The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) greatly emphasizes the participation of the child’s family during the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Parents and/or caregivers are considered one of the most essential members of their child’s IEP team. Their involvement benefits their child’s overall academic success. Unfortunately, full parental involvement does not always occur and there can be many different reasons for their nonparticipation. The IEP process can be a very overwhelming experience for families with children with special needs, especially for those who are culturally diverse. It is the job of the professionals and special education teachers to understand the importance of collaborating with family’s and strategies used to make them feel welcomed and a part of their child’s IEP team. In order to understand what professionals can do to enhance collaboration with culturally diverse families, it is helpful to know what some of their perspectives are of their experiences with the IEP process. Lusa Lo (2008) conducted a study that investigated Chinese families’ level of participation and experiences in the IEP meeting and found that many of the participants were unhappy with the experience. The first challenge they reported was the language barrier. Although there was a translator present, she was not trained in special education and therefore could not translate commonly used terms for the families. Another challenge reported was that they felt disrespected and that their opinions were not valued. Professionals would arrive late or leave early making the families feel as though they were not important. Unfortunately, this study is just one small example of only some of the challenges that cultu... ... middle of paper ... ...ut there are many things that need to be considered in order to build that trusting and positive relationship. Professionals need to be respectful and knowledgeable of the values and beliefs of the family they are working with by researching background information on their culture before meeting with the family. Professionals need to provide culturally diverse families with the skills and knowledge they need in order to understand the special education system and help them become advocates for their children. Lastly, schools should provide trainings, not only for parents, but also for professionals to help build and learn new skills. While there are many barriers to parental participation, with all of these strategies combined, it is more likely that schools will see more family involvement and parents will feel like a valid member of their child’s IEP team.
Parents have the right to be included in placement decisions, IEP developments, and evaluations. Schools should collaborate and communicate consistently with family members due to the fact they know their child better than anyone else and can be a powerful resource, as well as an advocate, for their development and education (American Foundation for the Blind, 2015). Furthermore, information regarding a student’s disability is highly confidential. IDEA clarifies that such information may be shared with only individuals who are working directly with the student (Friend, 2014).
District personnel must ensure that the IEP is implemented; they must coordinate the agreed-upon placement and services that are listed in the IEP; and they must obtain parental consent before providing special education services. If parents refuse to consent, the district is not obligated to provide the student with a FAPE or to convene future IEP meetings. Additionally, the district cannot challenge parental refusal through due process. In other words, parents have the right to insist that their child is not provided special education and related services even after an evaluation has confirmed that the student is in need of these
There is an imperative need for parents should make an effort to get involved with the IEP process and what it entails and teachers should help them with that by including them in the IEP meeting Along with being in consent communication with parents’ in-between IEP meetings. Furthermore, it is important to use reliable resources to measure the child capacity, needs and desires to developed the best plan for them. The IEP team most collect data to help them develop the right plan for a student. Using this knowledge can help in many ways as an educator and teacher. Not only is parent involvement is imperative but students should be involved in IEP meetings so that they know what perversions that they are entitled. Partnership between parents, teachers and students in a student’s transition is a major factor in contributing to effective
Parents play a critical role in the planning of educational programs for their children. In efforts to increase parental involvement, instructions were added to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that mandated active parental participation during the preparation of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). According to Lo (2008), when IDEA was reauthorized in 2004, additional parental rights were added that required the attendance of parents and every member of an IEP Team, unless both the parent and school agree to an absence and document that agreement in writing. That mandate emphasizes the importance of parental participation in educational programming for their children.
There are many tools too use to test each individual, so each one gest their requirement needed to they can successfully get a full education. An IEP is a very important document to have for each student who has a disability to have as they enter the school system; this document makes a big impact on a child’s success in school, The IEP will fallow the child from kindergarten to grade 12. Mainstreaming students is an important thing but only if you have the right resources to do
Unfortunately, a lot of parents may have a difficult time accepting their child, and coping with their needs and the responsibilities. From the book “The Elephant in the Playroom,” some families dealt with depression and physical and mental deterioration of their health. These struggles were shown in the story by Laura Cichoracki. Laura’s son’s name was Patrick. Patrick was a 6-years-old boy with autism. “I wasn’t eating right, I wasn’t showering regularly, I wasn’t sleeping well” (Brodey, p. 64). I also read the story told by Susan Marrash-Minnerly, which highlighted emotions that parents face. Susan also shed light on how wonderful children with special needs can be to a family, such as her ten-year-old third grader who had autism. Susan talked about how it was normal to feel angry at times, especially with the ups and downs a child’s disability may come with. “When I look back, I want to tell other parents that a child’s future is worth grieving over – but it’s not the end of the world” (Brodey, p. 75). After reading these stories, it became apparent to me that families who are raising kids with special needs, need support, kindness, and available resources. “I was fortunate to be surrounded by other moms who understood my pain…who could be supportive and emphatic.” (Brodey, p. 67). Overall, educators can use this kind of information that was shared in “The Elephant in the Playroom” about family systems and risk/resiliency by creating lines of open communication between families. This is to connect parents together that share similar struggles. By creating open communication is can allows for the teacher and parents to be on the same page when it comes to the issues affecting special needs students and
As my research would show, there are many ways we can reduce stigma and I have learned new ideas and techniques from my research. The special education program is an effective program when it is properly used. However, the special education program is not always properly used. The IEP process is a long and hard journey to embark on. For some people, the process is not worth the accommodations and help the process provides to the student. There are many horrors...
