Abstract: "In this review, challenges to family-school collaboration and a framework describing how special educators can foster a climate of collaboration with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families of children with moderate to severe disabilities are described. Conditions for collaboration in this circumstance require that educators understand how they, as agents of schools, accept a CLD community's culture, power, and knowledge in the school context and how they align their own values and beliefs, as well as the school's policies and practices, to the communities they serve. Included is a critical analysis of relevant literature through which we identify factors that facilitate school-family collaboration and can be used to guide special educators in identifying practices either fostering or precluding authentic collaboration."
Excerpted headings: "To foster authentic collaboration with CLD families, special educators should do the following:
- Provide CLD families full access to the school and to the people serving their children’s needs.
- Examine collaboration efforts and ensure that all parties share power equally.
- Inform parents of all options available for their children and support family involvement in authentic decision making.
- Establish general education teachers as the point persons in the school-family collaboration." (pp.36-37)