Positive Environments and Supports

Family

Family members play a crucial role in the education and support of a student. Parents and other family members can aid school staff in understanding their unique child.

Siblings also play an important part in supporting their brother's or sister's growth and development and may provide important contributions.

Parents

Parents are the most important team members in designing behavioral supports and creating positive home environments that support their child's development and academic progress. Parents know particular strategies and approaches that have worked to motivate their child as well as many strength and weaknesses other team members will wish to know about. School personnel can play an vital role in helping families adjust to the support needs of a child with a disability. Training parents to be a full member of their child's school or IEP team requires cultural competence and understanding of the unique struggles each family encounters with the student at home.

Power of Parents - PowerPoint

Bringing Parents on Board A Matter of Trust submitted by Denise Keller

Fiesta Educativa - Parent Support for Spanish-Speaking Families

Parents Guide to Functional Assessment

Making the "No Child Left Behind" Work for Children Who Struggle to Learn: A Parent's Guide - Good description of what No Child Left Behind is all about, and relationship to students with learning disabilities and their needs.

Siblings, Grandparents, and other Extended Family

Siblings play an important part in supporting their brother's or sister's growth and development. Increasingly, schools have found that they can give important insights and offer support when they are included in designing positive supports.

The Sibling Support Project - The ARC provides SibKids, a free listserv for young brothers and sisters. This is also a good source of information for parents about the issues experienced by siblings of children with special needs.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Educating Our Children Together: A Sourcebook for Effective Family-School-Community Partnerships - A report published by CADRE details eight strategies to create effective family-school-community partnerships and minimize adversarial relationships.

CADRE is Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education

Family Village (disability related resources) - Check out the Shopping Mall, especially Communication Aids and the available resources.