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This article reports on extensive qualitative research (from 33 focus groups and 32 individual interviews) to identify which professional behaviors facilitate collaborative partnerships. Six themes emerged: communication, commitment, equality, skills, trust, and respect. Each is presented in depth, as well as in a table illustrating which behaviors contribute to each theme.
The authors conclude that "common sense and human decency are at the heart of positive partnerships" between families and professionals. Implications for practice include recommendations for dialogue between parents and school officials to engage and clarify each of the themes above; these would not require extensive investments, but may return extensive benefits.
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This article distills three lessons learned over the 30 years since IDEIA was first passed:
1) Families organize daily routines that balance their beliefs, resources, and needs and abilities.
2) Families vary greatly in how and how much they collaborate and participate in schooling activities.
3) Listen to families.
The author demonstrates that together these lessons can inform meaningful engagement and effective collaboration. Closing on a hopeful note, she writes, "we must acknowledge that we have made much progress in improving the lives of individuals with disabilities but that we have a long way to go in terms of fully honoring the original intent of the mandates of this pioneering legislation."
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According to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), school systems must ensure that the individualized education program (IEP) team includes the parent of the child with a disability. Teachers often report the challenges of getting parents to attend IEP meetings often assuming parents' lack of interest with involvement in their child's education and school activities. Involving parents in a variety of activities throughout the school year will send the message that school personnel and that parents are members of a real team working together to create a nurturing learning environment. As a result, parents might feel more able to participate equally during IEP meetings and provide school personnel with insight on the child and family culture not observed at school. This article discusses research in the area of parent involvement and provides recommendations for involving parents of children with disabilities in classroom activities. [ERIC abstract]
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This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology to analyze interview data that emerged from face-to-face interviews with eight parents of four children With autism spectrum disorder. The study focused on the roles these parents played as they monitored their children's educational programs and interacted with school professionals. The findings revealed that parent participants, especially mothers, consistently engaged in four roles: (a) negotiator, (b) monitor, (c) supporter, and (d) advocate. In addition, the degree of perceived parental trust in education professionals affected the extent of their engagement in the roles of negotiator, monitor, and supporter.
The data also indicated that parents' education monitoring was mediated by the trust the parents placed on the education professionals. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for the improvement of parent—professional interactions and offer recommendations for future research. [abstract]
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Research has documented the important role that parental involvement plays in children's learning. Yet, it can be challenging for schools to establish appropriate relationships with parents. Is there an optimal balance of collaborative and separate relationships between parents and schools? Twenty parents in one K-12 public school district in the U.S. participated in semi-structured interviews to share their perceptions of ways in which their children's schools encouraged their involvement or created barriers that discouraged them from taking an active role through communication, volunteering, and other school-sponsored activities. Parents who had both positive and negative experiences with schools shared their opinions. his study is organized around themes from parents' comments: types of involvement that parents found meaningful; ability of all parents to contribute to schools; parents' involvement in decisions about student learning, curriculum, and classroom policies; and home-school relationships. Epstein's (2001) six types of parental involvement and the theories of social networking and influence provide a framework to explain the different experiences of parents who were satisfied and those who were dissatisfied. Satisfied parents' involvement focused on school activities and policy decisions, and they tended to have networks that led to greater influence of school practices, while parents who were dissatisfied with home-school communications valued involvement with their children at home. Implications for greater involvement of parents is discussed. [abstract]
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ABSTRACT: This study analyzed the 65 hearing officer decisions in Illinois between 1982 and 2010 that were subject to a court appeal available in the Westlaw or Individuals with Disabilities Education Law Report (IDELR) databases. These 65 cases yielded 86 issue rulings. Based on refined measures of outcomes and deference, or standard of judicial review, for issue rulings as the unit of analysis, the principal findings were that (a) outcomes were skewed in favor of districts at both the hearing/review officer and court levels; (b) the outcome upon judicial appeal was the same or largely unchanged for the vast majority of the issue rulings; and (c) the standard of judicial review did not appear to be a major factor in relation to the final court outcome.
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Preface:
This annotated outline is a relatively comprehensive compilation of the published special education decisions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 (§ 504) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for students from pre-K through grade 12, starting in 1998 and ending approximately midway in 2011. The coverage focuses on the issues of primary concern to educators and parents, such as eligibility, free appropriate public education (FAPE), least restrictive environment (LRE), and the remedies of tuition reimbursement and compensatory education. In partial contrast, the coverage of attorneys’ fees is limited to a more modest sampling of the published decisions, because they are so numerous and of less immediate interest to the primary audience. In complete contrast, the compilation does not extend, however, to technical adjudicative issues, such as exhaustion, jurisdiction, stay-put and statute of limitations....
