Let us hear the parents.

This paper reports the findings of structured interviews that were conducted with 40 mothers of school-age children with disabilities. Findings indicate that majority of the mothers are satisfied with special education services that their children with disabilities receive in their respective schools. Findings also point to family preferences that the professionals could consider while collaborating with parents.

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Family is a context from which children emerge. It is a powerful resource. Acknowledging the family's contribution to child development and considering the impact of childhood disability on the family, special education legislation rightly empowers the family. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 105-17), previously known as Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) and its amendments (PL 101-476, PL 99-457) mandate family's involvement in educational decision making (Smith, Polloway, Patton, & Dowdy, 1998). School professionals and parents have to work hand in hand and that is challenging, especially when parents of children with disabilities believe that their lives are tremendously difficult. (Turnbull and Turnbull, 1997; Fox, Vaughn, Wyattee, and Dunlap, 2002). There is anecdotal evidence that suggests that school and family collaborations are not always productive and not always conflict free. This study was designed to address the pressing need of current knowledge base. It aimed to collect data on maternal opinions and preferences as they relate to collaboration with school professionals on everyday basis. Specifically, the study addressed the following questions:

1. What is the opinion of mothers of children with disabilities about special education services that their children with disabilities receive in their schools?

2. How often would mothers of children with disabilities like to communicate with their disabled child's teacher?

3. What mode of communication do mothers of children with disabilities prefer when communicating with their disabled child's teacher?

4. How would teachers be more successful in collaborating with families of disabled children?

5. What would mothers of children with disabilities like to know about their child's school related work?

Research Method

Participants

Forty mothers of school- aged children with disabilities participated in the study. Mothers of children with disabilities were selected by the interviewers by method of availability and convenience. Participating mothers of children with disabilities represented friends, neighbors, relatives, and in some cases acquaintances. All participants were Caucasians. Children's disabilities included Down syndrome, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, communication disorders, autism, juvenile diabetes and multiple disabilities. The mean age of children was 11.05 years with a standard deviation of 2.78. Mothers' ages ranged between 25 and 45 years.

Data Collection

Data were collected via interviews. Interviews were structured and they were audiotaped. The duration of each interview was approximately 30 minutes. Interviews were conducted in the homes of participating parents. Interviews were subsequently transcribed

The study was carried out as a class project in an Educational Research and Statistics, graduate level course. Elementary and secondary teachers from local schools conducted the interviews. These teachers were enrolled in the Graduate Teacher Education Program of a private university. All interviewers were Caucasians. Interviewers were fully trained in interview techniques. Also, they were given written directions to follow as they collected the interview data.

Results

All interviews were transcribed and coded. The author coded the interviews and calculated the frequency of maternal responses. This section discusses the findings, which correspond with the research questions posed earlier in this paper.

Analyses of data indicate that majority of the families are satisfied with the services that their children with disabilities receive from the schools. As shown in Figure 1,85% of the mothers of children with disabilities, who were interviewed, indicated satisfaction with school services. It is only a small proportion of the sample, that is 15%, who is not satisfied with the services that their children with disabilities receive from their schools.

As shown in Figure 2, 75% of the mothers of children with disabilities indicated that they would like to communicate with their child's teacher on daily basis. Twenty percent of the mothers of children with disabilities indicated that they would like to communicate with their child's teacher on weekly basis and 5% of the mothers of children with disabilities indicated preference for a monthly communication with their child's teacher.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

As shown in Figure 3, 70% of the mothers of children with disabilities prefer a written log for communication with their disabled child's teacher, 25% prefer phone calls and the remaining 5% of the mothers of children with disabilities prefer face to face meetings with their disabled child's teacher.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Further, 90% of the mothers of children with disabilities mentioned that professionals would be successful in collaborating with families by communicating openly. They would be successful if they explain everything.

Ninety five percent of the mothers of children with disabilities reported that they would like information about their child's academic and behavioral performance at school. They would like to know if their child had a good day at school.

Discussion

The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution. First of all, the sample was a sample of convenience. Samples of convenience may not be representative of the target population (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996). Second, mothers of this sample represent a small town of Western New York. The participants may differ from the mothers of other geographical regions on some important variables.

Third, participating mothers were all white. The data might have been richer if the diversity were represented in the participating mothers. Fourth, the data were not collected on maternal socio economic status and marital status. These are critical variables, which can lead to variance in findings. Fifth, the sample size is not very large for the generalizability of findings.

Sixth, data were collected only on maternal opinions and preferences. It is possible that the fathers of children with disabilities have different opinions and different preferences.

Finally, since the data were collected via face to face interviews, mothers might have just given socially acceptable responses. Interview data can lower the reliability of findings (Gay, 1996). Despite the caveats, the study is important; it collected data on maternal opinions and preferences as they relate to collaboration between school professionals and families.

Figure 1. Mothers' Satisfaction with Speical Education Services

Not Satisfied    15%
Satisfied        85%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

Figure 2. Mothers' Preferred Frequency of Communication

Weekly          20%
Daily           75%
Monthly          5%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

Figure 3. Mothers' Preferred Mode of Communication

Face to Face
Meetings         5%
Phone Calls     25%
Written Log     70%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

References

Fox, L., Vaughn, B., Wyatte, M.L., & Dunlap, G. (2002). We can't expect other people to understand: Family perspectives on problem behavior. Exceptional Children, 68(4), 437-450.

Gay, L. R. (1996). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gall, M. D., Borg, W.R., & Gall, J.P. (1996). Educational research: An introduction (6th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Smith, T. E., Polloway, E.A., Patton, J.R., & Dowdy, C.A. (1998). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive setting (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Turnbull, A. P. and Tumbull, H.R. (1997). Families, professionals, and exceptionality. Columbus. OH: Merrill.

Delar K. Singh, Ph.D., Department of Education, Eastern Connecticut State University.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Delar K. Singh, Department of Education, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT 06226