School Story
Principal Rivera:
Differing Expectations: Home and School
At Oak Ridge Elementary School, Principal Rivera hears from several families that they feel disconnected from their child’s IEP team. Some families express frustration about inconsistent or a lack of communication about their child’s progress related to both academics and behavior, and feel their input is not meaningfully integrated throughout the IEP process. Some families also struggle with navigating language barriers and cultural differences before, during, and after IEP meetings.
After he discusses this feedback with his special education team, Principal Rivera realizes that he is contributing to this problem by allowing the responsibility for family engagement to fall solely on special educators. Overall, the teachers feel unrecognized for their efforts and successes connecting with families.
Upon reflection, Principal Rivera recognizes that by not establishing expectations related to family engagement for all staff, or prioritizing schoolwide professional development focused on engaging families of students with IEPs, Oak Ridge Elementary staff do not share this responsibility. He recognizes his own role contributing to uncertainty among IEP teams about when and how they should reach out to families of students with disabilities in between IEP meetings, including how to regularly communicate student progress and behavioral needs. This situation is especially true for nonnative English-speaking families; teachers feel that language barriers and cultural differences make it difficult to communicate effectively.
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Principal Actions
Principal Rivera commits to leading by example to strengthen partnerships with families of students with disabilities at Oak Ride Elementary. He begins by thoroughly reviewing a select group of IEPs, including each student’s progress toward goals and objectives, prior to annual meetings, thus taking greater ownership of special education programming in his building. He familiarizes himself with IDEA’s requirements regarding family participation during the IEP development and implementation process. He also consults the latest resources from his state department of education's office of special education, as well as federal technical assistance centers, to better understand how he can develop his staff’s capacity to collaborate and communicate effectively with families of students with disabilities.
Principal Rivera also leads reflective discussions and focus groups with special and general educators to identify barriers to family engagement. He begins working with both his special education and leadership teams to generate solutions. Through these processes, Oak Ridge staff begin building better relationships with parents and advocacy groups, and learn how to students with disabilities and their families more effectively.
Principal Rivera also prioritizes recognizing his highly effective special educators and understanding how they support effective family engagement. He provides opportunities for peer observations and organizes regular workshops focused on compassionate communication and strategies for involving families in the learning process. To emphasize the importance of this with new teachers, Principal Rivera ensures that they are familiar with high-leverage practices for students with disabilities and embeds them into the school’s mentoring and induction program.
Lastly, Principal Rivera builds the capacity of all educators to learn about students and their families and helps them engage in self-reflection to uncover personal biases and bridge cultural understanding. Taking a community perspective on engaging families, he also focuses on strengthening his partnerships with local special education parent advocacy groups. By implementing these solutions, Principal Rivera addresses many of his early challenges related to the engagement of students with disabilities and their families, improves overall teacher/family communication, and creates stronger connections between students’ homes and their educational environments.
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Toolkit
Engaging Successfully with Students and Families
Explore strategies that research and best practices highlight, along with short, medium, and long-term solutions, as crucial for successfully communicating, coordinating, and engaging with students with disabilities and their families.