As parents, our role is to nourish, love, and educate our children holistically. The involvement of parents and guardians in the decision-making process on special education cannot be overstated. Although a close relationship between home and school benefits all pupils, it is of utmost importance for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Parents being the unique holders of the children’s strengths and weaknesses make their input pertinent in the assessment and decision-making processes concerning their education. The article aims to emphasize the most important functions of parents in SEND education.

Parental Involvement Enhances Effectiveness

With parents actively involved, the efforts of schools and professionals become more effective in parents’ expectations, perceptions, and ideas on their children’s development. It becomes even more crucial when a child has special educational needs.

There are instances when communication between the school teacher, parents, and the school may be quite a task that could lead to information, either being misunderstood, lost, or not communicated. A good use of a group messaging app is to make sure that everyone gets the same information, thereby enhancing communication throughout.

Why Parents Should Be Involved in SEND Education 

Parents give specific perspectives about their child

Although the school sees your child as a student, some members of the school team could only relate to your child through test scores and files. Your observations in the home setting can add to the picture of your child’s functioning at home.

For example, you may find that your kid may have meltdowns in reading homework but be excellent in math. Observations such as this help the team get an overview of your child’s strengths, challenges, and talents. A correct picture of your child’s current abilities enables the school to develop progress.

You have a voice in your child’s education goals

The school should establish measurable annual goals for your child. Your input will help the team to continuously revise those goals so that they will be both attainable and challenging.

Goal setting provides your child’s teachers with targets that they can work towards and these targets are visible to your child. It further ensures that the school is responsible for fulfilling your child’s needs.

You track your child’s services and supports

A specialized agency should offer services that can be adapted to meet a particular child’s needs. Nevertheless, in the case of the busy special education departments, they tend to apply the same set of supports and services for all students with a specific disability. As a parent or caregiver, you can be certain that the education is tailored for your child.

If the promised services and supports are not delivered, follow up with your child’s teachers, the special education director, or anyone else you are comfortable talking to. Seek to work with the school, but failing to try and get the answers and actions that you think are necessary, take further steps.

Being a constant presence

Although your child’s teachers, special education providers, and schools may differ from year to year, you remain a permanent presence in your child’s life. Your lasting presence enables you to offer a long-term view.

Remember: Even if you may not think of yourself as an expert in special education, you certainly are an expert in understanding your child.

Addressing your child’s needs is not always easy to do. Learning about the special education services available for your child will boost your confidence. While it may take time, continual information gathering and asking questions en route to the benefits for your child should be worth the effort.

How Schools Can Make Parents More Engaged

Don’t underestimate the impact of sending positive messages

Too often, parents of children with special education needs (SEN) get communication that is solely centred on their child’s academic troubles or behavioural problems. These discouraging words can undermine the credibility between parents and the school, resulting in no engagement on the part of parents and unwillingness to be approached by staff.

To mitigate this, communicate positive news about the kids. Rather than focus only on academic difficulties or behavioural issues, work towards committing to communicating the successes and progress their child is making. Sending messages regularly about the child’s accomplishments, maybe with some examples of their work samples, assures that the school is doing a good job in supporting the child’s success.

Sending important documents

Through a messaging app, which serves to transmit Individual Education Plans (IEPs) to parents, one gets the advantage of access at any time and place. This digital approach gets rid of the risk of a paper copy getting lost, as the IEPs can be sent as PDF file attachments in the texts. Specific reports may also be relayed through messaging, thus parents are always well-informed about different plans in place to assist their children in school. Furthermore, the provision of such documents also serves to improve communication between parents and teachers.

Enhancing consistency and communication

Behaviour charts and files with pre and post-learning tasks can also be sent through a messaging app, strengthening other consistency between school and home. It ensures that parents are partners in guiding and strengthening the children’s learning at home.

Messaging outside school hours

Although arranging outside the school-time messages may seem a bit strange, it can be quite useful. For SEN children who are poorly adapted to change, parents are informed in advance of a teacher’s absence using a message with details that there is a substitute. This proactive approach enables parents to deal better with their child’s anxiety.

Efficient parents’ evening bookings

Using a messaging app to create an online parents’ evening booking system enables parents to make and control their appointments effectively. This simplified process ensures rapid and easy interaction with all parents of SEN pupils of the school which saves lots of time in organizing parents’ evening meetings.