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HLP 3: Collaborate with Families to Support Student Learning and Secure Needed Services

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HLP 3: Collaborate with Families to Support Student Learning and Secure Needed Services

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1. Wraparound Approach to Services

The Wraparound Approach is a team-based method that brings support to children and families within their own communities, especially helpful for kids with emotional or behavioral needs.

Personalized Plans: Services are tailored to each child’s strengths.

Family-Driven: Families are key partners in planning and decisions, making sure support fits their values and culture.

Community-Based Support: Help is provided in the child’s home, school, or local setting and not in an isolated places.

(Cohen et. al, 2006)

2. Family Support and Education

Helping families is a proven way to support children with emotional or behavior challenges. It works best when schools and communities involve families as partners in planning and support.

Programs should match the family’s values and culture.

When families are part of the process, kids do better in school, at home, and in the community.

Families understand their child’s needs at home and can help connect the school with the community.

Benefits of involving families include:

Better grades and test scores

More classes passed and credits earned

Fewer absences

Improved behavior

Stronger social and school skills

(Cohen et. al, 2006)

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“What, How, Who” Planning Strategy

What: Decide what content to teach, like main topics, goals, or standards. The teacher who knows the subject best can lead this part.

How: Choose how will the material be taught? Decide which co-teaching methods will work best, like parallel teaching or one teaching while the other supports.

Who: Identify which students may need extra support or adjustments. The special education teacher often helps guide this part.

(Da Fonte & Barton-Arwood, 2017)

Using Fact Sheets to Help Teachers Support Students

Teachers don’t always have the same training as special education teachers. It is important to help bridge those gaps, by making short helpful fact sheets.

Disability fact sheets explain students' disabilities and how to support them in class.

Academic content sheets help special ed teachers understand what’s being taught and how it’s organized.

Student fact sheets describe individual students’ strengths and needs.

IEP fact sheets make key IEP details clear, like needed supports and accommodations.

(Da Fonte & Barton-Arwood, 2017)

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HLP 2: Organize and Facilitate Effective Meeting with Professionals and Families

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HLP 2: Organize and Facilitate Effective Meeting with Professionals and Families

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1. Pre-Meeting Planning

Brainstorm ideas and communicate and have all team members contribute to the IEP.

Parents and other team members should share ideas about the student's strengths, needs, and goals beforehand. This allows everyone to process information and feel fully involved in the decision-making process.

(Diliberto & Brewer, 2012)

2. Establishing and Following Ground Rules

Ground rules give IEP team members clear guidelines for positive communication during the meeting and encourage good interactions.

Rules often include:

Communicating clearly and listening carefully.

Asking and welcoming questions for clarification.

Respecting others' views.

Sharing views willingly.

Being open to different ideas.

Focusing on future planning, not dwelling on the past.

Keeping a "person-centered planning" focus can further improve communication throughout the IEP meeting

(Diliberto & Brewer, 2012)

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Seeds of Partnership – Family Empowerment Centers

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Seeds of Partnership – Family Empowerment Centers

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Family Empowerment Centers help parents and families of kids with disabilities (ages 3 to 22) by offering support, training, and info on navigating special education and services. Seeds of Partnership, backed by the California Department of Education, helps these centers with coordination and resources so families feel more confident and connected. Each center offers different services depending on the local community’s needs.

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Seeds of Partnership - Family Empowerment Centers

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Family Empowerment Centers (FECs) provide training and information to families of children and young adults with disabilities, between the ages of 3 and 22 in California. These nonprofit organizations offer specialized training, peer-to-peer support, information and referral services. They aim to assist parents to better understand their child’s educational and developmental needs, effectively communicate with […]

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ACCESS is a guide designed to help students with disabilities, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, prepare for independent living, work, and life after school. Originally created by California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI), it offers tailored resources for students, parents, and teachers, including tools that support learning and life skills.

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The principles outlined in person-first language emphasize respectful and inclusive communication, which is essential when collaborating with fellow educators, service providers, and families. By using language that centers students as individuals rather than by their disabilities, professionals build stronger, more empathetic partnerships that support shared decision-making and promote student success.

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The image highlights the difference between equality and equity, showing that equal treatment doesn’t always lead to equal outcomes. Professionals must collaborate to provide differentiated support that meets each student's unique needs, just like adjusting the number of boxes so everyone can see the game. This shared commitment ensures every student has a fair opportunity to succeed.

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When general and special education teachers work together, students do better. By sharing ideas and planning as a team, they can make sure every student gets the help they need to succeed in school. This is exactly what HLP 1 is all about, working with others to help students do their best.

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Tips for Enhancing Workplace Communication

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Tips for Enhancing Workplace Communication

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The document outlines 20 practical tips for improving workplace communication, including listening actively, using respectful language, asking for feedback, and avoiding assumptions. It emphasizes the value of clear, empathetic exchanges and strategies like paraphrasing, clarifying, and reflecting to ensure understanding. Strong communication helps build trust and collaboration, making teams more effective and supportive.

