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No abstract

Because CLD parents may not have the skills or the knowledge to take on the roles that are expected by federal regulations and schools, professionals become the ones who can provide this population with guidance throughout the entire process.

Developing a collaborative home-school partnership in the special education process is one of the crucial indicators of successful educational planning. Special education laws and regulations strongly emphasize the importance of parental roles in the process. However, as is well documented in existing literature, it can be challenging for many culturally and linguistically diverse families to be schools' equal partners and to be actively involved in the process of developing their children's educational programs. As the number of Asian students with disabilities continues to increase, the purpose of this article is to illustrate two Chinese families' experiences and identify what educators and service providers could do to strengthen their partnerships with Chinese families of children with hearing impairments.

Lack of family engagement in transition planning continues to be a challenge in special education. This study examined the experiences of Chinese and Vietnamese families of youth with disabilities toward transition planning. Results suggested that participants were eager to be engaged in the transition planning and valued the importance of transition planning activities. They wanted to ensure that their youth were equipped with skills, so they could lead a successful and independent adult life. However, schools provided little to no information regarding the transition planning process. This lack of information prevented them from being actively involved. Implications for future research and practice to enhance partnership between schools and diverse families in the development of transition planning are discussed.