Developing parent councils in Delaware: from legislation to implementation
Date
2019
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Parent involvement in education is vital to their children’s success. Parents of students with disabilities have additional challenges understanding the rights, processes, and services involved in special education. Recognizing the struggle of parents and their ability to engage in special education procedures and policies, the Delaware legislature approved the regulation for the establishment of parent councils in June 2015. Accordingly, each district and charter school that enrolls children with disabilities is required to reach out to their parents annually and provide them support for the development of a parent council. Each parent council is charged with advocating for children with disabilities and providing person-to-person support to individual parents and children (14 Delaware Code, 2015). ☐ The Department of Education (DOE) asked the Parent Information Center of Delaware (PICDE) to do a needs assessment to determine the development and function of parent councils throughout the state. Working with PICDE, two surveys were developed on SurveyMonkey (SurveyMonkey, Inc. 2018b, 2018c): one for school administrators and one for parents. The survey links were sent to the director of special services for each school district and the principals of each charter school. These school officials were to distribute the parent survey link or hard copies to their parents of children with special needs. After six weeks, these responses were analyzed, and the findings are included here as PIC Analysis and Summary of the Surveys (See Appendix D), and a short version was prepared for the DOE (See Appendix E). Seeking to assist PICDE in understanding the complexities of implementation of this policy, a literature review (See Appendix H) was conducted on current research in implementation science and research and practices in adult learning, parent training, and parent involvement. ☐ Presenting these research sources emphasizes the challenges of implementing state-wide policy and supports PICDE in planning professional development for PICDE staff. It is intended that this information assists PICDE in developing programs that build parent capacity in advocacy and improve collaboration with the school community. In response to the survey data and the goals that PICDE has for working with parent councils, an instructional PowerPoint presentation was created entitled “Parent Council: Let’s Get Started” to be used in PICDE workshops, webinars, and as an online resource in the “Tool Kit for Parent Councils.”