The case entries are organized in approximate chronological order within the common special education categories, starting with eligibility. Each entry consists of a standard citation, including the parallel cite in the INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES LAW REPORTS (IDELR), and a blurb that summarizes the major ruling(s). In addition, prefacing each citation is the outcome for the summarized ruling(s) in terms of these categories: P = Parent won; S = School district won; P/S = mixed (i.e. partially for each side); ( ) = Inconclusive.
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Publisher's description:
Ongoing, strategic Family-School Partnering (FSP) is an essential component of every educational community. FSP is a multi-dimensional process in which schools, families, and communities engage in shared actions to ensure a child’s academic, social, and emotional success. With this text, the authors intend to offer a practical guide that demonstrates how this partnering can be strategically implemented in all levels of schooling. The main focus of the text is how to plan, implement, and evaluate FSP within existing school structures and resources. The authors begin with an overview of the foundational and organizational information necessary for successful FSP, including a review of ecological systems theory. FSP theories and strategies are presented at a universal, targeted, and intensive level, giving the school mental health professional insight into working with students and families who have differing needs. A school-based case example illustrates FSP in action and provides a practical roadmap for implementation.
Each chapter contains easily adaptable tools and a list of useful web links to resources which can be used in conjunction with the strategies presented and discussed by the authors. An accompanying CD will also contain all the handouts, forms, and other such resources presented throughout the text.
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Part C Helpful Resources CADRE’s Resource Showcase is a collection and systematic organization of items that may be useful to states as they pursue improvements in their special education dispute resolution systems and processes.
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[Abstract}
Two prospective longitudinal studies of nationally representative samples of students with disabilities—the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study and the National Longitudinal Transition Study–2—are used to provide a broad look at the participation of parents of 11- through 19-year-old students with disabilities in Individualized Education Plan/transition planning meetings and their satisfaction with their involvement in them. Students’ attendance and the roles played in their transition planning meetings are also examined. Logistic regression analyses identify disability characteristics; demographics; aspects of parents’ involvement, expectations, and perceptions; experiences in students’ educational histories; and features of their instructional programs that help explain variations in parent and student participation, parent satisfaction, and student roles.
[Excerpt from conclusion]
Federal legislation intends for parents to be equal partners with school staff in educational planning for their children and, for students ages 14 or older (at the time data were collected, now ages 16 or older), to participate in transition planning and for their goals and preferences to drive that process and the resulting transition goals and activities. The findings reported here indicate that the federal intention is not being equally realized for students served under IDEA and their families. For example, rates of IEP/transition planning meeting participation were higher for parents of students with some kinds of disabilities than others, with some levels of income than others, and from some racial/ethnic backgrounds than others. Parents of students who had demonstrated challenging behavior at school or who had poor social skills also found participating in IEP/transition planning meetings to be less than satisfactory.
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[Abstract]
Due process is a key dispute resolution feature approved by Congress in accordance with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, whose goal is to facilitate resolution and minimize conflict. Nonetheless, despite 35 years of use, due process has become a difficult emotional and financial problem. Consequently, there is a need to evaluate due process and develop less adversarial resolution practices. The goal of the study herein is to place in perspective a descriptive analysis of 575 due process hearings that occurred in 41 states in 2005 to 2006 by analyzing the petitioner, disability, dispute, and outcome including hearings of specific learning disabilities (26%), autism (20%), and health impairments (15%). The most common sources of dispute were placement (25%) and Individualized Education Program and program appropriateness (24%). Parents initiated 85% of the hearings, but school districts prevailed in 59%. Interestingly, the majority of states lacked easy retrieval and consistency with reporting their own published hearings.
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"This article describes an innovative planning process that is centered on the person--the student--and that incorporates up-to-date technologies. It's called Making Action Plans (MAPS).
