How Can We Increase Parent Involvement in Schools?

For the most part, parents do not tend to get involved in their childrens
schools other than for Parent-Teacher Association meetings and school functions.
The rare occasion where parents are actually involved in their childrens learning is
when their academic performance does not meet the standards set up for them.
This atmosphere needs to change to more effectively involve parents in the school
community. In general terms and more serious ones, teacher and parental
involvement should be centered on the children in the school building. The teachers
and administrators at a school must make the parents feel respected and heard in
order to give everyone the best possible opportunity to improve a childs chances of
succeeding while in the school.
As parents of students all generally have a different experience and there is
no way to understand everyone parents story. Although all parents feel a struggle
to communicate with and be heard by the school, this is especially true of parents of
students with disabilities. The school itself can be an intimidating place, even for
parents (Friend & Bursuck, 2012) so educators and administrators should be willing
and excited to collaborate with parents and families to make the experience less
daunting. Out of Educating Students with Special Needs, one of the suggested
practices for involving parents is adopting a family-centered approach (Friend &
Bursuck, 2012). This approach has educators actively seeking parent input to
address the educational and social needs that parents have and incorporating the
parents goals with the goals already in place from the school. In order for this to
work effectively, parents must feel welcome to either come into the classroom or

reach out by phone/email and the teacher must show that parents opinions matter
by updating them as to how their student is doing in the class.
In addition to collaborating with parents through a family-centered
approach, constant communication between school and home can be very helpful on
all ends. Options include: building connections between home and school, helping
educate them with parent programs, and holding conferences to include them in
their childs learning process (Friend & Bursuck, 2012). Each of these methods help
to involve parents in a more active way and open a line of constant communication.
Continuing to have an open line of communication allows the parents interests to
be heard and keeps all parties on a more equal field. This open line of
communication should be carried through to the parents of all students, whether
they are succeeding or struggling and if they have a disability or not.
Ron Oostdam and Edith Hodge raise very important points about parental
involvement in schools in their article, Making the difference with active parenting;
forming educational partnerships between parents and schools. In their article,
they discuss how generally parent involvement tends to be higher amongst parents
with a higher level of education, or whose students who are succeeding in school,
which is also noted in stark contrast to parents whose students are not performing
well (Oostdam & Hodge, 2012). It seems that throughout the last few years,
parental involvement in schools has been stuck in the Parent-Teacher Association
and to school events (Oostdam & Hodge, 2012). It has seemed for years that parents
want to be more involved in how their children are doing in school as well as how to
best help their childs education continue when they leave the school setting.

If schools are to truly boost parent involvement, it is necessary for their

administrators and staff to also take on a role, which will boost communication on
all ends and make parents want to take on a more active role with the school and
their childs education. Although there is not a specific meaning related to the term
active parenting, Oostdam and Hodge now suggest that we focus on establishing an
educational partnership with parents that has the possibility of two different
situations to give parents a more active role in communicating and working with the
school (2012). The idea of communicating effectively with parents is important to
beginning to involve them, however showing that their opinions about their child
are more important and should be taken those into consideration when planning
lessons involving their child in some way. This idea should also translate over to
parent-teacher conferences and any meetings that involve school personnel,
including IEP meetings.
Dr. Anita Jackson, the mother of a son with severe Autism Spectrum Disorder,
did not have the best experience with how her son was treated through his time in
public schools, and even before he started school. Early in her son, Simons, life, Dr.
Jackson felt as though something was not right with her son, however she could not
find a doctor or specialist who believed that there was something seriously wrong
Simon went misdiagnosed for a large portion of his infancy. When Simon was finally
diagnosed with Autism Spectrum, he qualified for every service available and
entered the Hazard School in South Kingstown, RI at age 3. Simon did really well at
the Hazard School because he had a teacher who was exceptionally perceptive and
was able to work with him while he was younger.

When Simon needed to move up to the Elementary School, he transition was

difficult for him and his mother. Despite Dr. Jacksons insistence at IEP meetings,
that she knew what her son needed in different situations and what he could
realistically do, the school staff present maintained that they knew what was right to
do for Simon. Dr. Jackson wished for Simon to have a one-on-one, but the school
placed him in a self-contained classroom for a portion of the day. After he moved up
to Broad Rock Middle School and accidentally injured an instructor at the school,
Simon was given a referral to the Bradley School, where he received even more than
Dr. Jackson originally wanted for her son. In this case, Dr. Jackson clearly knew
what was important for her son to do well in school and to keep those who were
interacting with him safe at all times. The school staffs insistence that they were
the professionals and knew how to handle it made something happen that was
completely avoidable if they had only taken the time to take some of what Dr.
Jackson said into account.
I personally feel that it is essential to take parents (and guardians) opinions
to heart when it comes to their child. Even though we may think that, as educators,
we have a more accurate idea of where their child is academically, the parents can
have equally as much knowledge if not more. When their child comes home every
day, parents see their children doing schoolwork and also see the child in a more
personal light. It is much more difficult for a teacher to see children in the same way
that a parent does because, in the classroom, we almost always see only the
academic side of children.

Although it will not be easy to build a perfect relationship with every single
childs parents, I think it is important to be in constant communication with them.
One method of doing this, which Dr. Jackson suggested, is to maintain a Parent
Communication Log. I really like this idea because is something that can go back
and forth from school with a child each day. Parents can communicate what they
notice happening at home, if their child is having difficulty with any work, and if
their child happens to say anything about how school has been going. In order to be
effective at communicate with parents, I would like to implement these Parent
Communication Logs and make it a point to at least write them once a week in order
to let them know how their child is doing academically and socially in the school.
Realistically, I believe that written communication is better than no
communication at all. It would also be helpful to try and arrange a meeting with
each students parents at different times during the quarter (outside of parentteacher conferences) and talk to them about their goals for their child during the
school year. This is especially true if a student has an IEP and the parent(s) are
present for the meeting their input should be as highly valued as that of an educator.
Although we will typically only have a student for one academic year, that does not
mean that we do not need to get to know the students family as well. Being a more
invested teacher will also help increase parent involvement which, in turn, will
increase the students level of success because the support systems from home and
school are coexisting.

References
Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. (2012). Building Partnerships Through Collaboration. In
Including Students with Special Needs A Practical Guide for Classroom
Teachers (6th ed., pp. 64-97). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Oostdam, R., & Hooge, E. (2012) Making the difference with active parenting;
forming educational partnerships between parents and schools. European
Journal Of Psychology Of Education - EJPE (Springer Science & Business Media
B.V.), 28(2), 337-351.