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This document focuses on making sure everyone, teachers, specialists, and families, is on the same page during IEP meetings. It highlights the importance of sharing information clearly, including families in decisions, and using language that is understandable and transparent so everyone stays informed. Avoiding acronyms is also key. It’s all about teamwork and building trust.

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The National Center on Educational Outcome (NCEO) Accommodations Toolkit helps teachers and school staff work better together when planning supports for students with disabilities. It gives easy-to-understand information about what kinds of accommodations are helpful and what’s allowed in different states. This way, everyone on the team can make smart, informed choices to help students do their best

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The National Center on Educational Outcome's (NCEO's) Accommodations Toolkit provides easy-to-use summaries of the academic research literature on specific accommodations for students with disabilities as well as policy analyses.

The Accommodations Toolkit is organized by accommodation (e.g., tactile graphics, braille, test breaks, extended time, etc.), with a research fact sheet for each accommodation. The toolkit also includes a policy analysis that summarizes how each accommodation was included in states' accessibility policies. The resources in the toolkit are designed to support the work of state education agencies, but may also be helpful to technical assistance providers, researchers, and others. Individualized Education Program (IEP) team members should refer to their state's policy when making decisions about a student's assessment accommodations.

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This video focuses on how educators can work together to shift their mindset from fixing student “deficits” to identifying and removing barriers in the learning environment. That kind of teamwork This kind of collaborative mindset can help educators to create an environment where every student can do their best.

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Removing the Barriers: Planning for ALL!

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Web.diffit.me helps teachers and school staff work together by making reading materials easier to use for different students. It lets you change the reading level of a passage, so everyone on the team can share the same content in a way that fits each student’s needs. This makes planning and teaching as a team a lot smoother.

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Use existing curriculum, or generate standards-aligned content with real, cited sources.

Choose a grade level and language, and watch Diffit create complete, differentiated resources. ✅

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Use existing curriculum, or generate standards-aligned content with real, cited sources. Choose a grade level and language, and watch Diffit create complete, differentiated resources. ✅

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This tool offers a clear list of classroom and testing accommodations that can help team members understand what supports are available for students with disabilities. When professionals have a shared resource like this, it makes it easier to plan together, align strategies, and make sure students get the help they need.

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Accommodations and Modifications in Inclusive Classrooms

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Video: How to Create Strengths-based IEPs?

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Video: How to Create Strengths-based IEPs?

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This video highlights how IEP meetings can be more positive by focusing on what students are good at, not just what they struggle with. It shows how teachers and families can use a student’s strengths to make better plans and goals.

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Special Education

Jim Stovall, International Humanitarian Award recipient and Olympic athlete, once said of teamwork, "You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins." For general education and special education teachers, the "everybody wins" payoff [...]

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Create a well-written IEP with a well-executed process. Shift your mindset from focusing on a deficit-based approach to a strengths-based approach

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Advocating for Your Child with Special Needs

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Advocating for Your Child with Special Needs

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This guide helps families learn how to speak up for their child in a confident and respectful way. It shows parents how to prepare for meetings, learn about special education laws, and build strong communication with teachers and school teams. When families feel informed and involved, they can work better with educators to get the right support and services for their child.

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Advocating for Your Child with Special Needs

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This guide explains how to plan and lead strong team meetings that include both school staff and families. It gives clear steps like setting a goal, using a meeting agenda, and making sure everyone understands the student data, so the meeting stays focused and productive. This approach creates a positive and organized space.

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This website shares tips to help IEP meetings go more smoothly, especially when people don’t agree. It talks about things like staying calm, listening to others, and using clear language, so that meetings feel respectful and focused on what’s best for the student. These ideas can help to create a safe and productive space.

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Collaborative and productive IEP meetings lay the foundation for better student outcomes-but with so many complicated and emotionally charged decisions involved, the meeting room can feel like a minefield. Before clashing opinions, unspoken resentments, and miscommunications upend your IEP meeting, try these tips from seasoned conflict resolution specialist Nicholas Martin.

In his book A Guide to Collaboration for IEP Teams, Martin offers tons of great strategies for making your collaborative IEP process more peaceful and productive. Ten of his tips are excerpted and adapted below. Use them at your next meeting and share them with your fellow team members as you work together to create A-plus IEPs for your students.

Clear up jargon and acronyms. If a team member starts using jargon that a parent, for example, might not understand, resentment can start to simmer. Clear up jargon, but be careful not to single the parent out and ask if they need help understanding. Instead, ask for clarity yourself; try saying something like, "Excuse me, I just want to be sure I understand those acronyms the same way you do. Can you rephrase that for me in everyday terms?" or "It would really help me to hear those acronyms in everyday terms. Could I trouble you to repeat that last part again in different words?"