For the past 30 years special educators have included parents as collaborative partners in their children's education. For a multitude of reasons, however, parents have not been as active in this partnership as is optimal. Nevertheless, models of collaboration and partnerships have emerged to promote active parent participation in the IEP planning process. Person-centered planning is one model used by many educators. Recently, researchers have developed additional strategies for person-centered planning that are sensitive to diversity and that promote communication among all team members, especially family members. This article highlights three types of person-centered planning strategies: (a) premeeting planning, (b) meeting agendas and strategies, and (c) follow-up activities." (p.32)
"MAPS is a planning process in which educators, parents, the student, peers, and others who know the student well meet and share information about the student, such as the student's history, likes, dislikes, strengths, needs, dreams, fears, ideal school day, and future goals. The outcome of the meeting is a comprehensive picture of the student and an action plan. The action plan suggests goals and objectives that can be used in developing the IEP, as well as assigning who will be responsible for each area that was identified and when the team responsible should begin working on their assigned task."
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"Current research on parental reports of their experiences during the IEP process suggests that favorable perceptions are the exception rather than the norm. In their review of 10 studies on parental views of the IEP process published since 2004, Reiman, Beck, Coppola, and Engiles (2010) found only one study reporting that the majority of parent participants indicated overall positive experiences. The remaining studies indicated that parents felt high levels of dissatisfaction during IEP meetings, with parents citing difficulty processing the information, being intimidated by educators and blamed for their children's academic and behavioral difficulties, and being relegated to roles in which their participation was limited to listening to information about their child's education, answering questions, and signing preset forms on students' goals . These findings underscore the importance of supporting educators with research-based recommendations for enlisting parents as collaborators during the IEP process." (p.50)
The article provides six illustrative case vignettes highlighting six statements ill-suited to IEP meetings; a better response is offered for each:
1. The Time Saver--may occur when goals are developed in advance of meeting; skateholders are asked to simply sign off on them.
2. The LRE Plea--may be seen in statements such as "Let's see how [student] does in a resource room before trying a more inclusive setting where she may be overwhelmed."
3. Who's in Charge?--occurs when an important IEP team member, perhaps one with decision authority, is not present for the meeting.
4. The Search Ain't Over Until It's Over--may arise when a teacher or counselor explains "I don't know what else to try with [student]; nothing has worked."
5. Pass the Buck--occurs when participants place responsibility elsewhere and give up on seeking alternative ideas.
6. The Old Standby--happens when participants demonstrate a lack of effort to provide appropriate services, instead relying on the way students with similar disabilities have always been served.
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"Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become a popular term in education. Although most special education stakeholders share a general notion that evidence-based practice refers to instruction that is supported in some manner by research, (a) those promoting practices and products often use the term indiscriminately and inappropriately (e.g., as if the term provided an ironclad assurance of effectiveness), and (b) many educators and parents lack a clear understanding of what evidence-based practices are and how they are identified." (p.22)
This article advises readers on how EBPs are identified, how they may be used, and how many practices that are not evidence-based may nonetheless be effective.
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"Active parental involvement in the IEP process is strongly emphasized in IDEA. The underlying assumption of this expectation is that when parents are actively involved in making decisions regarding special education services and placement, their children benefit. However, according to Kalyanpur and Harry (1999), this belief is reflective of a culture that values individualism, equality, and the need to exercise one's rights. These values are not always shared by families from other cultures, and the complicated IEP process is foreign to many immigrant families. These barriers, together with linguistic challenges, can prevent culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families from fulfilling their expected roles in the IEP process. Educators and service providers should be prepared to demystify the process for this growing population. This article includes the very different experiences of two parents when they went through the IEP process which help to identify best practices for professionals in working with CLD parents." (p.14)
The article offers recommendations for practice concerning background preparation (prior to convening the IEP meeting); welcoming parents, interpretation services and cross-cultural communication (during the meeting); and meeting summaries, and translated IEPs (after the meeting).
A checklist is thoughtfully provided, as well:
"Figure 1. Checklist to Demystify the IEP Process for CLD Parents of Children With Disabilities
Before the IEP Meeting
* Meet and explain to parents the timeline, their rights, what is involved in the IEP process, and how they can participate.
* Provide parents with information on relevant community resources.
* Offer parents opportunities to connect with other parents of children with disabilities.
* Include, in the meeting notice, options for meeting dates and times, who will be attending, how long the meeting will last, and available interpretation services.
* Send parents a draft meeting agenda and invite them to add items to the agenda.
* Provide documents in parents' primary language and that match their educational level.
* Provide parents with directions to school.
