Parent Leadership and Civic Engagement: Suggestions for the Next Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Reauthorization

Abstract

Although parent involvement is a cornerstone of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), few individual parents of children with disabilities participate in civic engagement to voice their suggestions for the next IDEA reauthorization. To address this gap, a civic engagement training was conducted with 95 parents of children with disabilities across four states. At the end of the training, participants completed videotaped testimonials voicing their suggestions for the next IDEA reauthorization. Participant suggestions clustered around three themes: expanding IDEA to address specific concerns; adding text to provide specificity and clarity in IDEA; and implementing the current version of IDEA. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Identifying and supporting children with learning disabilities

“…Globally, many parents lack the knowledge and con dence to be active partners in their child's education, hence strengths-based, culturally relevant training/workshops for parents can enhance awareness of their own and their child's rights, develop their skills and motivate proactive involvement (Al-Dababneh, 2018;Mantey, 2020;Rivera-Singletary and Cranston-Gingras, 2020). Families need opportunities for leadership development so that they can partner in their child's day-to-day education, but also collaborate in policy development for implementing e ective inclusive education (Francis et al, 2016a;Shepherd and Kervick, 2016;Tuggar, 2019;Rossetti et al, 2020). Establishing parent or family networks and support groups can also enhance positive family-school partnerships as families feel a sense of support and belonging within the school around the child's disability (Singal, 2016) and racism experienced by the child in the classroom (Hornby and Blackwell, 2018).…”

An Introduction to Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for Students With Sensory Disabilities

“…Although parent participation is a statutory requirement of special education in the United States, many families, especially those whose cultural and social capital is not valued in the education system, experience systemic barriers to meaningful collaboration with school professionals (Lalvani, 2015;Rossetti et al, 2017Rossetti et al, , 2020Stanley, 2015;Zagona, et al, 2019). Common deterrents to participation among CLD families include communication gaps due to poor or nonexistent translation and interpretation services for those whose preferred language is not English (Benedict, 2003;Rossetti et al, 2020); deficit views of CLD families, particularly those who are poor or working class (Harry, 2008;Wilt & Morningstar, 2018); lack of recognition of cultural differences in views of disability and the relationships between teachers and parents (Antony & Banks-Joseph, 2010;Cummings & Hardin, 2017); negative past experiences with schools (Benedict, 2003); teachers' limited knowledge about educating or supporting children with disabilities, such as those who are DHH (Robles, 2016) or DB (Correa-Torres & Bowen, 2016); economic constraints impacting access to child care and transportation (Correa-Torres & Bowen, 2016); and professional practices in formal conferences preventing parent participation (Kurth et al, 2020;Zagona et al, 2019).…”

Parent Perceptions of the Advocacy Expectation in Special Education

“…Parents need feasible options for formal advocacy and dispute resolution because enacting procedural safeguards can be costly, require professional knowledge, and take time and resources (Burke & Goldman, 2015). In the next IDEA reauthorization, policy makers should consider new ways to ensure advocacy for children with disabilities, especially children of color with disabilities, who can be doubly marginalized (Annamma et al, 2013;Rossetti et al, 2020). Phillips (2008) proposes providing an out-of-district advocate to each child receiving special education services.…”

“…Valuing linguistic capital can be an integral part of a school's process to begin to dismantle systemic racism and ableism and to foster respectful individual interactions with all families (Annamma et al, 2013). An easily targeted recommendation-and one mandated by IDEA ( 2004)-is to ensure linguistic accessibility of meetings via professional interpreters and translated materials (Rossetti et al, 2018(Rossetti et al, , 2020. Principals and other school leaders can foster inclusive schools by explicitly addressing the intersectionality of race and disability (Annamma et al, 2013).…”