As Nicholas Martin points out, "nobody wins unless everybody wins" in IEP meetings. Try these suggestions to help make your next IEP a win/win for everyone-and for more in-depth guidance on effective IEP meeting management and conflict resolution, check out A Guide to Collaboration for IEP Teams.

Like these ideas? Here's a condensed version in tweetable/pinnable/shareable format.

Next time conflict arises in an IEP meeting, try these 15 phrases that show support of fellow team members' feelings.

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Collaborative and productive IEP meetings lay the foundation for better student outcomes-but with so many complicated and emotionally charged decisions involved, the meeting room can feel like a minefield. Before clashing opinions, unspoken resentments, and miscommunications upend your IEP meeting, try these tips from seasoned conflict resolution specialist Nicholas Martin.

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This website explains how to make IEP meetings better by focusing on the student’s goals, strengths, and what they want for their future. It shows how families and school staff can work together, listen to each other, and make a plan that really fits the student’s needs.

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At too many IEP meetings, educators focus on student deficits. They get stuck when it comes time to explore a student's strengths. Educators and families alike wonder why these meetings are tense and difficult.

Families are constantly fighting to discover and create inclusive spaces for their loved ones. IEP meetings should already be inclusive and safe for students with disabilities but they're traditionally difficult for teachers, families, and students. Hosting inclusive person-centered IEP meetings is crucial to a student's long-term success.

What Is a Person-Centered IEP?

IEPs, or Individualized Education Plans, are meant to be documents supporting the development of a student with disabilities. Required by law under IDEA ( Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), an IEP should track students' success in achieving learning goals. It also documents what services the student needs to succeed.

IDEA states that all children, with or without disabilities, have the right to an appropriate, free, and public education that meets the student's needs. Because of the requirement of an appropriate education, parents and educators meet to discuss student performance and goals.

To make an IEP person-centered, it is important to include students. From there, educators can develop plans based on the students' vision of their future. Read more for 3 ways families and teachers can put an inclusive person-centered IEP into practice.

No IEP meeting is easy. Working together with understanding and compassion can make the process better though.

Teachers can start by interviewing the family about how past meetings went. What could have been better? What conversations went well? This interview is all about how you can help increase positivity throughout the process.

For families, supporting your child's school team is important too. Try to spend some time reflecting on your past experiences. What do you need to feel secure about your student's education? Be clear and upfront with the education team and have goals of your own as your enter the room.

Remember why you are all at this meeting: to support and advocate for the student. Family members' main goal is to advocate for their loved one. But don't forget, as a family member, you can advocate for educators too. Schools, especially special education programs, need to be fully funded; teachers need to be paid living wages; and resources have to be allocated to support these goals.

Teachers can advocate for their students in the classroom, but don't forget to continue advocating the classroom. Have conversations with adults who live with disabilities - what is their daily life like? Teachers can also support the development of self-advocacy skills in their students. Read more about 3 ways you can teach self-advocacy skills to your students.

Practice Self-Determined Transition Planning

For this tip, teachers and family members can work together. Focus on the student. This may sound simple, but it is actually a much more involved process. Educators can focus on teaching students how to create their own measurable goals. Once the student understands the concept of self-determination, move on to helping them map out their dreams with action plans.

Families can help at home with these important skills. Bring your child along to their IEP meetings, and allow them to articulate their own future.

None of these solutions are easy to implement. However, both teachers and family members will find that these 3 ways to create an inclusive person-centered IEP will lead to better futures for students with disabilities.

Not an educator or family member? Forward this blog to someone who needs it!

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Create Inclusive Person-Centered IEP - Center For Independent Futures

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At too many IEP meetings, educators focus on student deficits. They get stuck when it comes time to explore a student's strengths. Educators and families alike wonder why these meetings are tense and difficult. Families are constantly fighting to discover and create inclusive spaces for their loved ones.

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This shows how IEP meetings can become more meaningful when IEP team members focus on building relationships and teamwork between school staff and families. Instead of just checking off boxes or following rules and regulations, the article encourages educators to create a welcoming space where everyone’s voice matters, especially the family’s. It shows that when meetings are flexible, open, and centered on the student, they lead to better plans and stronger support for inclusion.

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Exploring the IEP Process from an Inclusive Perspective

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This guide helps schools run smoother and more successful IEP meetings. It offers simple "if/then" scenarios, for example, “If parents aren’t showing up, then ask why and try different ways to include them.” It also gives helpful tips for handling common problems like late meetings, missing staff, or unsigned forms, so that the whole team can stay organized, work together, and keep the focus on supporting the student.

