In a recent interview with Kirk Strang, we talked about the do’s and don’ts of parental involvement in schools.
The reason for the interview was to shed light onto this topic in an effort to help support school administrators, as well as school boards, as they work with children and their families on a day-to-day basis.
Let’s jump right into Part 1 of the series …
Kirk started the interview talking about parents as constituents and electorate …
We always have to remember that parents are really among our primary constituents. Of course, we think of our children, certainly, as our primary constituents as well.
But parents are not only a primary constituent, they're also an electorate in a system that wants schools to be run by democratic election. And that reflects the belief about our schools that local elected officials should be making policy decisions about what schools do. And so you have in parents a constituency that votes for who sits on the school board.
And starting from the premise that parents are constituents, they have their own legal rights in working with schools.
Kirk goes on to say that from a policy standpoint …
These relationships are critical to the success of our school administration, our board and our district as a whole.
We have seen a new phenomenon of parental involvement — and in some cases parental involvement that can get to the point that school officials are worried that the parent is so actively involved that it borders on interfering with the process — and it's natural for school officials to ask what they can do to minimize this type of parent’s involvement, or somehow stem constant attacks so they can do their job.
And I think we always have to remember, the customer is NOT always right — but they’re still a customer. And this is somebody that we've got to make sure we do our level best to assuage, to provide solutions that they're comfortable with for their kids. And really try to account for a parent’s thoughts on what they want for their children, even if we may have our own ideas about what’s in the best interest of the child.
We want to make sure we are reaching out to parents politically, so that they think of us as an open door to them. We want to reach out to parents as a matter of policy. They have rights, and they have a role in our electoral process, which means their support is going to be critical to the success of the district.
And so, really, that's kind of the starting point now. And that means we do as much as we can to accommodate parents and parents’ interests —, but at the same time we're probably going to reach a point where there are other things we need to talk about regarding channeling parents’ energy in the right direction.
One of the things we want to make sure of is trying to have an accounting in any plan, whether it's formal or informal for a student, of things we've done that are responsive to parent requests. This is important for a couple of reasons. One, as I mentioned, we want to be responsive. Two, we want to make sure that parents know that when we are going forward with a plan that incorporates solutions they think will be effective, we are tracking the plan — and going to try to do things in the way that we've discussed.
That said, we also are tracking the plan’s success. And we want parents to understand that we will at times need to contact them about making changes in plans and doing other things because something may not have worked initially. So we want to be able to have that working partnership with them because we have to be periodically in contact with them.
And this is going to be especially true with people who have children who are covered by the IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or covered in section 504 that is also for disabled students.
Now a little background on these …
Both relate to students with disabilities, but each performs a different function.
Section 504 has been around a long time. And in fact, section 504 is what our current Americans with Disabilities Act was modeled on. So if you look into the origin story of the Americans with Disabilities Act, you'll find that section 504 was the language used for accommodating employees with disabilities. Well, we do that with students too, under Section 504.
504 is an access law. So for example, a student in a wheelchair will probably have a section 504 plan to deal with the fact that they need special consideration to access the educational services of the school.
In this example, that student in a wheelchair is otherwise cognitively normal. They don't need any services when it comes to learning schoolwork, learning a foreign language, solving math problems, etc. The student is a normal kid from an academic standpoint. But they still need section 504 to ensure that instances like, maybe it takes them twice as long to get from class to class — not because of the wheelchair, but because of the crowding in hallways. So we don't treat them as tardy if they're late, for example, because we know that's going to be an attribute of their disability. So that would be an accommodation we provide for this otherwise cognitively capable student from a 504 standpoint.
The IDEA on the other hand, by way of background, is not an access law. It's an education law. It's meant to provide accommodations of sorts to students with disabilities for learning purposes. And those students who are covered by the IDEA will be given, ultimately, what's called an IEP, which is an individual education plan. That document is put together by the parents and the school, again placing a premium on parental involvement.
And while the school breaks ties, in other words when the IEP team has to make decisions, the school, which is referred to as the LEA under federal law (local education agency, so when you see LEA they're talking about the school district) — and the LEA School District issues that IEP after the IEP team, which includes parents and anyone they want to attend, issues that report. And that document becomes the guidebook for the next year for that student. Although it can be changed at any time. For instance, a parent can say, “something has happened with my child’s health, and we need to come back together.”
That can happen, but by and large it's a plan for one year, and then the parties get together after a year and redo it. That also involves parents intensively, because if you can put together an IEP that a parent either endorses or at least is satisfied with, then you can go forward and educate that student as you've planned.
If, on the other hand, you have a situation where the parent says, “I don't agree with that,” and they make a record of this during the IEP team process, you still break that tie, you can still implement your plan if you're the school district — but you do so knowing that the parent has a remedy. The parent can say, “yes, I was part of that IEP team, but I didn't agree with that.” Then they can file for what's called a due process hearing. Ultimately that parent wants a state administrative law judge to agree with him or her, and not the school. The parent is essentially stating that the child needs X, whatever X might be, in order for the school to provide FAPE. FAPE is a free and appropriate public education. And that is our standard for special ed students. We have to provide them with a free and appropriate education. It doesn't have to be the best education ever, but it has to be an appropriate education. And our courts have defined considerably what that requires.
So your relationship with the parents in formulating IEPs and formulating 504 plans, is a hedge against having to go through lots of litigation. By the time you get to this point, the hope is you've done the work of developing the relationship with the parent to the point where the parent understands and believes that we are their partners. We know that and we believe that. But this is a citizen who has to decide: do they trust this institution in good faith to do what's best for their child? There are people who trust us to do that, and there are people who may be skittish about trusting us.
If you have a child with a very complicated health problem that gives them coverage under the IDEA, that student with that complicated health problem has probably been followed by their parents very closely for a very long time. And now the parents have expertise about this condition, that maybe the schools don't, and the schools need other experts to assist, and that's a recipe for a parent having fairly strong opinions about what the school district should do because they've been working with their child for years before the student started attending school. And usually that means they will have a fairly detailed understanding of the student's condition and a fairly strong opinion of what needs to be provided.
So those are our processes and illustrations about parents as individuals.
This brings us to the end of Part 1 of our series. Next up, in Part 2, Kirk covers parents as groups.