* Meet with interpreter at least 30 minutes prior to the meeting to provide a glossary of relevant terms and acronyms and to discuss how often the professionals should pause for converting oral messages. Generally, professionals should pause every 2 or 3 sentences. Relay this information to the other team members.
The Day of the IEP Meeting
* Have one of the IEP team members escort parents to meeting room. It is best that this professional is someone the parents feel comfortable with and have met before. If the welcoming professional does not speak the parents' native language, have the interpreter also greet and escort the parents.
* Have team members introduce themselves and state their roles in the meeting.
* Ask parents open-ended questions to ensure that they understand the meeting discussions.
* Pay attention to parents' verbal and nonverbal cues.
* Invite parents to ask questions and offer feedback.
After the IEP Meeting
* Provide a written meeting summary and invite parents to call, e-mail, or meet if they have questions.
* Inform parents what will happen after the IEP meeting, such as when they will receive a copy of the proposed IEP and what their rights are if they disagree with the IEP.
* Have the translated IEP available to parents in a timely manner."
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Cook and Friend define collaboration as “a style professionals select to employ based on mutual goals; parity; shared responsibility for key decisions; shared accountability for outcomes; shared resources; and the development of trust, respect, and a sense of community” (p.3).
This article explores the evolution of collaboration, its relationship to IDEA, and the difficulties of research related to it. It serves as the introduction to a JEPC issue devoted to these themes.
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This article discusses the challenges and methods related to fostering collaboration between schools and diverse families of children with disabilities.
It concludes with a framework for fostering collaboration, including 1) providing CLD families full access to the school and persons serving their children, 2) examine collaboration processes to ensure that all parties share power equally, 3) inform parents of all options for their children, and 4) establish general education teachers and the point-persons in school/family collaboration.
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This article advocates comprehensive school reform to develop more inclusive placements and improve outcomes for all students. The process involves professional development toward establishing a more collaborative culture.
The important role of leadership in modeling collaboration is covered, with recommendation around sharing power, ensuring coherence in decision-making, and building capacity.
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This qualitative study investigated the use of family-centered practices by graduates of two early childhood special education personnel preparation programs that embedded family-centered pedagogy and involvement in all coursework. Three cohorts, involving 19 graduates employed in 19 different programs located in six states, participated in individually administered interviews to identify their perspectives about and use of family-centered practices in their work environments.
All graduates were committed to and described using family-centered practices, but the large majority of graduates also identified significant barriers to using family-centered practices, including lack of support from colleagues and administrators and lack of policies related to working with families. Implications for pre-service preparation,policymakers, and service programs are discussed. [abstract]
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Side by Side Comparison of 2011 Part C Final Regulations This side-by-side comparison of the 2011 Part C final regulations to the 1999 Part C regulations, created by the Council for Exceptional Children, IDEA Infant & Toddlers Coordinator Association and the Division for Early Childhood, serves as a tool to assist readers in understanding the new regulations and preparing their own analysis related to Part C.
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"This updated Question-and-Answer document is specific to impartial hearing officers (IHOs) and the impartial hearings that they conduct under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)." [excerpt]
"The sources are limited to the pertinent IDEA legislation and regulations, court decisions and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education’s (OSEP) policy letters that the author’s research has revealed." [excerpt]
The document consists of two parts, the first on Hearing Officer issues--qualifications, immunity--and the second on Hearing Decisions. The latter discusses resolution sessions, sufficiency process, jurisdiction, timelines, expedited hearings, procedures, and written decisions.
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Do schools have a heightened standard of care to assure the safety of students and others from those with behavior disorders?
"This article explores issues of legal liability for school personnel where students with disabilities are injured in school settings or cause injuries to employees and other students in schools."
"The lack of clarity as to how the requirements of the IDEA affect tort liability under state or constitutional tort theories should prompt school officials to take several preemptive steps..." including communicating to all personnel that services under an IEP can create liability for both reimbursement and compensation under IDEA and torts law; checking their liability policies for applicability to student-related injuries; advising personnel to consider personal liability coverage through professional organizations; training volunteers or chaperones on field trips to protect students from foreseeable risks (p.389)
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Certain aspects of special education law concerning parental legal rights are not clear... "Specifically, there has been uncertainty whether non-lawyer parents have the right in court proceedings to challenge pro se the suitability of their child's special education services. The ambiguities of this topic are highlighted by the immense variability in circuit courts decisions throughout the country. Recently, the Supreme Court resolved this unsettled area of law in Winkelman v. Parma City School District" (p.130).
