School Leadership for Students With Disabilities

1. School Leadership for Students With Disabilities Anchor Presentation #6 Project #H325A120003

2. School Leadership District Leadership

3. Partnering With Parents:Ensuring Successful Outcomes for Students With Disabilities Building relationships to secure a positive, productive support system for exceptional learners

4. Parental engagement is one of the largest levers for children’s achievement, and it is not who parents are in terms of their own background or status, but what they do that mattersGoodall, 2013, p.136

5. Objectives • Identify benefits of parent/professional partnering. • Consider the impact of IDEA on parental rights. • Identify key professional behaviors that facilitate successful collaborative relationships. • Compare the traditional family involvement model to the parent/professional partnership model. • Identify ways parents support student achievement in special education.

6. When families and educators work together as partners, it enhances the likelihood that all children will have positive and successful learning experiences.Ferrel, 2012; Núñez, Suárez, Rosário, Vallejo, Valle, & Epstein, 2015

7. Nontraditional family structures • Two-parent family no longer dominant • Range of other structures

8. Parents Have Special Rights Protected by IDEA 2004 • Give/deny consent of schools’ actions. • Disagreewith schools’ decisions. • Guarantee confidentiality. • Ensure right to review records. • Receive prior written notice. • Participate in educational planning meetings. Parents’ rights were a focal point for decades. Rights are still important, but now, emphasis is on how parents support exceptional students’ learning.

9. Supporting Student Achievement Extends Beyond Parental Rights • Welcome families. • Create accessibility. • Encourage participation. • Forge home/school connection. Bryan, 2012

10. Families & IDEA: Historical Perspective IDEA continues this tradition through key principals. Families advocated to significantly shapespecial education legislation. Families now partner with schools to enhance educational opportunities for exceptional leaners. U.S. Department of Education, 2007

11. Gauge Your Familiarity With Best Practices in Partnering (Video Activity) • The SWIFT Center, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXgDX--N9Dc • As you watch the video, list ways family/professional partnerships are supported. Afterward, record several examples. Form a group of three to four people and discuss one example from each person’s list.

12. Reasons for Partnering With Parents • Reduces costly conflict resolution. • Facilitates positive view of educators. • Families advocate across students’ lifespans. • Students enjoy positive life outcomes. Goodall, 2013

13. How Does Traditional Family Involvement Contrast With the Parent/Professional Partnership Model?

14. What Is the Single Largest Determining Factor of Parental Involvement in Schools? The level of parent involvement at schools is not determined by parent interest or apathy, but whether appropriate strategies and structures are in place to facilitate the participation of parents. McLaughlin, 2012

15. Collaborate with educators, agencies, and organizations to support children’s growth and success. Parents Support Student Achievement in a Myriad of Ways Challenge deep-seated, limiting beliefs about disability and education. Share expert knowledge on their children’s strengths, needs, and learning styles. Provide concrete recommendations for effective accommodations. Help develop IEPs that highlight students’ natural talents and skills deficits. Create continuity in learning between home and schools and reinforce new skills. Diliberto & Brewer, 2012; Zaretsky, 2004

16. Six Behaviors That Facilitate Success in All Collaborative Partnerships • Communication. • Commitment. • Equality. • Skills. • Trust. • Respect. These represent parent perspectives from Blue-Banning et al.’s 2004 study on guidelines on effective partnering. Blue-Banning, Summers, Frankland, Lord Nelson, & Begle, 2004

17. 1. Communication • Frequent contact. • Tact and honesty. • Efficiency. • Listening • Openness of information. Blue-Banning et al., 2004

18. Parents and Professionals Have Different Perspectives on Communication Parent Perspective Professional Perspective With me, I talk a lot . . . . I give them so much information . . . . They're really grateful about that because no one else really gives them that much information . . . . They trust me now, you know, and I can help them better if they trust me . . . . I build a lot of relationships through a lot of talking and giving them information and that's important to them. The first thing is to listen to us ... because we know our kids better than anybody . . . . I think some of these people have preconceived notions about everything . . . . So if I tried to say, to tell them [professionals] something, it'd be LISTEN TO ME. • Blue-Banning et al., 2004, p. 175

19. 2. Commitment • Personally valuing families and students. • Flexibility in scheduling meetings. • Reaching out to community resources. Blue-Banning et al., 2004

20. One Principals’ Perspective “It's like I'm not in this field for the money. If you work for a nonprofit, you're not in it for the money . . . So, often times, I'm working with a parent on the IEP, which certainly isn't in my job description. Or I'm giving them SSI information . . . . Sometimes we need to take those stringent hats off . . . . I've gone to IEP meetings. I've gone to people's homes when they couldn't get in to see me and needed a counseling session. So I just sign out for lunch.” Blue-Banning et al., 2004

21. 3. Equality • Equal power. • Balance of resources and rights. • Parent input. • Presenting parents options. Blue-Banning et al., 2004

22. Equality EquatesWith Power Members of a partnership have equity in decision-making and service implementationand feel equally powerful in their ability to influence outcomes for children and families. Blue-Banning et al., 2004

23. Approachability Fosters a Sense of Equality “She's very educated . . . but you would never know it. . . . You know, some people when they have those degrees, they are here up in the air and you know, ‘You be little, you beneath me.’ But she's not that type of person. She's a down-to-earth person.” Blue-Banning, 2004, p. 178

24. 4. Skills • Take action. • Have high expectations for child’s progress. • Meet individual special needs. • Consider the whole child and family. • Be willing to learn. Blue-Banning, 2004

