Response to Catherine's Research

Parent involvement is so important in the educational success of all children, especially children with specialized learning and behavior needs.  Your research continued to bring this idea to light.  The roles of parents were defined as advocate and intervention agents.  Success calls for a constant presence throughout a students life in order to successful meet goals, whatever those goals may be.  The centralized theme of the research you sited focused on a partnership between parents and the school community.  Two goals for the partnership is to have barriers broken down so parents feel apart of the IEP process and continued support for the parents.  Although these concepts may seem simple they can often be a struggle to maintain.

Setting the expectation that parents are fully included can be a difficult charge.  For some parents they have access to resources, help from additional family members, and health care that affords work with specialists.  For many others they are thrown into the world of special education with little to no idea of what all this may mean and what they are entitled to under the law.  Educating these parents can be a way to bridge the gap between their understanding of services.  Always keeping in mind being culturally responsive to their needs.

While reading your research I continued to reflect upon my former students who often did not have stable home environments.  Their parents where often not even their primary care givers.  I question what will continue to happen to them.  The arguments for collaboration are rooted in research and show positive gains for students, so what happens to the students who don't even have an adult present at an IEP meeting, let alone acting as an intervention agent.  I would be interested to see the data of what happens to students this type of collaboration does not happen and what do teachers do in these types of cases.  The spectrum on this topic can be huge and swing in both directions.