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COVID-19 has affected families across the globe with far-reaching consequences, particularly in regard to children's education. The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities for families of students with disabilities in particular. This chapter explores families' perspectives on how COVID-19 affected partnerships between families of students with disabilities and their schools in Ontario, Canada.

We interviewed 18 parents of students with disabilities in K-12 Ontario schools. Using a reflexive thematic analysis approach, we analyzed interviews to develop themes inductively.

Participants shared varied experiences of partnerships with their schools both before and during the pandemic. However, all participants described additional challenges as a result of COVID-19. Frequent, open, and personalized communication was emphasized as essential for effective partnerships; however, this was often lacking. Participants shared various ways they were involved in schools, including advocating for their child, and needing to balance multiple roles during COVID-19. Overwhelmingly, participants expressed an inadequacy of support during the pandemic related to online learning and a lack of human resources (e.g., Educational Assistants, therapists), negatively affecting partnerships. However, they also described positive experiences of family-school partnerships, as well as hope for effective future partnerships.

This research gives voice to families of students with disabilities to deepen our understanding of barriers and facilitators to positive family-school partnerships. Findings help to direct appropriate policies and practices that can improve partnerships during COVID-19 and beyond, and ultimately enhance education and quality of life for students with disabilities and their families.

Strong home-school partnerships consistently and substantially benefit children’s academic and social development. Home-school partnerships are considerably affected by the settings in which they take place (e.g., rural, urban, suburban), the characteristics of the partners (e.g., parents and teachers), and their relationships with one another (parent-teacher partnerships). In rural communities, supportive home-school partnerships promote young children’s success but have proven difficult to implement. African American families with young children residing in rural communities experience unique social and institutional challenges and benefits that are particularly salient for fostering home-school partnerships. Thus, the landscape of rural communities is an important and essential consideration for understanding the intersection between race and home-school partnerships. This chapter focuses on the promise of positive home-school partnerships for rural African American children, their families, and their schools. Home-school partnership as an essential component of children’s academic and social development is defined, and sample home-school partnership intervention programs are described. Finally, existing policy investments related to the facilitation of home-school partnerships are explored and policy recommendations that promote such partnerships are discussed.

The essentiality of family involvement in the schooling process is evident from the vast directives embedded within federal mandates, professional standards for teachers and administrators, parent organizations, and advocacy groups. Yet, as explicit as legislative mandates and professional standards are regarding parental rights and involvement, they do not require definitive roles of the family. Several factors influence the lack of a decisive definition regarding the role of the family in the schooling process. Those include the different perspectives on what constitutes a family structurally and functionally, the socio-cultural and political diversity within and among populations, the move to an inclusive education framework, the various terms used to describe parental involvement, the realization that no one family model fits the demographic diversity existing in today’s school districts, and the rights of family members to select their level of involvement. Given the importance of family engagement and student outcomes, three fundamental questions addressed in this chapter are, “How can inclusive schools enhance productive collaborative family engagement networks?” “How can the family be empowered to voluntarily participate within those networks?” and “How can inclusive schools connect with teacher preparation programs to promote the competency of educators for those collaborative family/school engagement networks?” In this chapter we delineate an interactive triad conceptual model with the school as the “connecting agent” to build relationships with families and teacher preparation, setting the stage for productive family engagement as partners in inclusive settings.

The creation of sound school-family-community partnerships is being widely acknowledged as it strengthens school programs, family practices, student learning and behavior, as well as development. Active participation of parents and communities in the school tends to reduce the traditional unidirectional accountability of teachers as a sole party responsible for learners’ success. Furthermore, such collaboration is said to cultivate new hope about schools and education, especially among rural communities. However, key stakeholders in education claimed that school-family-community partnerships were weak in primary schools in Kakamega County, Kenya (Ministry of Education (MOE), 2010). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study was designed to generate relevant empirical evidence. The study was guided by the Social Capital Theory (Field, 2003; Horvat et al., 2003; Coleman, 1994; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992) whose central thesis is that social networks are a valuable asset, as interaction enables people to build communities, commit themselves to each other, and knit the social fabric. Using stratified random sampling, a sample of 361 primary school teachers in 34 schools drawn from a population of 8,964 teachers in 848 primary schools, cutting across the 12 districts in the county, was involved in the study. A questionnaire was developed and used to collect the teachers’ views of school-family-community partnership practices in the schools. The data generated were analyzed and presented by means of such descriptive statistics as frequencies, percentages, and the mean.

