Abstract
Throughout children’s school-aged years, school staff and families embark on an essential partnership with the ultimate objective to ensure students’ needs are met in an enriching learning environment. For students with academic, behavioral, or social-emotional challenges, collaboration with educators is critical to ensure students obtain the necessary supports to access their education. This is particularly essential for families with limited English proficiency or sparse knowledge of the supports available for students with special needs. In these cases, school staff are responsible for including families and providing them with the tools to make informed decisions for their child’s education. The purpose of this project is to provide administrators, teachers, service providers, parents, and students guidance to strengthen partnerships within their school community to facilitate the special education evaluation process. This project will also provide stakeholders with evidence-based strategies and best practices for including parents in developing individualized education programs (IEPs) within a school-based team. Better Together is designed to educate all stakeholders in the components of the special education evaluation process, with emphasis placed on evidence-based strategies for school-based teams to collaborate with families. Additionally, special considerations and resources will be provided for partnering with marginalized groups, including families of foster youth and those with limited English proficiency to empower them as valued participants in their child’s education. A literature review is incorporated in this project to examine the current research on school-family partnerships in order to inform the contents of the Better Together webinar. This project is designed to be utilized by school-based teams seeking to enhance parental involvement and empower and educate families requesting special education evaluations.