Professionials\u27 perceived qualities for collaborative parent and professional partnerships

To truly appreciate and address the strengths and needs of children with disabilities, parents and professionals must be able to work collaboratively within longterm partnerships. Challenging the creation of parent and professional partnerships is a lack of common understanding or agreement upon what relationship qualities facilitate or deter from their development and preservation. This study investigated what relationship qualities are considered necessary according to a select group of professionals to foster collaborative partnerships between professionals and parents as well as to improve their handling of conflict. The study found that relationship qualities such as communication, respect, honesty, trust, flexibility, and confidence were believed essential by professionals for collaborative partnerships to exist. In addition, the professionals attributed these qualities as being critical for conflict prevention. This study also explored expectations professionals held for parents, relationship-building strategies, conflict prevention strategies, and conflict-resolution strategies. The study found that the relationship qualities identified as important for collaborative partnerships and conflict prevention were reflected within the strategies for relationship-building and addressing conflict. However, the relationship qualities for conflict resolution were less apparent within the strategies identified for conflict resolution. This study provides a beginning for parents and professionals to explore the values they bring to partnerships and whether they are demonstrating congruency between their values and actions. The professionals in this study believed that in collaborative partnerships, parents and professionals engage in open and honest communication, take responsibility to work together as a team across home and school environments, share common goals, and engage in mutual childcentered decision-making in order to move children forward and create positive student outcomes. Additional research is still needed to support the findings of this study and to gain the perspectives of parents and professionals representing different cultures and regions and other local systems of special education. Future research should continue to strive for a balance between the perspectives of parents and professionals and to focus on creating additional clarity regarding the meanings of mutually agreed upon relationship qualities as well as factors that indicate the presence of these factors

Actions Speak Louder than Words: How Do Special Education Administrators Prevent and Resolve Conflict with Families?

Conflict between parents of children with disabilities and school district members has been an ongoing issue for decades. Special education administrators are often designated to address conflict with the intent to find an amicable resolution. Otherwise, conflict can lead to due process hearings that move valuable time and money away from general district funds. Understanding how administrators informally address such conflict can guide leaders as they promote collaboration between the home and school. This paper presents a qualitative interview study of special education directors’ experiences with conflict prevention and resolution. Seven key action-based strategies that prevent and resolve conflict with families were identified: establish communication, provide parent support, level the playing field, intervene at the lowest level possible, maintain the focus on the child, find a middle ground, and understand perspectives. Each of these themes is discussed in detail, along with implications for practice and future research