1. Teaming, Collaborating, and Communicating:
5240 Chpt. 1
EDU 442
Teaming, Collaborating, and Communicating:
Building Relationships Between Professionals, Families of Young Children with Special Needs, and Community Agencies

2. Historical and Current Roles of Families and Parents
Chapter One
Historical and Current Roles of Families and Parents

3. Parents as the Source of Their Child’s Disabilities
Eugenics Movement ( )
Parents as source or cause
Autism – refrigerator moms to “no known factors in the psychological environment of a child have been shown as cause”
Exceptions: HIV, FAS, cystic fibrosis
Avoid blaming parents…..

4. Parents as Organizational Members
United Cerebral Palsy Assoc (UCPA) founded in 1949
Assoc for Children with Learning Disabilities founded in 1964
ARC (formally called National Assoc for Retarded Children, Inc.)
Many parent organizations tend to consist of white, middle-income families
Non-categorical services in schools while most parent organizations are based on disability areas

5. Parents as Service Developers
During the 1950s and 1960s developed services for children at all ages
Parents should be supported to be parents first

6. Parents as Recipients of Professionals’ Decisions
During the 1960s and 1970s a teacher knows best attitude existed
Some educators still believe they know what is best for a student, particularly in evaluation, IEP, and placement
Parents may feel intimidated and angry
Cultural and diverse backgrounds
Equal partner with trust

7. Parents as Teachers
Family environment can influence children’s intelligence (Hunt, 1972)
Head Start
Ecological linked family involvement to human development
Parent – literature in the 1970s refers to mother and not father
Direct teaching methods could be a challenge
Topics of interest – homework, advocacy, future planning, information exchanges

8. Parents as Political Advocates
ARC, CEC
P.L and five major amendments since then (IDEA)
Additional case law
In Illinois:
Marie O case
Corey H case

9. Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
Legislation providing services for young children with disabilities (1968: model demonstration grants)
1975: Public Law “Education for all Handicapped Children Act” Provided 5-21 FAPE
1986: P.L passed as an amendment to (Reauthorized in 1997 as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Assured 3-5 FAPE
Program (Part H) for infants and toddlers 0-3 (now Part C of IDEA)
Includes children identified with developmental delays in one or more areas and those at-risk for developmental delays
Family-focused intervention

10. Families as Collaborators
Paradigm shift from “Parent Involvement” to include all family members
Collaboration – the dynamic process of families and professionals equally sharing their resources in order to make decisions jointly.
Families will be equal partners with the schools
Students are also key collaborators
Self-determination --choosing how to live one’s life consistent with one’s own values, preferences, strengths and needs

11. Schools as Systems: The Context for Family-Professional Collaboration
Chapter Two
Schools as Systems: The Context for Family-Professional Collaboration

12. Systems Theory Examination of the organization of complex phenomena
Investigation of the principles common to complex entities
Posits models which can be used to describe them

13. Systems Approach Recognizes the complex nature of social ecology
Emphasizes the interactions and connectedness of different components of a system
Regards each component of a system as integral to the optimum functioning of that system self-regulating systems which we might call "cybernetic".

14. Social Systems Impacting Human Development (Bronfenbrenner)
In the ecology of the child, important systems include family and school
Micro-system
Meso-system
Exo-system
Macro-system

15. Micro-System
Child and Family: Interpersonal interactions. The level within which a child experiences immediate interactions with other people. At the beginning, the micro-system is the home, involving interactions with only one or two people in the family ("dyadic" or "triadic" interaction). As the child ages, the micro-system is more complex, involving more people, such as in a child-care center or school. Bronfenbrenner noted that when increased numbers in a child's micro-system result in more enduring reciprocal relationships, then increasing the size of the system will enhance child development.

16. Meso-Systems
The interrelationships among settings such as home, child care center & school. The stronger and more diverse the links among settings, the more powerful an influence the resulting systems will be on the child's development. In these interrelationships, the initiatives of the child, and the parents' involvement in linking the home and the school, play roles in determining the quality of the child's meso-system.

17. Exo-Systems
The quality of interrelationships among settings is influenced by forces in which the child does not participate, but which have a direct bearing on parents and other adults who interact with the child. These may include the parental workplace, school boards, social service agencies, and planning commissions.

18. Macro-System
Macro-systems represent society at-large. They are the interlocking social forces overarching the world of the child and those interrelationships indirectly influence the shaping of human development. They provide the broad ideological and organizational patterns within which the meso- and exo-systems operate. Macro-systems are not static, but might change through evolution and revolution. For example, war, economic recession, and technological changes may produce such changes.

19. IDEA 1997
Emphasizes family involvement/parent partnerships to a greater degree than it did before

20. General Education Reform Movement
Enhancing the Curriculum and Student Outcomes
A Nation at Risk (1983)
Standards-based education
Restructuring School Governance
Bottom up approach
Concern that compliance is the goal….
Reshaping Service Delivery

21. Overlapping Spheres of Influence of Family, School, and Community on Children’s Learning (Epstein, 1994)
Family
School
Community

22. Model for Partnerships (Epstein, 1994)
Parenting
Communicating
Volunteering
Extending Learning in Home
Decision Making
Collaborating with Community

23. Phases of Special Education Reform
Reshaping FAPE
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
LRE
Due process
Parent participation

24. LRE: Restructuring Placement Decision-Making
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
Continuum of Placements
Mainstreaming
Regular Education Initiative (REI)
Inclusion
As stated in IDEA, the student is to be educated with nondisabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate
To ensure that this principle is applied in making placement decisions, IDEA begins with the premise that the general education classroom is where all children belong

25. Continuum of Placements (From Least to Most Restrictive Environment)
I – General education classroom with no supports
II – Gen ed class + consultant
III – Gen ed class + spec. ed resource room
IV – Spec ed class + some general education
V – Special education classroom 100%
VI – Separate school for students with special needs
VII – Residential School or Homebound/ Hospital instruction program

26. Determining the Least Restrictive Environment
Education placement is decided only after educators and parents agree on the IFSP/IEP
Two important questions:
What is the appropriate placement for the student, given his or her annual goals (IEP)
Which of the placement alternatives is consistent with the principle of LRE?

27. Types of Power (Zipperlen & O’Brien, 1994)
Power-over
Power-with
Power-from-within

28. Activity 1. Working alone:
Describe your experiences with family involvement in education and their possible influences on academic outcomes.
2. Working with a partner or in groups, and using your texts as reference material:
A. Identify some key issues that were previously unknown to you, in regard to the historical, legal, & philosophical basis for family participation in education and family-centered services
B. Describe how your understanding, attitude and/or behavior might be altered by this information.