Involving Parents

One of the most important aspects of a successful educational team is one that actively involves the student’s parents. In this chapter, you will learn the importance of including parents, as well as strategies that will accomplish this goal. Research will be presented, along with Anna’s perception about involving parents, and a commentary on this topic will be presented by Dr. Lewis Jackson, Professor of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado.

Things to Consider:

What kind of information does the parent bring to the educational team?
As a teacher, how do you include parents into the educational team?
If you were a parent of a child with special needs, how would you want to be involved in your child’s team?

Involving Parents - What Research Says….

Most parents naturally become involved in their child’s education. Three identified areas that contribute to parent participation include: (1) the construction of the parent role; (2) parent’s sense of efficacy; and (3) parent’s perceptions about school invitations and involvement (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997). Parents’ unique perceptions and goals for their family unit affect the type and level of participation. Because parent participation is central to the IDEA framework, it is important that families are treated individually. Unfortunately, research indicates that there is a generic type of treatment for such parents (Lake & Billingsley, 2000). It should be no surprise that when parents of children who have disabilities attempt to enter the culture of special education, some find it to be a frustrating, negative and unsupportive experience (Biklen, 1992; Kalyanpur & Harry, 1999; Lake & Billingsley, 2000; Turnbull & Turnbull, 2006).

There are some key strategies teachers can do to actively involve parents. Research indicates that parents feel involved and appreciated as a team member when teachers:

Listen to parents
Demonstrate an understanding of the parent perspective
Show respect toward the family unit
Utilize parent’s ideas
Treat parents as equal members of the IEP team (e.g., involving parents in
educational decisions).

Involving Parents - What Anna Says….

As a parent and as a parent liaison for a school district, I have coached many parents and attended many meetings for students of all ages. Dr. Jackson explains a subtle but powerful belief that makes for what I might call ‘conditional’ collaboration. Most IEP teams ask for parent input, check in regularly, and close the meeting with some kind of consensus. But all too often, when the parents walk out of the meeting, they are confused, suspicious and disappointed. We don’t have all the answers nor do the professionals but we won’t discover the answers that are in our child’s best interest unless we come together as imperfect participants.

Involving Parents - A Commentary by Dr. Lewis Jackson, Professor of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado

References

Biklen, D. (1992). Schooling without labels. Philadelphia, PN: Temple University Press.

Davern, L. (1999). Parents’ perspectives on personnel attitudes and characteristics in
inclusive school settings: Implications for teacher preparation. Teacher education
and special education, 22(3), 165-182.

Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, M. H. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their children's education? Review of Educational Research, 67(1).

Kalyanpur, M., & Harry, B. (1999). Culture in special education: Building reciprocal family-professional relationships. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Lake, J. F., & Billingsley, B. S. (2000). An analysis of factors that contribute to parent-
school conflict in special education. Remedial and Special Education, 21(4), 240-256.

Mueller, T.G. (2004). A tale of two districts fostering the home-school partnership:
conflict prevention and alternative dispute resolution practices in special education (Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2004). Dissertation Abstracts International (DIA-A), 65/06, pp.1-279.

Turnbull, A., & Turnbull, R. (2006). Families, professionals, and exceptionality: Collaborating for empowerment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.