The article goes on to note that with only one exception, federal courts have "held that non-lawyer parents pursuing solely substantive claims were not allowed to represent their children without the assistance of an attorney, based on a their legislative interpretation of IDEA" (p.134). For illustration, note the Third Circuit's opinion "that appearing pro se is explicitly provided for in IDEA, but only when a party is pursuing their own rights. Furthermore, the [court] commented that non-lawyer parents are not allowed to represent their children pro se if the rights asserted are the child's alone" (p.135).
The only federal court that did allow pro se parental representation for substantive violations of IDEA was the First Circuit" which concluded "'that parents are parties aggrived within the meaning of IDEA, and thus may sue pro se'" (p.137).
The Winklemans were parents of a six-year-old child with autism named Jacob, a student of the Parma City School District. They opposed the 2003-2004 IEP because "it failed to provide him with enough music and speech therapy and one-on-one interaction" (p.138). They placed Jacob in a private school at their own expense and pursued administrative review of the IEP. After the hearing officer and state-level review officer rejected their challenge, they sought review in federal district court; that court, too, found that Jacob had been provided with a free appropriate public education as required by IDEA. The Winklemans appealed pro se to the Sixth Circuit, which dismissed the case because they had not retained a licensed attorney to represent their son. (p.138)
"The Supreme Court ruling in Winkelman v. Parma City School District will help promote social justice in American's schools by empowering parents of students with disabilities with substantive rights to appear pro se in federal court to challenge the appropriateness of their child's IEP." (p.147)
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This article advocates that cases regarding IEP implementation should be decided through a 'per se' approach, thus requiring that all aspects of the IEP are followed. To do otherwise denies a student of a free and appropriate public education.
"IDEA has generated considerable litigation over what constitutes a FAPE. Disputes over the adequacy of an IEP are relatively common; parents and schools often disagree over which services and supports are necessary for a disabled student to receive an "appropriate" education." (p.76)
"IEP implementation litigation is uncommon. Few courts have addressed whether IDEA's requirement schools offer a FAPE "in conformity" with an IEP means that schools must provide services in complete conformity, or merely substantial conformity, with the IEP. Three analyses have been suggested; courts could apply the traditional Rowley standard to such cases and ask whether the student gained educational benefit from the IEP as it was implemented; they could apply a materiality standard and find substantial implementation failures deny FAPE, but de minimis failures do not; or they could apply a per se standard and find all implementation failures deny a FAPE.
This article suggests the per se standard is consistent with the purpose of IDEA, to ensure that each disabled student gain meaningful educational benefit from their IEP." (p.103)
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"The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) strongly supports comprehensive assessment and evaluation of students with learning disabilities by a multidisciplinary team for the identification and diagnosis of students with learning disabilities. Comprehensive assessment of individual students requires the use of multiple data sources. These sources may include standardized tests, informal measures, observations, student self-reports, parent reports, and progress monitoring data from response-to-intervention (RTI) approaches (NJCLD, 2005). Reliance on any single criterion for assessment or evaluation is not comprehensive, nor is a group assessment, such as universal screening or statewide academic assessment tests, sufficient for comprehensive assessment or evaluation.
This paper is intended to inform administrators, educators, parents, and others concerned about the effective identification and education of students with learning disabilities about the components, processes, and participants necessary for comprehensive assessment and evaluation, as well as optimal practices that should further enhance the education of students with learning
disabilities. The NJCLD has long recognized that inappropriate assessment and evaluation practices may result in questionable incidence rates for learning disabilities." (p.3)
This paper differentiates between assessment ("the collection of data through the use of multiple measures, including standardized and informal instruments and procedures") and evaluation ("the process of integrating, interpreting, and summarizing the comprehensive assessment data, including indirect and preexisting sources"), explaining that the goal of the two together is to "enable team members to use data to create a profile of a student's strengths and needs." (p.4)
The paper reviews relevant research before turning to guiding principles and the traits of effective instruments and procedures for assessment and evaluation. The paper closes with recommendations for research, professional development, families/advocates, and administration/leadership.
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"This article examines the intended purpose of [peer-reviewed research] provision [of IDEA] and its impact on the development of IEPs. Intent is examined through the legislative history of the PRR requirement. The impact of the PRR provision is illustrated in an analysis of litigation and a presentation of critical commentary on the application of empirical research... to establish the efficacy of special education interventions." [abstract]
The article concludes with recommendations for IEP teams (excerpts below from p.145):
1. Review the Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) section of the IEP, which should contain a summarization of the evaluation data, both academic and behavioral.
