain educators are under. She knows the heartbreak parents feel when systems can’t support their children. And she knows that with the right training and structures, schools can become places where both kids and adults are more regulated, supported, and successful.
Preparing for the Students Already Walking Through the Door
When Jessica told her son’s preschool, “There will be more coming,” she wasn’t issuing a threat. She was naming a truth that many schools are only now beginning to fully confront.
The students are already here: children with trauma histories, behavior disorders, anxiety, depression, autism, ADHD, and complex emotional needs. Post-pandemic, their numbers and needs have only intensified.
What began as a painful personal experience, having her own child turned away, has become a full-circle story of partnership and possibility. The same school that once said, “We can’t do this,” now says, “Help us learn how.”
For Jessica Werner, the work is deeply professional and personal. And for the schools she serves, it’s essential.
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