Legal Aspects of Special Education And Social Foundations

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Legal Aspects of Special EducationAnd Social
Foundations

• Support for Families

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Family-Centered Services

• Family-centered vs. child-centered
• Education of the Handicapped Act of 1986
  (forerunner of IDEA Amendments of 1997)
• Planning grants to states
• Develop early intervention for B-3
• With disabilities
• Those at risk for having disabilities
• FAPE for preschoolers with disabilities
• IFSP

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Family-Centered Services

• Family support
• Service delivery
• Emphasizes family strengths
• Enhance families well-being and competence
• Model and teach relationship skills
• Commitment to collaboration
• Research
• Emotional support and friendship
• Personal, informal relationships
• Linking to other families
• Develop advocacy skills
• Teach skills to work effectively with child with
  disability
• Cognitive coping

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Tenets of Family-Centered Services

• Parents know their child best
• Family makes final decisions
• Family is constant in childs life
• Recognize family needs and respect involvement
• Value trust and collaboration
• Respect cultural backgrounds

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Concerns with Family-Centered Services

• Role of professional
• Focus of family concerns only
• Consideration of other supports
• Professionals are key to make changes

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Family and Professional Roles

• Empowerment
• Focus on family strengths
• Family control over services
• Focus on collaboration
• Variables
• Dispositions
• Beliefs and attitudes
• Methods of collaboration
• Knowledge base
• Outside influences

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Family and Professional Roles

• Interpersonal interactions and knowledge of
  children
• Family orientation
• Positive attitude
• Sensitivity
• Responsiveness to needs
• Informal interaction with parents
• Community-based support

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Family and Professional Roles

• Perspectives
• Families
• See lesser emphasis on child-intervention
  services
• Values child-level activities more that
  family-level activities
• Professionals
• Family awareness of needs and resources
• Support for future needs and interpreting
  assessment
• Family coping skills

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Building Alliances

• Feedback from families in policy making
• Professional training
• Pre-service training
• Ongoing professional development

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Communication Collaboration

• Enhance sense of community
• Mobilize resources and supports
• Shared responsibility and collaboration
• Protection of family integrity
• Strengthening family functioning
• Proactive human service practices

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Actions of Service Providers

• Respect family values, beliefs, and practices
• Trust that the family knows best
• Be sensitive to diverse backgrounds
• Acknowledge family members as decision makers
• Treat family members and people first
• Recognize your role as a guest in family home
  and life
• Maintain appropriate boundaries
• Be flexible
• Enjoy the children and families

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Relationships

• Parent-professional partnership
• Phases of partnerships
• Getting acquainted
• Exploration
• Collaboration
• Closure

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Communication

• Active listening
• Clear communication
• Respectful interactions
• Honesty
• Respond to conflict
• Use appropriate behavior
• Maintain perspective
• Separate person from problem
• Develop action plan

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Professional Issues

• Maintain professional standards
• Maintain confidentiality
• Maintain ethical behavior
• Keep lines of communication open
• Prevent burn-out
• Reflect on personal and professional interactions
• Access team support
• Access supervision and mentoring