What is the importance of parental input and family partnerships for inclusion?

Adediwura's View:

As classroom teachers, we only have a specific group of students for a very short period of their lives, usually about 1 year. Parents, however, are in their children’s lives forever. They are their first and life-long teachers. So, if we as teachers are to have a positive and successful impact on these students’ lives for the short amount of time we have them, we must partner with their parents as we have a lot to learn from them.
Parents of students with special needs have all the information needed to understand the student as a whole and unique individual. This includes the student’s educational, personal and even medical history. It is important for teachers to collaborate with parents in order to get this vital information and come up with the best ways to help those students learn.
Teachers can also learn the best ways to deal with the behaviors of a special needs student from their parents. Being that parents have spent so many years learning their children’s behaviors, they know what reactions to expect in certain situations, and how to avoid situations that will cause a negative reaction. Parents are able to advice teachers on this.
Several studies compiled by Henderson & Mapp (2002) found that teacher outreach to parents was related to strong and consistent gains in student performance in both reading and math.

Reference:
Henderson & Mapp (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/fam33.html

Martina's View:

  I think what we learn from the families of our special education students depends on the family, and how well they are coping with their child's special needs. I have gained insight into what to do, and what not to do, from talking with the parents of my students.

    When I have made contact with the parents of my special education students, most of them are quite willing to provide insight into how their students handle academic or social problems, their likes and dislikes, and what motivates them. When I get that information from families, it helps me interact with my students. It also helps me begin to understand that child's problem solving skills. Most importantly, it communicates to the parents that I'm interested in their child, and don't resent having thier child in my class. With continued communication, I learn where the child has difficulties with work that gets sent home, and where the parent is seeing struggles and successes.

Further research has led me to New Horizons and the article "From Good to Great: Improving Schools Through Family and Community Partnerships" by Jonelle Adams. In this article, Adams illustrates the importance of communication between parents and school, several issues that impact communication between families and schools, and things that schools can do to better improve communication.

The benefits of communication and collaboration:

1. The effect of teachers reaching out to parents correlates strongly and consistently to student achievement in reading and math.
2. When schools offered workshops for parents that gave methods for parents to assist their children at home, student achievement on standardized tests increased. 

Barriers to communication:

1. While many schools pay lipservice to the importance of parental involvement, parents recieve the message that they are not really welcome.
2. Parents and schools may disagree on acceptable levels of involvement.
3. Parents and teachers may hold negative attitudes and opinions towards each other in regards to the level of involvement that the other party desires, ie. parents may feel that teachers may not welcome them, and teachers may feel that parents don't want to be involved in the school.

How to generate involvement:

1. Schools need to provide teachers with time to plan activites to involve parents.
2. Schools need to focus on staff training in order to improve the perceptions and attitudes of staff toward parental involvement so that they recognize the advantages.
3. Schools need to encourage regular contact with parents instead of contact solely when problems arise. (Adams, 2004)

Clearly, the onus is on the schools to open the doors for parents and bring them in. Imagine how much better the outcomes for our special needs populations would be if schools implemented these practices with a focus on involving the parents of our special needs students.

Wynette's View: 

There is a reason why parents are members of the IEP team.  They are our main source of information when it comes to their children. They know the child first and they know the child best, at least for majority of the parents.  I personally would be lost if not for parental inputs, the information such as their concerns, the child's medical/family/educational history, the child's strengths and interests, present skills and behavior pretty much makes up 80% of the IEPs I formulate for these children with special needs especially with all  my initial eligibility. They can share valuable information about what strategies worked and which interventions don't. The 20% would have to be the educational inputs from service providers and don't forget the state mandated blurbs. (smile!) Even with the goals, services and LRE I have the parent's inputs in mind.  And I always try, the best way I can to make them feel and understand that they are members of the IEP team and their inputs are valued and respected no matter how minimal they may be! It has also been my number one goal to be in good terms with all my parents for  if not then again.. I will definitely be lost! And so far I have been lucky with meeting that goal.