The findings revealed gaps with respect to collaboration among schools, families, and the community as the key focus in this study. Results indicated that the school-family-community partnerships in the county remained at a transactional rather than a transformational level. In light of the findings, relevant policy recommendations were proposed to improve practice, with particular attention to providing meaningful professional learning as well as desirable student outcomes.

This is one of the largest county-level studies in Kenya directly addressing teacher-family partnerships and illuminating the ways in which schools can build internal capacity for effective family engagement.

Family–school partnerships are an essential component of the special education process for children with disabilities. Notably, recent legislative reauthorizations of IDEA (2004) have focused on increasing parent involvement. For many parents, participation occurs primarily through the individualized education program (IEP) meetings. Parent involvement often includes parent advocating for their children. However, many parents face barriers when advocating to obtain appropriate special education services for their children with disabilities. Culturally and linguistically diverse families face greater systemic barriers (e.g., language and cultural differences) to access services for their own children with disabilities. School professionals can foster opportunities to help families be active members of the IEP process. For example, school professionals should connect families with resources to learn about their special education rights. Specifically, school personnel can encourage families to reach out to their local Parent Training and Information (PTI) Center to be educated and empowered to advocate for services. In addition, parents can be encouraged to attend parent advocacy programs to help increase knowledge, advocacy, and empowerment to access and advocate for services for their own children. Advancing the values of working with parents of students with special education needs is discussed.

The role of parental involvement in their child’s education and academic success has been widely acknowledged in recent educational theories, policies, and practices. Parental beliefs and expectations concerning their child’s learning and success have been shown to be reflected in the parents’ involvement in their child’s education and their practices with their offspring, thereby shaping the child’s motivational development in school. In addition, parental trust in their child’s teacher is a key factor in enhancing the home–school partnership and in supporting a child’s academic motivation and successful schooling. However, political, economical, and technological changes in society and uncertainty about the future may present several challenges for raising children in the twenty-first century. The aim of this chapter is to present recent theories and empirical research focusing on the role of parental beliefs, expectations, and trust in their child’s teacher in supporting children’s interest in learning, self-concept of ability, and achievement behaviors in the challenging and unpredictable future. We will also reflect on how the changing world and uncertainty in society may influence parental beliefs and expectations in their child’s success.

School leaders in small to mid-size urban districts face shifting policy environments, increased accountability, fiscal austerity, and unfunded mandates, as they work to improve student learning and close achievement gaps. This chapter focuses on one aspect of school reform: the role of families in supporting students’ success. Given shifting demographics nationwide, recommendations for two-way partnerships with Latino families will be proffered in light of renewed definitions and an increasingly robust research base.

This study examines the effect of preservice teachers’ (PSTs) immersive learning experience in working with families. A total of 48 undergraduate university students participated in a traditional or immersive class. The Peabody Family Involvement Initiative Survey (PFIIS) was selected to assess students’ self-efficacy in working with families. The students completed the same assignments as those in the traditional course and additionally were involved in planning two family events, and creating a family space on site to meet real goals. The results indicate that among level of importance, level of feasibility, and perceptions of preparation, the immersive class students showed some significant differences. Although the students’ motivation and excitement initially was low, as time progressed these gradually increased. The PSTs gained much more ownership over their experiences and changed their perspectives of working with families as well as increased confidence in this area. This study suggests that it is beneficial for PSTs to have immersive experience with actual parents while gaining immediate, real feedback about effective strategies.