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The article shares how building strong, respectful relationships with families leads to better support for students. It gives practical tips like listening carefully, planning meetings that include everyone, and using clear communication that help families feel valued and involved. When families and educators work together like this, students are more likely to get the services and learning support they need.

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Parent Resources_ The What, Why and How of Inclusive Education

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The Talking Points for Parents helps families understand their rights and how to actively participate in the IEP process. It encourages strong communication between parents and schools, showing that families are essential partners in making sure students get the services they need.

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The Center for Parent Information website gives families easy access to trusted information, tools, and local resources that help them take an active role in their child’s education. It connects parents with training centers and guidance so they can better understand special education services and work closely with school teams. This creates collaboration between families and educators.

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial. Motivational interviewing is a form of therapy that creates a safe, non-judgmental environment for teens to establish their own goals and values and see how changing unhealthy behaviors can benefit them in the long run.

This series of articles comes from the Child Mind Institute, with most available in English and Spanish. Why might teens be resistant to therapy and how can parents and others to help them get the treatment they need? The articles explain how motivational interviewing can help teens gain the self-confidence to make important behavioral changes. To read more about motivational interviewing, and to connect with the articles in both English and Spanish, please visit CPIR's abstract.

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Center for Parent Information and Resources | Your Central Hub for Parent Centers Serving Families of Children With Disabilities

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial.

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Video: Building Better Collaboration Between Families and Schools

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Video: Building Better Collaboration Between Families and Schools

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The "Building Better Collaboration Between Families and Schools" shows how parents and teachers can work together to help students succeed. It explains simple, real-life ways to build trust, listen to families, and set shared goals.

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222: Building Better Collaboration Between Families and Schools

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Read&Write for Google Chrome offers features likes text-to-speech, word prediction, and vocabulary support, Read&Write can be used at home, which opens the door for families to support learning outside of school. Teachers can show parents how to use features like audio playback or picture dictionaries to help with homework. This builds a bridge between school and home.

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Boost reading and writing confidence across all types of content and devices, in class, at work, and at home.

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The Remind app makes it easier for teachers and families to stay connected and work together to support student learning. It allows educators to send quick updates, reminders, and messages in real time, helping families stay informed about assignments, IEP meetings, and student progress.

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Adoption and usage

Simple, effective, and surprisingly easy to use

With nearly 30 million users in 80% of US schools, the numbers speak for themselves: students, families, and educators love using Remind.

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Remind | Communication Platform for Education

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Remind is a communication platform that reaches students and families where they are and supports learning wherever it happens. Millions of educators, students, and parents use Remind to connect with the people and resources that help them teach and learn.

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Google Classroom supports families a clear window into their child’s learning—through assignment updates, teacher feedback, and class announcements. When teachers invite guardians to receive email summaries or post important information, it helps families stay informed and involved in supporting their child’s progress. This ongoing connection builds trust and makes it easier to work together to secure the services and support students need.

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Classroom Management Tools & Resources - Google for Education

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Get started with Google Classroom, a central hub for tools and resources designed to help educators manage classrooms and enrich learning experiences.

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Google Forms and Sheets can make it easy for teachers, specialists, and support staff to collect and share real-time data on student behavior or academic progress. For example, a team can use a shared form to track reading fluency or behavior incidents, then review the data together in Sheets to adjust strategies. This helps everyone stay aligned and make informed decisions based on data. Teachers can provide feedback directly on the Google Forms to make the data collection process smoother and more efficient for everyone.

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Padlet gives educators a shared digital space to brainstorm, plan lessons, and exchange resources in real time. It’s great for teamwork between general education teachers, special educators, and support staff. While Padlet should never be used to post private student information, it’s perfect for sharing general resources that help everyone support students better, without risking confidentiality.

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Calendly can make it easier to schedule meetings that work for both families and professionals, reducing back-and-forth emails and missed connections. Educators can share a link with available time slots, allowing team members and families to choose what works best for them. This helps ensure meetings are timely, well-attended, and more focused on collaboration and student support.

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Free Online Appointment Scheduling Software | Calendly

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Calendly is the modern scheduling platform that makes "finding time" a breeze. When connecting is easy, your teams can get more done.

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TalkingPoints can help educators communicate clearly and consistently with families before and after meetings. It allows teachers to send messages in families’ home languages, making it easier to share meeting times, agendas, and follow-up notes. This builds trust, encourages participation, and ensures that all voices are heard during important planning discussions.

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Otter.ai helps during meetings by writing down what everyone says in real time, like live note-taking. This makes it easier to remember important points and follow up on tasks later. It’s especially helpful for families or team members who missed the meeting or want to review what was discussed, making meetings more organized and inclusive.

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Otter.ai - AI Meeting Note Taker & Real-time AI Transcription

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Otter.ai uses an AI Meeting Assistant to transcribe meetings in real time, record audio, capture slides, extract action items, and generate an AI meeting summary.