Successful Inclusion Involves Families Engaging Families to Support Student Inclusion

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Successful Inclusion Involves Families!Engaging
Families to Support Student Inclusion Progress
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Ensuring Access Progress

• High expectations
• Information on student strengths that can be used
  to master curriculum
• Information on how students disability impacts
  learning

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Ensuring Access Progress

• Sufficient exposure to general curriculum
• Effective instructional strategies
• Needed supports
• Authentic assessment

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Role of Families

• Share information about childs strengths, needs
  and learning styles
• Set communicate high expectations to child
  professionals
• Be aware of core curriculum standards

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Family Role

• Learn about share information on effective
  instructional strategies
• Monitor childs progress in learning at home and
  school
• Communicate with school re childs learning
• Support participation in assessment with
  accommodations

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Family Role

• Be an ongoing member of the evaluation, IEP, and
  instructional team
• Participate in school district activities
• Supporting individual student learning
• Focused on improvement (NCLB, Special Education
  Parent Advisory Council, PTA/PTSO, etc.)

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Strategies to Assist Families

• Develop concise descriptions of core curriculum
  standards expectations at each grade level
  translate into multiple languages share with
  families through PTA/PTSO, NCLB Parent Advisory
  Council, Special Ed PAC, PTI/CPRC

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Strategies to Assist Families

• When discussing evaluation components, describe
  how each relates to identifying student
  strengths, needs, learning styles and is
  connected to standards for all

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It starts with the evaluation

• How does the childs disability affect
  involvement progress in the general curriculum?
• How does the childs disability affect
  social-emotional development, behavior,
  functional life skills, self-awareness, ability
  to communicate?
• What are the childs strengths?

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Helpful Tools for Families

• Positive student profile
• Multiple Intelligences Assessment
• Visions, hopes dreams

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Then comes the IEP

• How do we develop at least one set of measurable
  annual goals, tied to the general curriculum, for
  each identified area of need, that set high but
  realistic expectations?

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High expectations

• Share information with families on
• Relationship between expectations achievement
• Children rarely exceed our expectations
• Importance of letting children try fail
• Value of learning from our mistakes
• Success stories

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Importance of LRE Placement

• Neighborhood school placement facilitates
• Parent involvement
• Student participation in Supplemental Education
  Services
• Development of relationships with non-disabled
  peers
• Participation in after-school extra-curricular
  activities

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Importance of LRE Placement

• General education classroom placement
  facilitates
• Access to general curriculum
• Access to subject masters

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Help families understand the purpose of IDEA

• To ensure that children with disabilities receive
  educational benefit that allows them to progress
  from grade to grade, learning the knowledge and
  skills of non-disabled peers
• To provide the services and supports needed for
  each child with disabilities to become a
  productive adult, contributing to the community

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Help Families Understand Effective Services

• Special education
• Specially designed instruction
• Supplementary aids services for the student,
  teacher, other students
• Related services
• Transition to adult life services

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Help Families Understand Intersection of IDEA/NCLB

• Expectations Standards for all
• Inputs
• Highly qualified teachers paraprofessionals
• Effective instructional strategies
• Needed supports
• Parents as partners

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Help Families Understand Intersection of IDEA/NCLB

• Measuring outcomes
• Assessment system
• Reports to parents
• Adequate yearly progress
• Schools/districts in need of improvement
• Parent role in the improvement plan
• Choice
• Supplemental services

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Monitoring Progress

• Build role for family in IEP progress monitoring
• Help family understand ongoing reports
• Tie progress monitoring to CCCS

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Monitoring Progress

• Ensure special education parents are scheduled
  for regular parent-teacher conferences
• Ensure that general educators participate!

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Measuring Progress

• Discuss with families the value of participation
  in the regular assessment with accommodations
• Children are taught what they are expected to know

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Measuring Progress

• Develop parent guide to state assessment system,
  available accommodations, understanding
  reports translate disseminate to families

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Help families support learning at home

• Share with families the core knowledge skills
  that are expected at each grade
• Provide families information on how to foster
  that knowledge those skills at home

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Encourage families to

• Read to with their child surround their child
  with literature
• Talk with listen to their child ask their
  child questions be patient for the response!
• Provide needed supports to complete homework..but
  dont do it for their child!

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Encourage families to

• Monitor limit TV viewing computer game
  playing
• Go to the library
• Practice real-life skills related to learning
  (shopping, writing notes, reading signs, cooking,
  etc.)

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Help families support learning at home

• Provide families with learning guides and
  pre-teaching guides that can help them
  introduce /or reinforce learning at home

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Help families support learning at home

• Engage families in designing learning activity
  events scheduled at convenient times locations
  that bring families students together around
  literacy, math, science, social studies, etc.

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Encourage families to

• Watch TV programs relevant to the curriculum.
• Play games, work on puzzles, solve problems.
• Participate in curriculum-related events at
  school.
• Go places and see things.
• Talk about careers.
• Encourage curiosity.

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Our attitude is key

• How we describe a childs present levels of
  performance
• How we talk about standards and goals
• How we discuss the assessment options
• What we call our workshops
• Developing an IEP for Achievement
• NCLB, IDEA, Students with Disabilities
  Together We Can!

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National PTA Standards for Parent Involvement

• Provide regular, two-way, and meaningful
  communication between school home.
• Promote support parenting skills.
• Help parents play a key role in their childs
  learning.

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National PTA Standards for Parent Involvement

• Welcome parents in the school and seek their
  support assistance.
• Enlist parents as full partners in
  decision-making about school improvement.
• Use community resources to support schools,
  students, families.

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Steps toward inclusion

• Inclusion is increasing but progress is slow. It
  will only become a reality when we strengthen
  partnerships for children by
• Families and professionals sharing knowledge and
  ideas
• Special and general educators cooperating and
  collaborating
• Administrators sharing leadership and vision with
  their staff and with families
• Each partner seeking first to understand, then to
  be understood
• All of us truly believing that ALL CHILDREN
  BELONG AND CAN LEARN

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Your Next Steps

• Where are you now?
• What three steps will you take in the coming week
  to start improving family engagement and
  participation in your school?
• Who will you work with?
• How will you measure success?

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Resources to Enhance Family Engagement

• National Coalition for Parent Involvement in
  Education http//www.ncpie.org/
• Family Involvement Network of Educators
  http//www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine.html
  
• Center for Family Involvement in Schools
  http//www.rci.rutgers.edu/cfis/
• Partnership for Family Involvement in Education
  http//www.edutopia.org/php/orgs.php?idORG_402884
  
• National Network of Partnership Schools
  http//www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/
• National Parent Teacher Association
  http//www.pta.org/
• Statewide Parent Advocacy Network www.spannj.org