School Story
Engaging Successfully with Students and Families
These strategies underscore research and best practices, along with short, medium, and long-term solutions, as vital for fostering positive relationships and engagement with students and families.
Strategy B
Provide ongoing job-embedded professional learning supports targeted to educators' needs.
Strategy C
Engage and empower families through regular communication that recognizes their unique needs.
School Story
Principal Rivera: Mismatched Expectations at Home and School
Learn from Principal Rivera as he leads by example in strengthening partnerships with families of students with disabilities while building special educators' capacity for supporting effective family engagement.
Strategy A
Understand and support IDEA implementation.
Work with special and general educators to identify and address barriers and challenges related to family participation as required by IDEA.
Possible Actions
- Educate yourself, and your staff, about family engagement requirements in IDEA (e.g., parent participation in the IEP process).
- Build relationships with parents and advocacy groups to enhance your understanding and ability to support teachers, students, and families effectively.
- Work with staff to establish expectations around how often and when they should communicate with families.
- Leverage your educator evaluation system to identify staff who demonstrate effective family engagement practices and encourage them to lead professional development sessions.
Commit to attending some IEP meetings and reviewing the child's goals, objectives, and progress prior to the meeting.
Possible Actions
- Set aside time in your calendar so schedulers know when you are available to attend.
- Make sure families understand their rights as it relates to participating in the development and monitoring of their child's IEP.
- Utilize "IEPs at a Glance" or summary sheets to facilitate communication between administrators and educators.
- Prepare a list of students’ strengths to emphasize during IEP meetings.
- Review each student’s IEP and assess its effectiveness in providing students appropriate, specially designed instruction in the least restrictive environment. Guide the team toward additional services, accommodations, or modifications, as needed.
- Understand the different sources of special education funding to identify what resources are available, the costs of various special education services and supports, and how resources can be allocated or reallocated to meet the needs of students with disabilities.
- Offer a brief parent/family survey after IEP or eligibility meetings to gauge satisfaction with provided services.
Pursue learning opportunities, both individually and as a staff, that enhance IDEA knowledge and expertise related to family engagement.
Possible Actions
- Familiarize yourself with IDEA to understand the rights and protections it offers to students with disabilities and their families.
- Establish a regular cadence for collaborating with your special education director to better understand and proactively address common family concerns regarding the provision of services.
- Perform both formal and informal pulse checks with special and general educators to assess their perceptions of the effectiveness of engagement strategies.
- Establish a process for sharing feedback with staff, as well as families, throughout the year.
Strategy B
Provide ongoing job-embedded professional learning supports targeted to educators' needs.
Organize regular workshops that focus on effective communication techniques, cultural competency, and strategies for involving families in the educational process.
Possible Actions
- Survey teachers on professional learning needs related to family engagement.
- Leverage new research and supporting resources to identify effective, evidence-based practices that promote active family involvement in the IEP process (e.g., IES practice guide below).
- Promote the use of reflective practices in which teachers regularly assess and seek to understand the impact of their interactions on relationships with families.
- Establish systems that ensure families have open lines of communication to discuss students’ behavioral challenges.
- Integrate opportunities to role-play and discuss best practices for family engagement during professional learning sessions.
Provide resources that support parents with understanding at-home intervention strategies that empower children with disabilities, including positive behavioral techniques.
Possible Actions
- Provide educators with practical resources, such as guides and toolkits, to share with families during conferences, IEP meetings, and grade reporting periods. These resources should include practical tips and strategies for managing challenging behaviors at home.
- Set up processes for teachers to work with families to develop positive behavioral intervention plans for implementation at school and home.
- Facilitate collaboration between school-based support professionals (e.g., service providers) and community-based support professionals (e.g., mental health professionals, medical professionals) to support family needs.
Integrate family engagement and behavior management strategies into existing mentoring and induction programs.
Possible Actions
- Identify veteran and experienced special or general educators in your building who display highly effective family engagement practices to serve as mentors for new special educators.
- Encourage mentors to model and role-play positive behavioral techniques with new general and special educators.
- Check in with mentors to understand their professional learning needs and ensure that they are receiving support.
- Schedule regular check-ins with both mentors and new special educators to gather feedback and data on the quality of supports (e.g., coaching, induction, professional learning) offered to new teachers.
Strategy C
Engage and empower families through regular communication and openness.
Build staff capacity to learn about their students and their families.
Possible Actions
- Be accessible to families, and model compassionate problem solving.
- Engage in and offer teachers professional learning opportunities focused on engaging families from diverse backgrounds.
- Help staff understand their families’ boundaries and preferences for receiving communications (e.g., email/telephone call/text, frequency).
- Employ technology to translate messages into families’ home languages, and help teachers do the same, to overcome any language barriers and ensure that all communication is accessible.
- Regularly reflect on your own biases and assumptions and help your teachers do the same.
Build strong relationships with the school community, including students.
Possible Actions
- Build positive relationships with families by modeling empathy and understanding their perspectives.
- Participate in community advocacy events and activities to build trust and rapport with families and community members.
- Celebrate cultural diversity through school events and programs that highlight different traditions and customs.
Engage students with disabilities and their families as leaders and active participants who serve on decision-making committees that inform policies, practices, and programs.
Possible Actions
- Engage regularly with volunteer groups in your school community, such as special education advisory councils, to gather input and understand advocacy related to special education programs and services in your building.
- Provide opportunities and require families of students with disabilities to serve on various committees or boards that reflect the diversity of the student population to inform school policies and programs.
- Encourage families of students with disabilities in your district or school to sign up for or lead parent training (e.g., advertise trainings in weekly newsletters to families).
- Conduct surveys and hold focus groups to gather input from families about their needs and concerns; use that information to improve policy and practice.
Resources
Strategies for Family Engagement
Principal Leadership: Moving Toward Inclusive and High-Achieving Schools for Students with Disabilities (Page 34–39)
Conversations With Family Leaders Video Series
Preparing and Supporting Emerging Family Leaders
The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships
Leading by Convening: A Blueprint for Authentic Engagement
Solutions in Action
Engaging Successfully with Students and Families
Danielle C. Singh, School Principal, Janney Elementary School, Washington, District Of Columbia
In this video, learn how an elementary school uses newsletters and phone apps to enhance communication with parents of students with disabilities while also helping teachers maintain effective boundaries.
Related IDEA Considerations
To ensure that families are actively involved in the special education process, schools must actively build partnerships with families (as mandated by 20 U.S.C. § 1412 (s) (5)). For example, schools must ensure that parents can participate in IEP meetings by providing adequate notice; scheduling at mutually convenient times; and using alternative means of participation, such as telephone or virtual conferences, when necessary. They also must ensure that parents understand the meeting proceedings by offering interpreters or other accessibility supports, and they must provide a copy of the IEP in their preferred language at no cost. If parents cannot attend, the school must document efforts to involve them, including telephone calls, letters, or visits. Likewise, parents are considered equal members of the IEP team, and their input should be included and considered in IEP development (34 C.F.R. § 300.306 (c) (1) (i)).
IDEA also requires that schools regularly report progress monitoring data to parents of students with disabilities (34 C.F.R. § 300.320 (a) (3) (i)). Schools must provide parents with periodic reports on their child’s progress toward meeting the annual goals outlined in the IEP. This typically occurs at the same time as report cards are issued for all students. The progress reports should clearly communicate how the student is progressing toward their IEP goals and objectives. Per IDEA, parents can request additional meetings if they have concerns about their child’s progress.
Active family involvement is essential to foster collaboration and improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities.