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PARENT ADVOCATES - Coggle Diagram
PARENT ADVOCATES
GROUP 1: A CASE STUDY OF FOSTER PARENT WORKING TO SUPPORT A CHILD WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES IN A FULL-TIME VIRTUAL SCHOOL
Discussion
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Implication for Policy
Policies that support parents in making informed school choices seem to require schools to provide clear, accurate information about the true nature of their particular online setting and how the virtual school is structured.
Implication for Practice
Gladys perceived that virtual school officials had foregone conclusions about what should be expected of students with special needs.
Introduction The purpose of this case study was to learn how a foster parent of a student with a disability in a fully online virtual middle school program perceived the school’s response to her child’s needs, as well as how she imagined that the school perceived her. This foster mother determined that virtual school educators could not educate her son in accordance with IDEA. The study offers implications for improving students' and parents’ virtual school experiences.
Conclusion
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Parents have fears and beliefs with evidence by their experience about how schools feel, about serving them and although traditional schools have behaved in untoward ways that caused parents to leave them, virtual schools may not universally be a superior situation for all students.
If virtual schools are going to expand and increase in quality as a viable learning option for all students, virtual educators should acknowledge those parents’ experiences and beliefs and work harder to do right by them
Findings
- Online Academy is not serious about accommodating students with
disabilities.
- Throughout the interview, she referred to her son as unable to do his work without constant assistance. She indicated that she understands teachers may be prevented from making curricular adjustments for students with special needs by the school or state policy. Her perception is supported by descriptions of the lack of accommodations and supplemental aids and services.
Online Academy expects grade level performance regardless of individual
needs.
。Gladys perceived that school officials thought her son should
perform at grade level to remain in the school.
Gladys should be the primary service provider.
Gladys consistently expressed a perception that school officials believed that she is best suited to work with Derek and that she should do so regardless of her skills or training.
GROUP 2: Parents’ voices: ‘why and how we advocate’. A metasynthesis of parents’ experiences of advocating for their child with autism spectrum disorder
Introduction
The experience of parenting a child with autism can be
overwhelming. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is represented
by a continuum of complex neurological and developmental
disorders characterized by deficits in reciprocal social interac-
tion and communication, and accompanied by repetitive and
stereotyped interests and behaviours (Karst & Van Hecke 2012).
Findings
- Parents described advocacy as a coping
strategy—being able to take action moved them on from the
initial period of shock and emotional upheaval following
diagnosis.
- service providers need to value
parents’ advocacy role and the importance of the personal and
societal benefits. They need to allow for opportunities for
advocacy to occur, enabling parents to be part of the decision-
making process, while supporting them in overcoming barriers to advocacy.
- the societal benefits of parental advocacy need to be
recognized and supported by service providers. Service
providers need to understand the complexity and intensity of
the parental experience—being a life-long challenge, all-
encompassing, exhausting and continually changing.
Conclusion
This review, emphasizing the need for service providers to have an understanding of the advocating role of parents and making opportunity for parents’ voices to be heard during service delivery.
GROUP 3: Outcomes of the Parent Advocacy Initiative in child safety conferences:
Placement and repeat maltreatment
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Results
New York City ACS Parent Advocacy Initiative in Initial Child Conferences suggests that the inclusion of a parent advocate in the initial child safety conferences promotes a family- centered practice that leads to decrease out of home placement.
Results provide preliminary evidence that parent partner programs in the initial stages of child welfare involvement can prevent child removals from home and encourage the use of kinship placement, when removal is inevitable.
Future studies should further examine parent partner programs using a randomized controlled trial, whenever possible, while assessing model fidelity and sustainability of outcomes to moves the program towards becoming ab evidence- based practice.
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