Building Bridges with Families: Honoring the Mandates of IDEIA

Abstract

Parent participation has been one of the key principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) since it was first authorized in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) (Turnbull, 1993) and has continued through the most recent reauthorization in 2004 (Mandlawitz, 2007). Parents of children with disabilities have decision making roles about their children’s education mandated by law in part based upon historical lack of involvement in such decisions provided by school personnel and the resultant lack of effective education for these children (Turnbull, 1993). Beyond these legal mandates, best practice standards would suggest that services will be most effective when parents and professionals work in collaboration (Harry, 1997; Kalyanpur & Harry, 1999). The President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education (PCESE, 2002) said that a key element to achieving excellence in special education is to encourage family empowerment in relation to the special education services their child receives. Increasing collaboration with parents is also frequently mentioned as important for school reform in general (Coots, 1998; Epstein, 1990). In order to effectively collaborate, many strategies have been suggested for use by professionals. For example, Harry (1997) suggested that for effective collaboration, professionals should practice “leaning forward” rather than “bending backwards” (p. 70) by identifying shared values between