Alison Zagona | University of New Mexico (original) (raw)
Phone: 5052771587
Address: 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
MSC 05 3040
less
Uploads
Conference Presentations by Alison Zagona
Papers by Alison Zagona
Families should be an active part of educational decision-making for their children and can be pa... more Families should be an active part of educational decision-making for their children and can be particularly influential in advocating for inclusion for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Yet, significant research has shown that parents do not feel schools effectively collaborate with them. We interviewed 19 parents of children with disabilities to investigate the ways they were included and excluded from educational decision-making, and how they decided on their children’s placement and services. Five themes emerged: parents’ exclusion from decision-making, parents’ independent efforts to shape their children’s educational services, parents’ decisions as a result of school and district factors, parents’ role changes to direct their children’s education, and discrepancies between beliefs and experiences of inclusion. Parents’ responses indicate that specific school structures and institutionalized procedures may regularly exclude parents from decision-making. Results have implications for parent-professional partnership during decision-making for students with disabilities and personnel preparation.
Families should be an active part of educational decision-making for their children and can be pa... more Families should be an active part of educational decision-making for their children and can be particularly influential in advocating for inclusion for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Yet, significant research has shown that parents do not feel schools effectively collaborate with them. We interviewed 19 parents of children with disabilities to investigate the ways they were included and excluded from educational decision-making, and how they decided on their children’s placement and services. Five themes emerged: parents’ exclusion from decision-making, parents’ independent efforts to shape their children’s educational services, parents’ decisions as a result of school and district factors, parents’ role changes to direct their children’s education, and discrepancies between beliefs and experiences of inclusion. Parents’ responses indicate that specific school structures and institutionalized procedures may regularly exclude parents from decision-making. Results have implications for parent-professional partnership during decision-making for students with disabilities and personnel preparation.