"The Americans With Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in American History. The preamble to the law states that it covers 43,000,000 Americans."(Frierson, p.3) Before the Americans With Disabilities Act(A.D.A.) was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the persons physical disability were they turned away or released from a job. The Americans With Disabilities Act prevented this type of discrimination by establishing rules and regulations designed to protect persons with physical disabilities. With a workforce made up of 43,000,000 people, it is impossible to ignore the impact of these people. The Americans With Disabilities Act not only opened the door for millions of Americans to get back into the workplace, it is paving the road for new facilities in the workplace, new training programs and creating jobs designed for a disabled society.
I chose to do my paper on students with Individualized Education Program’s for this fact alone. The majority of these students do not look any different from the other students. They want to be a part of the general education classroom setting. They may have mainstreaming and inclusion with IEP’s which makes the lives for these students more thriving. The main goal I have discovered in my reading of Individualized Education Program is placing the student at the center. The student is the main priority and their IEP focuses on meeting their educational needs. In reading, Inclusion and Mainstreaming I learned in the past, physically and mentally disabled children were often stricken form society and placed in separate institutions. This ended on November 29, 1975 when the Education for all Handicapped Children Act was signed. The Act required the government to provide ample funding for all handicapped children from ages 3-...
In 1991 the Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was replaced by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This law was passed to provide free and appropriate public education to every child with a disability. It requires that each child with a disability “have access to the program best suited to that child’s special needs which is as close as possible to a normal child’s educational program” (Martin, 1978). The Individualized education program (IEP) was developed to help provide a written record of students’ needs and procedures for each child that receives special education services. The IEP will list all the services to be provided, the student's performance level, academic performance, and modifications in place for the student.
The Individualized Education Program is developed by a team that includes the parents of the student, a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a school representative (principal), a person knowledgeable about evaluation (school psychologist), and others at request of IEP participants. The primary job of the IEP team is to plan a program of special education and related services that is reasonably calculated to provide a meaningful education benefit. The IEP Process includes a review of assessme...
For a special education student to be successful and reach their true potential, it takes a collaborative effort between both the special education and general education teacher. Both teachers need to have an understanding of each student’s disability and unique academic needs. Both teachers play vital roles in participating as part of the IEP team, providing professional input, and best practices to develop the student’s IEP, which will provide all stakeholders in the child’s education the accommodations and modifications for the special needs child to be successful in the
There are many things that need to be included in an IEP. There are the obvious things like the students name and identifying information. Also, the date that the special services will begin, where the services will be delivered, and the duration to which these services will extend. Places to which these services can be administered include schools, homes, and/or hospitals. The age for which services can begin are at the age of 3 and end at the age of 21. Another thing that will be included in the IEP is a statement of the child’s present academic achievement and functional performance. This may include how the child’s disability affects his/her performance in the general education classroom, or how a child may be unable to participate in certain activities. After identifying the child’s problems in the general education curriculum, goals can be put into place. These goals include both academic and functional goals that are designed to allow the child to progress in the general education curriculum. There must also be assessment information in the IEP. This information includes
Full and fair access to educational opportunities was often denied to children who were different because of race, culture, language, gender, or exceptionality (Banks and Banks 293). Because local school officials did not have any legal obligation to grant students with disabilities the same educational access that other non disabled students enjoyed, many schools denied enrollment to children with learning disabilities. This exclusion had to be corrected making it necessary to make laws governing the education of exceptional children. As a consequence, in 1975 Law 94-142, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law has changed education throughout the country affecting and changing the roles of special educators, schools, administrators, parents and many other professionals involved in the...
The problem not only affects the family’s life but it also affects the child’s ability to learn and be productive at school. Children requires a lot of attention and love on a daily basis, however, having a child that has a disability requires extra attention and love because they are trying to understand the world through a different set of lens. This could become a problem especially if there are multiple children in the household. In often cases, the amount of attention that the parents give to the child in need obstruct the family dynamic because of the pa...