Project Partnership was designed to promote parent/professional collaboration in the education of young handicapped children. The project intended to have positive impacts on the home and on the teachers, who are asked to allow for greater communication between the school and home by redefining their roles. The project's approaches include team…

Parents of handicapped children can provide valuable assistance to child caregivers and should be encouraged to become involved in the observation and education of their handicapped child. However, obstacles to optimal parent-caregiver cooperation may exist. Parents and caregivers may have different views of the infant and differ in knowledge of…

Parental involvement among Latino migrant families is hindered by their unique lifestyle. Teachers should develop strategies that facilitate their partnership with migrant parents. Teachers must become aware of their own personal beliefs and biases and of the migrant family lifestyle and its challenges, which are compounded when a child has…

This digest discusses the problems that service providers and family members from different cultural backgrounds may encounter when planning for students with disabilities. It begins by identifying the following assumptions that underlie a clinical perspective of disability: disability is a physical phenomenon, disability is an individual…

Examines parent-teacher relationships in early childhood programs, including those for children with disabilities, across five eras of the 20th century. The general approaches have been the earlier tendency to view parents as learners in need of information and the recent trend to involve them in program decision making. (SLD)

Given the centrality of parent-professional partnerships in British government educational policy and the widespread reality of parent dissatisfaction, this article identifies key challenges to partnerships. These are: (1) defining partnership and associated processes; (2) achieving consensus about the purpose of the partnership and partner roles;…

A survey of 989 service providers for handicapped children, age 0-6, examined the degree to which early intervention activities focus on the family. The survey assessed perceptions of the value of working with parents, time devoted to family-focused activities, kinds of services offered, achievement of objectives, and factors impeding services.…

This article discusses provisions of Public Law 99-457 and suggests that this law sets the stage for the development of family-centered services for young children with disabilities. The approach presented emphasizes identification of families' strengths and needs as a basis for implementing community-based programs, with professionals serving as…

Interviews with nine families and staff of an early intervention program for young children with disabilities found that staff members maintained beliefs about themselves as primary decision makers regarding development and implementation of Individualized Family Service Plans and that families perceived the early intervention program as more…

Children with emotional and behavioral disorders present unique challenges to persons working with them, and educators and parents must deal with the difficulties on a daily basis. The article examines the effect on the home environment, explaining how educators can work with parents to create positive home learning environments. (SM)

Special-education teachers (N=673) rank-ordered recommendations for improving communication between teachers and parents concerning homework for students with disabilities. Results support the importance of general educators and parents monitoring homework, provision of opportunities for parents and teachers to communicate, exploration of…

At Montpelier (Vermont) High School, faculty members, in collaboration with University of Vermont colleagues, received a federal U.S. Department of Education grant to make personalized learning plans based on students' strengths and goals a reality for disabled and nondisabled students. The process empowered students and enhanced family…

Discusses how caregivers can help parents of children with disabilities through the grieving process. Outlines the stages of grieving, focusing on parents' emotional response, and offers specific suggestions for teachers. Asserts that when caregivers are sensitive to the possibility that parents of children with disabilities are grieving, they are…

The manual focuses on the development of a school-level home/school information system to improve communication and understanding of special education programs. A step-by-step plan for developing such a system is addressed in terms of five major topics (sample subtopics in parentheses): basic information gathering (surveys and needs assessment),…

Examines the importance of including families in the education of young handicapped children and discusses trends in the foci of family involvement programs of recent years. Describes the family involvement component of the Precise Early Education of Children with Handicaps (PEECH) outreach project. (Author)