| Factors that may influence parents' or caregivers' dissatisfaction with their child's special education program | Possible response |
| Family and parenting-related factors |
| Grief |
- It can be hard for parents/caregivers to accept that their child is not developing successfully or is making only slow progress. They may voice frustration with their child's school team when, in fact, they are struggling to accept their child's disability.
| - Help parents/caregivers to create realistic expectations, by asking:
- "Has anyone helped you to understand how quickly your child is supposed to be able to make progress? Who could help us create realistic expectations for your child?"
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| Parenting a child with a disability is challenging |
- Parents/caregivers may voice frustration with their child's school team when they are struggling with their parenting responsibilities.
- Having a child with a disability usually requires more patient parenting.
- It is harder for children with disabilities to manage daily routines or find friends.
- Parents/caregivers may not experience the feelings of success that other parents do as their children grow and thrive.
- Parents/caregivers may receive unwelcome feedback about their parenting practices.
| - Acknowledge the challenges of parenting a child with disability and ask if they have anyone who can help.
- Provide positive feedback for even small successes (eg, tasks and activities in the home and community).
- Suggest resources to support parents/caregivers.
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| Communication factors |
| Parents/caregivers may voice dissatisfaction about their communication with school teams |
- Communication may be infrequent if children attend large schools.
- School communication may be perceived by the family as being overly bureaucratic, procedure driven, or inaccurate.
- The school team may not recognize or feel it is their place to identify and address the challenges of parenting a child who is developing differently, especially as the student ages into high school.
- The school team may not appreciate how stressful it is for the family to have to wait for the results of testing.
- The school team may not recognize how confusing the legal and procedural jargon can be to the family.
- The school team may communicate less frequently or less effectively if they interpret the family's concern about and advocacy for their child as being overly "demanding" or "difficult."
| - Remind the family that the school's priority is to serve the needs of students rather than families and that the schools must address the needs of many children.
- Encourage the parents/caregivers to bring a communication partner (eg, grandparent or other family member, hired advocate) to team meetings. The communication partner can:
- Help the family develop a list of questions and make sure that all questions are answered.
- Reduce the burden on the parent(s)/caregiver(s) to communicate successfully in a context that may be emotionally charged.
- A telephone call from the primary care provider can help the school team know that the parents/caregivers are struggling and wish to collaborate and can encourage the school team to respond to the parents'/caregivers' concerns.
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| Educational factors |
- The parents/caregivers may believe their child's disability was not evaluated comprehensively enough.
| - Help the parents/caregivers to obtain a formal second opinion.
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- The parents/caregivers may be concerned that the services offered by the school are not effective in addressing all of their child's needs – this is particularly true if parents/caregivers have not had a chance to express their concerns and if the school teams have not taken the time to address the parents'/caregivers' concerns (whether or not the services are appropriate).
| - Help parents/caregivers to appreciate that understanding a child's disability and planning a program that addresses all of the student's needs takes time and professional expertise.
- Encourage parents/caregivers to get to know the professionals involved in their child's care. Over time and through repeated exposure to teachers, therapists, evaluations, etc, they will gain experience to better understand all of the facets of their child's disability.
- Help parents/caregivers to focus on choosing educational goals and objectives to address the child's area(s) of need (eg, reading, writing, math); this will determine which professionals are needed, which methods should be used, how often the services should be provided, and where the student's education should occur.
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| Legal factors |
- Schools may fail to follow the procedural safeguards as mandated by law; for example, by not adhering to the following timelines:
- Responding to the parent's request for testing within the state-specified time frame.
- Completing the evaluation within 60 calendar days* of obtaining the parent's permission.
- Meeting to discuss an outside evaluation (including documentation delivered by a primary care provider) within 10 business days to "consider" whether to implement the recommendations in the student's program.
- Meeting yearly to review and revise the IEP.
- Completing a reevaluation of the student's profile every 3 years ("triennial evaluation").
| - It can be difficult to work with school teams who are unable or unwilling to follow procedural safeguards as required by law. The State Board of Education should be informed when procedural safeguards are not followed.
- Any proposal for special education services that does not respect procedural safeguards automatically is considered to not fulfill the requirements of a FAPE. Schools seriously compromise their legal standing when they do not follow procedural safeguards.
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- Schools may fail to deliver a FAPE:
- Schools are legally required to offer a FAPE, although (aside from procedural safeguards) there is no legal definition of what constitutes a FAPE. A FAPE for a given student depends upon research-based educational standards, evidence-based practices, and professional and local standards, as well as meeting legal requirements, such as the procedural safeguards discussed above.
- The decision about whether an IEP offered by a school meets the criteria for a FAPE requires a substantial amount of knowledge and expertise and is usually determined by a group of professionals in education, clinical specialties, and the law.
- In cases where a family and school team come to mediation or to a special education hearing, the mediator or hearing officer will review documentation from all of the specialists involved in the student's education and care in making a determination of what constitutes a FAPE.
- The successful delivery of a FAPE for any given student is ultimately determined through consensus and by a variety of clinical and educational professionals.
| - Make sure that the family has quality information about the nature of the child's disability and the types of educational or therapeutic objectives that the child should work toward.
- Advocate with the school on the child's behalf or refer the family to an advocate or lawyer with expertise in special education if the family is able to hire one.
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