Abstract
Successful outcomes of the IEP process depend on the relationships developed between school professionals and the families of students with disabilities. Family members who are also special education professionals bring insight and a unique skill set for building collaborative partnerships that are the cornerstone of family-centered services in special education. Their stories provide a window into the experiences of family members, the experiences of school professionals and the distinct roles for each as members of an IEP team. Results from seven interviews indicate that IEP meetings are difficult, emotional, and contain power imbalances, even when the family member has institutional knowledge and professional experience. Lessons from the interviews support the ways that effective alliances can be established with all families, including culturally diverse families. Some suggestions to improve family member participation include frequent communication with families, using a facilitator for contentious meetings, having a clear agenda, and asking for parent input early and often.
TopIntroduction
Building meaningful partnerships with families allows Individualized Educational Program (IEP) teams to understand the students they serve on a deeper level. Shared decision-making with families is a cornerstone of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Improvement Act (IDEA; Staples & Diliberto, 2010), but in practice, family participation in IEP teams is complicated and fraught with barriers (Salembier & Furney, 1997; Sanderson & Goldman, 2023; Zeitlin & Curcic, 2014). School professionals must reflect on and change their practices to create meaningful collaborative teams that include families and communities (Dabkowski, 2004; Reiman, et al., 2010). Family members who have gone through the IEP process have insight into a set of useful strategies for professionals to build equitable and collaborative teams. Talking with family members who are also professionals in the field is a unique opportunity to see how their roles interact and to learn from their ideas and experiences when collaborating with a diverse set of families. The author uses the terms family member and parent to identify the adult in a child’s life with educational decision-making abilities. Sometimes that adult is not a family member or parent, so these terms will be used interchangeably in this chapter to name that person.
Many families are unclear about the IEP process and how they should be involved (Carlson et al., 2020; Fish, 2008; Tamzarian, et al., 2012). Parents’ rights documents frame special education policies, but these resources are not accessible for families who do not have the time or ability to review lengthy documents written in formal language (Angelov & Anderson, 2013). This barrier is removed for family members who served on IEP teams as professionals before becoming a parent or guardian of a child with a disability. They have the privilege of knowing special education law and how the IEP process works. Family members who move into the field after going through the IEP process as a parent or guardian have the necessary insight to guide families who are not yet familiar with special education. As they did not begin their own journeys with knowledge about special education law and policy, they can empathize with families who are new to navigating the process.
Each family’s experiences are unique, so it is important that professionals consider examples of these to develop flexible strategies that can be adjusted and changed based on a family’s values and interactions. In addition, professionals must consider that family member’s experiences may vary throughout the life of the child’s IEP which may impact the level and quality of their participation. Professionals must learn from the successes and pitfalls of their experiences with families and be willing to adjust the culture and practices of the IEP team to meet the family where they are.
The purpose of this chapter is to consider how best to collaborate with families by extending lessons learned from the experiences of family members who are also special education professionals. The intersection between their interests as guardians and their knowledge of the laws and processes in special education interact in unique ways when communicating about their own children. When they occupy their roles on other IEP teams, they may have preconceptions and assumptions about how teams operate that other professionals must consider when building collaborative relationships with them. The author conducted seven semi-structured interviews with professionals about their experiences on IEP teams, both as a family member and as a professional. Each individual’s experience was unique and important, offering different lenses to the IEP process and building collaborative teams. Guiding questions for the reader include:
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Does family member expertise in the IEP process affect their interactions with school personnel?
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What suggestions do family members have for other professionals who work with their children?
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How can school professionals create a collaborative team with all families, leveraging family assets to design and implement the best IEPs possible?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Special Educator: A teacher who is trained to address students’ individual abilities and needs through tailored interventions and supports.
Special Education: Instruction that is specially designed to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.
Collaboration: A process that involves educators, parents, and other professionals working together to support students with disabilities.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): A law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children.
Multi-Tiered System of Support: A model for high-quality education in which all students receive evidence-based instruction and intensive intervention when required. Each level involves frequent assessment and adjustment to ensure that students have more support if needed, without having to qualify for special services under an IEP.
Culture: A fluid and context-dependent set of values, norms, and beliefs of an individual or group that may or may not be connected with their languages, country of origin, religion, or other identities.
Family Engagement: Developing trusting partnerships between families and educators in which they share responsibility for quality student outcomes.
Administrator: The school leader who represents the local educational agency and decides what services the district will provide for students with disabilities so each student has a free, appropriate public education.
Individualized Educational Program (IEP) Process: A protocol that involves a series of formal steps and clear guidelines to collaboratively set goals and resolve differences between parents and professionals concerning the special education needs of students with disabilities.
Family-Professional Partnerships: Relationships in which families and professionals collaborate to utilize each other’s expertise to increase the benefit of education for students.
Individualized Educational Program (IEP): A written plan for serving students with disabilities ages three through twenty-one that contains reasonable accommodations, specialized instruction, related services, appropriate educational goals, and information about present levels to ensure a free and appropriate public education for a child with an identified disability.
K-12 Schools: Elementary school and secondary school education provided by local educational agencies that form the foundation of a student's academic career.
Parent Participation: The right of parents to participate in educational decision making regarding their child with a disability, as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Cultural Diversity: Differences among individuals based on their personal experiences and attributes including their race, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, nationality, language, religion, political affiliation, and socioeconomic background.