If you are a parent of a child with special needs, you know
that navigating the special education system can be extremely challenging, confusing,
and exhausting. You often have more questions
than answers and may feel that the only way you can get anywhere is to fight
the good fight.
With my own personal experiences in mind and the countless
other families that I have been fortunate to share stories with, I have come to
the conclusion that partnership between parents and educators is the key
ingredient to the success of ALL students. Building partnership must be a
priority.
Educational partnership is when two or more persons come
together to work collaboratively to ensure the needs of individual students and/or
groups of students are met and the student can be successful. Each party in the
partnership has an equal role in participating, and has the ability to
collaborate to make decisions with an end goal in mind. When individuals or
groups come to the table with their own agendas, partnerships are more
difficult, if not impossible, to form.
5 Key Ingredients to
Successful Partnership
1. Establish
a process in which to engage in open communication. Open communication is
free flowing, transparent dialogue that is shared between two or more people.
All parties recognize that the thoughts that may be shared may be positive or
negative. However, these thoughts must be delivered in a non-threatening,
solution oriented way in order to avoid conflict.
Communication can occur in many forms.
Establishing how often and in what format a parent and an educator will
communicate is a good starting point.
Parents need to know they can reach out to the teacher at any time, and
teachers need to know that they can approach parents openly with their
thoughts, observations, ideas and concerns.
2. Recognize
each other’s individual differences as an opportunity to learn and grow, not as
a threat. We all know individual differences is what makes the world go
round. We wouldn’t want to be carbon
copies of one another. How boring! It is
easy to come to the table with an assumption about someone or something because
of what we have heard. Challenges may
arise due to varying schedules, culture, values, and priorities.
While we may not always agree with the person we are partnering with, we
need to come to the table with an open mind.
We must be willing to consider other people’s perspectives as their
experiences and knowledge may just offer us that missing link.
3. Build
each other up, don’t tear each other down. Demonstrate respect for one
another. Being respectful means always being polite, being an active listener,
and showing kindness to one another.
Positive relationships lead to successful partnerships, even when
conflict does arise. Assuming things or
laying blame can stop partnership in its tracks.
4. Mutual
acknowledgement. Acknowledging your team members for a job well done, or
offering thanks for the unexpected builds stronger relationships. Both parents and teachers will feel more
appreciated if the contributions they make are noticed (even the things they
attempt in good faith but fail). Send a note, leave a quick voice message or
email. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be
effective.
5. Work
together to determine shared goals. If you have goals you have a path. Trouble is, if partners have separate goals,
success is a lot more difficult to achieve. Goals for a school year can run
deeper than academics. Parents and
teachers need to talk to one another and establish priorities together. When
people feel like equal participants in building the plan they are asked to
participate in, they are more likely to be accountable to their role.
