How to Hold Effective Parent Conferences
As a special educator, you will most probably hold parent conferences several times during the school year. Having a positive conference will tend to have the parents be more supportive and involved with their child’s work and performance in school. Successful parent conferences also send a positive message to the students that the school and home are working together.
An important skill for special educators is their ability to hold positive parent conferences. Many times parents will leave a conference having been “bombarded” with jargon and statistics and understand nothing. According to Pierangelo (2004), effectively reporting results of classroom activities, experiences, performance etc. may be accomplished in the following ways:
1) You will want to make sure that you do not get caught in discussing the issues with the parent on the phone when you go to make the appointment for the conference. Many times, a parent’s anxiety will make them aggressive in wanting to know everything “right now.” This is not suggested and what you will need to do is reassure them that all their concerns and questions will be addressed at the meeting. Just gently say that the type of information that you have is better explained and understood in person. If you sense further anxiety, try to reassure the parent that you will meet as soon as possible. It is important to visually see the parent/s so that you can further explain areas in which they seem confused or uncomfortable. The face to face contact also makes the conference a more human approach. Hearing results from our doctor over the phone may not be as comforting as in person. This is especially true when working with students with learning disabilities, since a great deal of academic anxiety may already exist on the part of the parents.
2) Make the parent/s feel comfortable and at ease by setting up a receptive environment. If possible, hold the meeting in a pleasant setting. Whenever possible, use a round table, or any table instead of your desk, and offer some type of refreshment to ease possible tension of the situation.
3) It may be helpful to refresh the parent’s memory about the areas on their student’s IEP that have been identified as being in need of attention.
4) Go over strength areas first, no matter how few there may be. You can also report positive classroom comments, and any other information that may help set the tone for acceptance of problem areas.
5) Provide a typed outline of any classroom test scores, grades, and group achievement test results for the parent to take with them. It looks more professional if this information is typed and may help alleviate problems that may occur when parents go home and share the information with their spouses.
6) It is strongly suggested that you provide a key to any terminology that may be communicated to parents that may cause confusion. If you are discussing test results, explain in simple terms any statistical terms you may be using, e.g., percentiles, stanines, standard scores, etc. In fact, it may be a good idea to define these on the same sheet with the scores so that parents have a key when they go back and review them.
7) Often parents will try to memorize the entire parent conference. This is a problem since much of what is actually said may be erroneously communicated to the other parent who may not have attended the meeting. Therefore, it is wise to offer parents a pad and pen so that they can write down information, terms or notes during the meeting. Further, let them know that they should feel free to call you with any questions or concerns that they may arise after they go home.
8) When you plan the conference make sure that you leave yourself enough time for issues that might arise out of the parent’s anxiety. Put aside a sufficient amount of time for conferences that you may foresee as being difficult. Challenging types of conferences are not ones in which you want to run out of time. The parents should leave in a natural manner, rather than feeling rushed.
9) Take time to explain the differences between symptoms and problems. This explanation can go a long way in alleviating a parent’s frustration. Parents will need to understand that behaviors like avoidance, procrastination, resistance, difficulty getting started with homework, incomplete assignments etc. may be symptoms of a problem i.e. learning disability, fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of criticism.
10) It is helpful for parents to hear how the problems or areas of concern you found were contributing to the symptoms in the classroom and at home. It is reassuring for parents to know that what they were seeing were only symptoms, even though they may have been quite intense, and that the problems have been identified and recommendations are available. Offer them as much realistic hope as possible by giving them a plan of what you will attempt to do to remediate the weaknesses, and what they can do at home to help.
11) Be as practical and specific as possible when offering suggestions on how parents can help at home. Offer them printed sheets with step-by-step procedures for any recommendation that you make. Parents should not be teachers and should never be given general recommendations that require their interpretation. (, e.g., “provide positive reinforcement”). This may aggravate an already tense situation at home. Offer them supportive and educational materials that they can use with their child, providing them insight into helping them create success
How to Prepare for the Triennial Process
One of the responsibilities for the special education teacher may be involvement in the triennial evaluation (a complete and updated evaluation required every three years for all children classified as having a disability by the Eligibility Committee). This is a very important phase of the special education process because it reviews the factors that accounted for the child’s classification and placement.
There are several phases to the triennial evaluation that may involve many staff members from a variety of disciplines. The objectives for the special education teacher in the triennial evaluation include the following:
1. To retest the child’s achievement skill areas.
2. To retest the child’s perceptual skill areas.
3. To analyze the results and compare the similarities in patterns to past evaluation results
4. To write a detailed and comprehensive updated report of the findings that will be shared with the Committee on Special Education as well as the staff and parents.
5. To participate in the annual review meeting (a required yearly meeting for all classified students at which time the child’s classification and educational placement are reviewed) and discuss the results in order to help the Committee on Special Education make a decision on continuation of classification and services or declassification (an option by the Eligibility Committee when the classified child no longer requires special education services to maintain success in mainstream classes)
6. To share the results with parents
7. To help interpret and analyze achievement and perceptual test results that may be submitted from outside agencies or professionals pertinent to the triennial evaluation of a specific child. This can occur if the parent chooses an independent evaluation.