25. A Parent Perspective to Consider... “If she doesn't know anything, she makes sure she finds out . . . . When you ask a question, she makes sure that you get a response to it. And yeah, she's not scared to tell us up front, you know, ‘I don't know.’ Which is one thing that I appreciate . . . . Tell me you don't know and get the information back to us.” Blue-Banning, 2004, p. 178

26. 5. Trust • Reliability. • Consistency. • Follow-through, keeping one’s word. Blue-Banning et al., 2004; Goddard, Salloum, & Berebitsky, 2009

27. One Administrator’s Word on Trust “I think it really comes back to trust. And to the kind of trust that you can establish with that family so that they KNOW that this is a person they can depend on to give them, if not the answer, then to help them find it wherever it exists. Or just to be that listening ear. Maybe there isn't an answer to what the problem is, but at least there's somebody there who isn't going to judge them” Blue-Banning, 2004, p. 179

28. 6. Respect • Develop cultural competence. • Value parents’ right to attend meetings. • Preserve parents’ and students’ privacy. • Acknowledge emotional impact of disability . Blue-Banning et al., 2004

29. Respect Bridges Diversity Gaps • Incorporate family cultures into the classroom and school’s program of community involvement.  • Communicate in languages all family members can understand.   Hutchins, Greenfeld, Epstein, Sanders, & Galindo, 2012

30. Value the Child as a Person, Not a Diagnosis “If they perceive someone as being less than human then they are going to treat that someone as an object . . . . I want (my son) to . . . feel like he belongs to the human race, like there’s a place for him, like he fits in.” Blue-Banning, 2004, p. 179

31. Best Practices in Building School/Parent Partnerships Support Student Achievement Think, Pair, & Share Activity: Handout 2. Find a partner. Think about each scenario and actions that lead to parents’ distrust. Brainstorm with your partner ways to develop parents’ trust. Record your responses in the fourth column. Share your responses with your larger group.

32. Decision Making: Include families as participants in school decisions; facilitateparent leadership. Parenting: Assist families with parenting skills and supporting student learning at home. Learning at Home: Involve families with their children on homework and curriculum-related activities and decisions. A Model for Action: School Partnering With Parents Collaborating With the Community: Coordinate community resources and services for families, students, and school; serve the community. Volunteering: Organize parent volunteers to support school and students; provide volunteer opportunities. Communicating: Conduct effective communications from school-to-home school programs and student progress. Epstein et al., 2009

33. Parents’ Support Has a Measurable Impact on Student Achievement Skill improvement. Increased motivation. Attendance and retention. Homework completion. Positive behavior. Increased quality of relationships. Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, Soodak, & Shogren, 2015, p. 298

34. Parents Support Student Achievement by . . . Challenging preconceived beliefs. Sharing expert knowledge. Providing feedback. Providing learning continuity. Diliberto & Brewer, 2012; Zaretsky, 2004

35. Conclusion:Ponder How Leaders Facilitate. . . • Welcoming and connecting with all families and students. • Families as authentic partners in decisionmaking. • Meaningful engagement of families with every facet of their child’s learning. • Parents as long-term advocates.

36. References Blue-Banning, M., Summers, J. A., Frankland, H. C., Lord Nelson, L., & Begle, G. (2004). Dimensions of family and professional partnerships: Constructive guidelines for collaboration. Exceptional Children, 70(2), 167-184. Bryan, J. (2012). A model for building school-family-community partnerships: Principles and process. Journal of Counseling and Development, 90(4), 408-420. Diliberto, J., & Brewer, D. (2012). Six tips for successful IEP meetings. Teaching Exceptional Children, 47(2), 128-135. doi:10.1177/0040059914553205 Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Sheldon, S. B., Simon, B. S. , Salinas, K. C, Jansorn, N. R., . . . Williams, K. J. (2009). School, family, and community partnership: Your handbook for action (3rd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Ferrel, J. (2012). Family engagement and children with disabilities. A resource guide for educators and parents. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Research Project. Goddard, R. D., Salloum, S. J., & Berebitsky, D. (2009). Trust as mediator of the relationships between poverty, racial composition, and academic achievement: Evidence from Michigan’s public elementary schools. Education Administration Quarterly, 45(2), 292-311. Goodall, J. S. (2013). Parental belief and parental engagement: How do they interact? Journal of Beliefs and Values, 34(1), 87-99.

37. References Harris, A., & Goodall, J. (2007). Engaging parents in raising achievement—Do parents know they matter? Retrieved from http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/3469/1/Engaging%20parents%20and%20raising%20achievement_Alma%20Harris_2007%20.pdf Hutchins, D. J., Greenfeld, M. D., Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., & Galindo, C. (2012). Multicultural partnerships: Involve all families. New York, NY: Routledge. McLaughlin, M. (2012). Six principles for principals to consider in implementing CCSS for students with disabilities. Principal. Retrieved from http://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/McLaughlin_2012.pdf Núñez, J., Suárez, N., Rosário, P., Vallejo, G., Valle, A., & Epstein, J. (2015). Relationships between perceived parental involvement in homework, student homework behaviors, and academic achievement: Differences among elementary, junior high, and high school students. Metacognition and Learning, 10(3), 375-406. Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (2015). Transforming education. Retrieved from http://www.swiftschools.org Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., Erwin, E., Soodak, L, & Shogren, K. (2015). Families, professionals, and exceptionality: Positive outcomes through partnerships and trust. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. U.S. Department of Education (2007). Twenty-five years of progress in educating children with disabilities through IDEA. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/leg/idea/history.html Zaretsky, L. (2004). Advocacy and administration: from conflict to collaboration, Journal of Educational Administration, 42(2), 270-286.