2. Develop academic and functional goals designed to "meet the child's needs."
3. Determine special education, related services, and supplementary aids and services based on PRR to the extent practicale to "advance appropriately towards attaining the annual goals."
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Program Agenda
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[abstract]
+ This article maps out the similarities and differences among the various routes to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 dispute resolution, including those not widely and well known to special education leaders.
+ For IDEA-eligible students, the alternative avenues consist of not only the impartial hearing procedures and the state education agency’s complaint investigation/resolution process but also the routes of legal recourse under Section 504.
+ For students eligible under Section 504 alone, the alternative avenues amount to not only the complaint investigation/resolution process of the Office for Civil Rights but also the required grievance and impartial hearing procedures, which are subject to considerable confusion and—in light of the IDEA’s intersecting exhaustion requirement—complexity.
+ The various parts of this roadmap range from basic points for the new special education leader to more
nuanced or advanced points for the experienced special education leader, with ample documentation of the specific legal sources.
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[abstract] "In this study I argue that educational practitioners and policy makers cannot solve the problem of increasing student learning and growth by organizationally isolating the work of schools from communities. The purpose of this study was to explore which organizational conditions have enabled and which have hindered schools and communities from successfully working together to help students learn and grow. In addition, I explore why some districts and schools continue to struggle with engaging outside stakeholders despite their efforts. I used a comparative case study design and chose to investigate three districts and two schools within each of those districts in order to see how district engagement policies and practices filter down into schools....
Results showed that district level engagement efforts were loosely-coupled with school level policies and practices. Policies that did exist around engagement were vaguely worded and weakly monitored. In addition, formal policies for engagement were weak and few innovative approaches existed to actively engage outside stakeholders. This study confirms the neo-institutional framework and its usefulness in examining engagement policies and practices."
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[abstract] "A large number of due process hearings regarding the delivery of special education services to children with disabilities occur nationally and the number is increasing. Differences of opinion between professionals and parents concerning whether or not a child is disabled, the diagnosis of a disability, and the special services
recommended or provided has resulted in parent-professional conflict accompanied by substantial financial and emotional costs to parents, professionals and educational agencies. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the origins and dynamics of parent-professional conflict about special education services and identify promising approaches and strategies for preventing and resolving conflict between professionals and
parents of children with disabilities.
A comprehensive literature review revealed the major origins of conflict about special education services in the schools. These include (a) legislative mandates; (b) attrition of special education personnel; (c) ineffective leadership in the schools; (d) lack of collaboration between general and special educators and parents; and (e) hidden constraints in educational agencies such as time, money, and resources. The combination of “systemic cracks” in the nation’s educational system and the failure of professionals and parents to use effective “communication and collaboration skills” were found to be the major sources of conflict between professionals and parents. Five promising approaches and strategies were identified for preventing or resolving conflicts about special education."
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[abstract] "The purpose of this qualitative case study is to describe preservice special education teacher’ beliefs and perceptions about collaboration as a professional practice. It has been established through national teacher and accreditation standards, through federal policy, and through emphasis from the field of teaching special education that collaboration skills are an important part of teacher training. The research questions guiding this study are: (a) What are preservice special education teachers? beliefs and perceptions about collaboration as a professional practice, (b) What challenges do preservice special education teachers report as obstructing collaboration in their school environments, and (c) After completing coursework in collaboration, how prepared to collaborate do these teachers feel? Due to the descriptive nature of the research questions asked, a qualitative case study design was used for this study. Purposeful sampling yielded twelve participants who were currently taking a course titled, Collaboration among Professionals and Families. Inductive analysis was used to analyze documents, interviews, and online communication. This analysis resulted in six overarching themes which contained 27 code categories. Results showed that participants believed that collaboration as a professional practice led to positive outcomes for students. Despite this belief, collaboration was described as fraught with challenges, in particular the inability to share power between special education teachers and general education teachers. The majority of the participants reported feeling equipped to collaborate as they prepared to enter the teaching field. Implications for teacher education programs and future research are presented."
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[abstract] "The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the resolution meeting on due process in special education. The study focused on the impact of the resolution meeting on students and the school district by utilizing an analysis of data obtained from due process requests received over a seven-school-year period, 3 years prior to the implementation of the resolution meeting and 4 afterwards, by a large urban school district located in the southwestern United States.
