EDU 442

Teaming, Collaborating, and Communicating:

Building Relationships Between Professionals, Families of Young Children with Special Needs, and

Community Agencies

Chapter One

Historical and Current Roles of Families and Parents

Parents as the Source of Their Child’s Disabilities

• Eugenics Movement (1880-1930)

• 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…..

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

Parents as Service Developers

• During the 1950s and 1960s developed services for children at all ages

• Parents should be supported to be parents first

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

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

Parents as Political Advocates

• ARC, CEC

• P.L. 94-142 and five major amendments since then (IDEA)

• Additional case law– In Illinois:

• Marie O case http://laws.findlaw.com/7th/963609.html

• Corey H case http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/7th/012707.html

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)Legislation providing services for young children

with disabilities (1968: model demonstration grants)

• 1975: Public Law 94-142 “Education for all Handicapped Children Act” Provided 5-21 FAPE

• 1986: P.L. 99-457 passed as an amendment to 94-142 (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

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

Chapter Two

Schools as Systems: The Context for Family-Professional Collaboration

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

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".

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

IDEA 1997

• Emphasizes family involvement/parent partnerships to a greater degree than it did before

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

Overlapping Spheres of Influence of Family, School, and Community on Children’s

Learning (Epstein, 1994)

• Family

• School

• Community

Model for Partnerships(Epstein, 1994)

• Parenting

• Communicating

• Volunteering

• Extending Learning in Home

• Decision Making

• Collaborating with Community

Phases of Special Education Reform

• Reshaping FAPE

• Zero reject

• Nondiscriminatory evaluation

• LRE

• Due process

• Parent participation

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

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

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?

Types of Power(Zipperlen & O’Brien, 1994)

• Power-over

• Power-with

• Power-from-within

Activity1. 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.