Involving Parents of Students With Special Needs: 25 Ready-to-Use Strategies

"This book makes a great contribution to education. Teachers across specialties would find these strategies helpful for facilitating communication with parents and caregivers."
--Erin Jones, Special Education Teacher
Tea Area Elementary School, SD

"Involving parents on a positive level is essential to educating all students, especially students with special needs. This book helps readers with real-world situations--something that most college courses cannot prepare you for. Easy and user-friendly, this book provides strategies and tools to aid in communicating with parents."
--Laura Peterson, Special Education Teacher
Center School, Stow, MA

Bridge the communication gap with parents of children with special needs!

Research has shown that establishing strong communication links with parents and promoting family involvement can have positive and tangible effects on a student's success in school.

In this teacher-friendly resource, Jill Dardig provides 25 ready-to-use techniques for involving parents in the education of their children, especially those with mild to severe disabilities. Both general and special education teachers in Grades PreK--12 can use these strategies to reach the parents of students with a wide range of learning needs, including those with cognitive, emotional/behavioral, social, sensory, and physical disabilities. Involving Parents of Students With Special Needs anticipates the challenges to parent involvement and provides reproducible templates, sample completed forms, and tips for:

• Communicating via letters, telephone, email, newsletters, and progressreports
• Conducting parent conferences and successful in-person meetings
• Helping parents teach their children at home
• Dealing with conflict
• Staying organized

This practical guide helps teachers and parents work together to give students with special needs the necessary support to succeed in school and in the real world.