Analysis of data collected from due process requests indicated that the school district significantly reduced due process expenditures after the implementation of the resolution meeting. Additional analysis indicated that there was no significant impact of the resolution meeting on parent satisfaction with settled agreements or the number of days taken to implement student services after a request is received. Results of this study may be used by the school district to develop and enhance due process procedures to continue cost reduction, parent satisfaction, and timelines for the implementation of student services."
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CADRE will convene Showcasing Exemplary Practices: The Fifth National Symposium on Dispute Resolution in Special Education, on October 26-28th, 2011 in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. Symposium invitees include State dispute resolution coordinators, directors of special education, dispute resolution practitioners, parent advocates, attorneys, educators, service providers, parents and others.
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A Tale of Two Conversations Study Guide (No Captioning) This Study Guide uses "A Tale of Two Conversations," as a learning tool, offering keys for more effective communication as well as problem solving skills and approaches. It provides opportunities to reflect on how you communicate now and what you could do differently. The Study Guide is available for parents, educators and trainers.
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Exemplar State Profiles CADRE has profiled four exemplary state special education dispute resolution systems: Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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Abstract (excerpts):
Conflict resolution in special education uses scarce resources of time and money for school districts. Due to recent changes in law, there are limited entities with enough experience in dispute resolution to make a meaningful contribution to the study. The special education service administrators studied provided a broad perspective in answering the research question regarding the status of special education dispute resolution in Illinois. The 15 service administrators interviewed in this study work with a variety of superintendents, school district special education directors, coordinators, and teachers. As fiscal agents for federal and state special education funds, they are keenly aware of the costly impact disputes can have on a school district...
Based on the literature review and data gathered from the participants in interviews, two dominant themes were identified. The first theme revolves around the concept of service administrators' continuous work to avoid disputes through managing and understanding the processes of the dispute resolution system. The second theme centers on improving human relations to prevent disputes. Sub-issues of the first theme regarding managing and understanding processes include cost-benefit analysis for disputes, time management, understanding mandatory resolution, continuum of placements, advocating for training, and legislative changes with lesser impact. Sub-issues related to the theme of improving human relations are communication, empathy, and compromise.
The research completed in this study establishes that special education service administrators avoid formal dispute resolution proceedings at all costs. The cost of additional services pales in comparison to the cost of a due process proceeding.
Excerpt:
"As indicated in the literature review, conflict resolution in special education uses scarce resources of time and money for school districts. The research shows that improving the system of dispute resolution involves relationships, compromise, and training. A major concern is the over-servicing of students based on school district’s hesitance to enter due process hearings because of negative cost-benefit relationships." (p.97)
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This article explores connections between positive psychology, an area of recent attention across disciplines, and the attitudes and behaviors that mark collaborative relationships.
Excerpts: "Fredrickson's Broaden-and-Build theory provides a compelling explanation for the promise of collaboration as a strategy to insert more energy, optimism, creativity, and hope into the work of educators... A collaborative team that provides social support can being the broaden-and-build spiral. People with relationships to other individuals they trust and depend upon are healthier, more productive, and happier." (p.77)
"People who want to be expert collaborators may have to develop an attributional style characterized by specific and unstable attributions. Specific and unstable attributions mean that another person's choices are seen as discrete and changeable. They are not seen as predictive of broad categories of behavior. For example, if a parent does not keep an appointment, I have several options in who I think about it. I can think that the parent was unavoidably detained and will probably show up at the next appointment, or I can think that the missed appointment illustrates the parent's abdication of responsibility for the child's welfare. Obviously, the first alternative allows for persistence in the face of difficulty, persistence that may otherwise be hindered by a sweeping, negative attributional style." (p.79)
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Abstract: Although collaboration among service providers has been a hallmark of special education almost since its inception, co-teaching, the sharing of instruction by a general education teacher and a special education teacher or another specialist in a general education class that includes students with disabilities, is a relatively recent application. As a result of recent federal legislation and related policy changes, co-teaching has evolved rapidly as a strategy for ensuring that these students have access to the same curriculum as other students while still receiving the specialized instruction to which they are entitled.
