Families and Transition

1. Families and Transition

2. Family involvement in education tends to decrease across the middle level and high school, yet remains a powerful predictor of adolescents’ academic achievement and other positive outcomes. Kreider, Caspe, Kennedy, & Weiss (2007)

3. Family involvement in secondary education is associated with higher rates of college enrollment. Zarrett& Eccles(2006)

4. The academic encouragement parents provide to their adolescents is even more powerful than the support provided by friends. Sands & Plunkett (2005)

5. Evaluation studies increasingly demonstrate that intervention programs can strengthen family involvement with positive results for youth school success. Bouffard(2007)

6. Harvard Family Research Project: http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/publications-series/family-involvement-makes-a-difference/family-involvement-in-middle-and-high-school-students-education

7. PARENTING Kreider, Caspe, Kennedy, & Weiss (2007) SYLES & RELATIONSHIPS MONITORING

8. HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS Kreider, Caspe, Kennedy, & Weiss (2007) COMMUNICATION PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL-BASED ORGANIZATIONS AND COLLEGE OUTREACH PROGRAMS

9. RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEARNING OUTCOMES Kreider, Caspe, Kennedy, & Weiss (2007) HOMEWORK MANAGEMENT EDUCATIONAL EXPECTATIONS ENCOURAGEMENT FOR COLLEGE

10. Parenting + Home-school relationships + Responsibility for learning outcomes = Adolescent outcomes • HIGHER GRADES • SCHOOL SUCCESS • HIGHER STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES • HIGHER SELF-ESTEEM • SOCIAL COMPETENCE • REDUCTION IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE • ASPIRATION FOR COLLEGE • ENROLLMENT IN COLLEGE • PARTICIPAATION IN OUT-OF-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

11. If family involvement is so important, why isn't it happening? 1. Where do I find the time? 2. What do I do? 3. How do I get past the cultural barriers? 4. Where do students find supportive environments?

12. Is the school “family friendly”? • Are there signs & posters around the school? • Is there a family resource section containing books, videos, and magazines? • Are families welcome in classrooms? If yes, what are the procedures? Are they cumbersome? Is prior authorization necessary? Is there a time limit? • Do we encourage family volunteers? How? For what tasks? (Clerical? fund raising? Working with the kids?) • Do we have a suggestion box for families? If so, do we respond to the suggestions?

13. Family representatives in our schools • Professional committees (school improvement, curriculum, program planning, policy development, etc.)? • Vision statement development • Faculty and team meetings • family mentor program • Active parent-student-teacher association, leadership, and issues of concern

14. …families in our schools • Parent-teacher & IEP Conferences • Family surveys • Ongoing evaluation plan • Home visits and phone calls • “Parents know their children best”

15. Challenges to parents Stop feeling insignificant in the presence of professionals. Look for professionals who are willing to team up with you. Know that only you have critical information about your child with a disability. Never think that you should apologize for seeking the assistance of professionals to develop programs for your sons and daughters. Do everything you can to see that neither you nor professionals waste a child's precious time. Conquer the fear that if you speak out on behalf of your son or daughter, you and your child will suffer. More often than not, the opposite happens. Your son or daughter is usually better off because you had the courage to speak. If you become successful at generating power on behalf of your son or daughter, do not hide your story under a bushel. Be unabashed about sharing the steps you took with parents who are still standing at the bottom of the well of powerlessness.

16. The role of parents in the education of their children cannot be overestimated. By becoming involved in their local school community, parents can provide the essential leadership which will lead to improvements in educational opportunities for their children. ---Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

17. Address communication barriers Put a telephone in the classrooms. Provide voice mail systems with pre-recorded messages describing classroom activities. Use audio and video tapes to communicate with parents who may not read. Use the Internet to communicate. Provide access through the school or community libraries to parents who may not own a computer.

18. Family-School Communication Avoid the “Bad News Book” Survey all team members (including the student) to see what form of on-going communication best suits everyone

19. Capacity vs Deficits When questioned about their feelings regarding involvement at IEP meetings, many parents indicate that they wage a constant battle to be listened to and included as active, respected, members of the team. Parents share their frustration at the attitude of 'them vs. us' that sometimes prevails and they state feeling of isolation during an often negative, deficit based orientation to meetings.

20. Cyclical nature of Grief • Shock • Denial • Anger • Depression • Physical symptoms of distress • Inability to renew normal activities • Guilt feelings • Gradually overcoming grief • Readjustments to new realities Monica Acord “Nine Stages of Grief”

21. Many families feel educators are unaware of the importance of, and their potential impact on, shattered dreams and the cyclical nature of grieving. Do they realize, for instance, that for families of children with disabilities the feelings associated with grieving are cyclical, rather than occurring in sequential stages as might be found following the death of a loved one? Families feel it is also important for professionals to understand what situations, comments, and conversations trigger a response which takes family members back into this cyclical nature of grieving.

22. "Transition can't magically happen when a student is a year or two away from leaving school, it has to be a thought-through procedure. Transition has to include collaboration between parents and the different services or it all falls apart." - a parent

23. Parent perspectives ”Professionals need to let parents get through the "feeling part" of transition instead of getting bogged down in solving problems. If professionals let parents express their feelings and talk it out, then they'll be able to work together. The problem of having a child [with a disability] is never going to be solved.”

24. "Professionals should be able to individualize how to get parents involved based on where they are; not where professionals think they should be. All parents are not the same.”

25. "The transition process should begin with parents because they're the most consistent persons in the student's life and they know the student best.”

26. "The most important thing about the individualized transition plan is that it designates what the school will do, what the parent will do, and what the adult service provider will do to ensure an employment outcome when the student leaves school.... I am now getting three calls a week from parents who are wanting vocational outcomes for their children and want to know how to get it started.”

27. Tips for Partnering with Parents Use parents to train other parents to create credibility, confidence, and trust When talking about work, use experiential examples or video of people actually working Provide seminars to parents Take parents and students to visit potential worksites. Ask adults with disabilities, including mental retardation and other developmental disabilities, to present their views and experiences with transition Organize a panel of parents at different stages in the transition process Ask a number of different adult service providers to describe their programs at a parent meeting

28. Resources Kreider, Caspe, Kennedy, & Weiss (2007) • Brief Strategic Family Therapy www.brief-strategic-family-therapy.com/bsft • Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/tips/TIPSmain.htm • Making a Decision about College… www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/teaching-case/college.html • Bibliography on Family Involvement in Adolescence www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/bibliography/adolescents.html

29. Low Parent Expectations: Reasons inexperience with possible outcomes, lack of information regarding possible resources and services, long waiting lists, financial disincentives, and desire for security.

30. Make successful transitions Identify criteria that are important for the family and the student when choosing a place to live, work, and community activities. In other words, what are the student's and family's definition of "quality of life"? What is their vision of the future? Identify programs that meet this vision and/or match their definitions of quality of life. Determine what skills the student will need to function in both current and future community environments. Write transition goals and objectives for the IEP to teach the student the skills needed for successful placement in adult services. Make lifelong plans that address legal, ethical, and financial considerations (e.g., estate planning, guardianship, financial benefits, etc.).