It should be noted that a new release for testing involving a triennial evaluation is not required by law. The school may proceed with this process without a new release but must inform the parents that the process will be taking place. An example of that communication to parents might look like this:
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PARENT NOTICE OF TRIENNIAL EVALUATION
To Parents/Guardian of:______________________________________
Date:_____________
Dear Parents,
Please be advised that the Committee on Special Education has arranged for a comprehensive re-evaluation of your child that, according to state regulations, is required every three years.
The school psychologist will be available to review all the results with you when the re-evaluation is completed. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call the school psychologist or me.
A Statement of Parents’ Rights is enclosed for your information.
Sincerely,
The re-evaluations to be done are:
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During the triennial process, you will need to be aware that parents have certain rights. Become familiar with these rights since you will undoubtedly be asked from time to time and should always make sure parents are provided with these rights prior to the triennial evaluation. This is part of their due process rights. An example of a statement of parent’s rights appears below:
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STATEMENT OF PARENT’S RIGHTS
Dear Parent(s):
It is important that you be aware of, and understands, that you have the following rights in accordance with Section ___ of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education:
1. To inspect all school files, records, and reports pertaining to your child. Such reports shall be available for duplication at reasonable cost.
2. To obtain an independent educational evaluation at public expense if you disagree with the evaluation obtained by the school district. However, the school district may initiate a hearing to show that its evaluation is appropriate. Such services may be obtained at:
3. To obtain free or low cost legal services at no cost to the school district. Such services may be obtained at:
4. To appeal the recommendations of the Committee on Special Education and request, in writing, an impartial formal hearing to determine the appropriateness of the proposed placement to change the program.
The impartial formal hearing will be conducted in accordance with the following rules:
- The board of education or trustees shall appoint an impartial hearing officer to conduct the hearing. The hearing officer shall be authorized to administer oaths and to issue subpoenas in connection with the administrative proceedings before him/her.
- A written or electronic verbatim record of the proceedings before the hearing officer shall be maintained and made available to the parties.
- At all stages of the proceeding, where required, interpreters of the deaf, or interpreters fluent in the dominant language of pupil’s home shall be provided at district expense.
- The impartial hearing officer shall preside at the hearing and shall provide all parties an opportunity to present evidence and testimony.
- The parties to the proceeding may be represented by legal counsel or individuals with special knowledge or training with respect to the problems of children with disabilities, and may be accompanied by other persons of their choice.
- Unless a surrogate parent shall have previously been assigned, the impartial hearing officer shall determine whether the interests of the parent are opposed to or inconsistent with those of the child, or whether for any other reason the interests of the child would best be protected by assignment of surrogate parent, and, where he so determines, the impartial hearing officer shall designate a surrogate parent to protect the interests of such child.
- The hearing shall be closed to the public unless the parent requests an open hearing.
- The parents, school authorities, and their respective counsel or representative, shall have an opportunity to present evidence and to confront and question all witnesses at that hearing. Each party shall have the right to prohibit the introduction of any evidence the substance of which has not been disclosed to such party at least five days before the hearing.
- The parents shall have the right to determine whether the child shall attend the hearing.
- The impartial hearing officer shall render a decision, and mail a copy of the decision to the parents and to the board of education, not later than 45 calendar days after the receipt by the board of education of a request for a hearing or after the initiation of such hearing by the board. The decision of the impartial hearing officer shall be based solely upon the record of the proceeding before the impartial hearing officer, and shall set forth the reasons and the factual basis for the determination. The decision shall also include a statement of such a decision by the commissioner in accordance with subdivision ___ of the hearing officer, the board of education shall mail a copy of such decision, after deleting any personally identifiable information, to the Office of Children with Handicapping Conditions, State Education Department, for the use of the State advisory panel.
- A review of the decision of a hearing officer rendered in accordance with subdivision___ of this section may be obtained by an appeal to the commissioner. The written decision of the commissioner, a copy of which will be mailed to the parent and board of education, shall be final.
The triennial review is required to be completed no later than 3 years from the previous date of testing. Therefore it is important to maintain an updated list each year of all students that will be up for a triennial evaluation that year. Begin early enough so that you meet the deadlines in the law. Beginning early will never be a problem. However, being late could create some concern from administrators as well as parents.
While the special education teacher is updating the child’s achievement and perceptual levels, other professional may be involved in the triennial evaluation as well. This may include the psychologist, speech and language therapist, nurse teacher, social worker, guidance counselor, classroom teacher/s and parents. If you are designated as the Case Manager for this process refer to the following checklist to ensure that all the necessary materials are included in the final packet. The entire triennial packet is outlined in the following form:
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TRIENNIAL REVIEW -REQUIRED MATERIALS
CHECK OFF
Evaluations
_____________________-NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION(S)
_____________________-NEW PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL EVALUATION
_____________________-NEW SPEECH/LANGUAGE EVALUATION(S) – IF APPLICABLE
_____________________-OUTSIDE REPORTS – IF APPLICABLE
Academic data
_____________________-MOST RECENT REPORT CARD
_____________________-CLASSROOM TEACHERS REPORTS
Developmental data
_____________________-NEW SOCIAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY FORM
Other Required Information and Procedures
_____________________- PARENT LETTER OF TRIENNIAL REVIEW SENT
_____________________-MEDICAL UPDATE
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