Despite considerable enthusiasm expressed by those who write about co-teaching and those who implement it, co-teaching illustrates the complexity of conceptualizing and studying collaboration in special education. Most inquiry on co-teaching has emphasized co-teachers' roles and relationships or program logistics rather than demonstrating its impact on student achievement and other key outcomes, and far more literature exists describing co-teaching and offering advice about it than carefully studying it.
Contributing to the admittedly equivocal evidence base for co-teaching are factors such as the still emerging understanding of this special education service delivery vehicle, inconsistencies in definitions and implementation, lack of professional preparation, and dilemmas related to situating co-teaching in a supportive, collaborative school culture. The future of co-teaching may be dependent on increasing the quantity and quality of research on it and placing co-teaching in the larger context of school reform and improvement.
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This article builds on its opening premise, "Effective parent–teacher communication builds working relationships that can support strong home–school collaboration and improved educational outcomes" to support the value of training teachers to employ active listening in their work with parents and colleagues.
A handy mnemonic, "LAFF, don't CRY," is meant to assist in recalling the basic elements of active listening:
L Listen, empathize and communicate respect
A Ask questions and ask permission to take notes
F Focus on the issues
F Find a first step
Don’t
C Criticize people who aren’t present
R React hastily and promise something you can’t deliver
Y Yakety-yak-yak
(Fig. 1, p.252)
Excerpts: "The steps in LAFF don’t CRY provide a logical and easily remembered approach for demonstrating empathy and learning about parent concerns, and the strategy can provide a good start for the development of collaborative home–school teams." (p.254)
"This active listening strategy may also be useful for special educators as they work with other professionals in school settings. Paulsen (2008) suggested that one barrier to school-based collaboration is that teachers, trained to instruct children, may find it difficult to develop team relationships with other adults." (p.255)
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Abstract: "In this review, challenges to family-school collaboration and a framework describing how special educators can foster a climate of collaboration with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families of children with moderate to severe disabilities are described. Conditions for collaboration in this circumstance require that educators understand how they, as agents of schools, accept a CLD community's culture, power, and knowledge in the school context and how they align their own values and beliefs, as well as the school's policies and practices, to the communities they serve. Included is a critical analysis of relevant literature through which we identify factors that facilitate school-family collaboration and can be used to guide special educators in identifying practices either fostering or precluding authentic collaboration."
Excerpted headings: "To foster authentic collaboration with CLD families, special educators should do the following:
- Provide CLD families full access to the school and to the people serving their children’s needs.
- Examine collaboration efforts and ensure that all parties share power equally.
- Inform parents of all options available for their children and support family involvement in authentic decision making.
- Establish general education teachers as the point persons in the school-family collaboration." (pp.36-37)
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This article explores the effectiveness of a CD-ROM-based training program for parents to learn advocacy skills. The test group of participants reported improvement in their skills application, knowledge, and attitudes related to advocacy in parent-teacher communication.
"The CD-ROM–based program was developed to train a core skill area for parent advocacy and effective communication. The content consists of key communication
skills shown to improve parent-professional relationships, and is presented in 4 sections: (a) Prepare(preparing for a meeting), (b) Listen (active listening with professionals), (c) Advocate (specifying a request), and (d) Negotiate (working toward a solution when parent and professional disagree). The program uses text and video to present information about each key skill. For each behavioral skill, the program provides rationale via text and testimonials by a range of parent models and shows a parent model demonstrating effective and ineffective use of the skill." (p.200)
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Jacket description: "With personal anecdotes, case examples, and detailed theoretical discussions, this book brings to light the potential impact of cultural assumptions on parent-professional interactions in special education.
Essential reading for future teachers, it helps them become aware of and work to cast aside traditional stereotypes — about other cultures and their own — in order to work effectively with students' families. This textbook also helps educators understand the importance of developing education plans that will enhance children's learning and respect their cultural beliefs. Undergraduate and graduate students of special education will find ways to improve communication with parents and learn to more effectively teach children with diverse cultural heritages."
Excerpt: "The posture of cultural reciprocity has four guidelines:
Step 1. Identify the cultural values that are embedded in the professional interpretation of a student’s difficulties or in the recommendation for service.
Step 2. Find out whether the family being served recognizes and values these assumptions and, if not, how their view differs from that of the professional.
Step 3. Acknowledge and give explicit respect to any cultural differences identified, and fully explain the cultural basis of the professional assumptions.
Step 4. Through discussion and collaboration, set about determining the most effective way of adapting professional interpretations or recommendations to the value system of this family." (pp.118-119)
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