Family and Teacher Roles in Family Engagements in Special Education in Kenya

Abstract

This chapter discusses the family's and teachers' roles in family engagements in special education. Effective family and teacher engagement are essential for building school-family partnerships in supporting a child with a disability to learn. It constitutes the foundation for all other forms of family and school involvement in education. Positive parent-school communications benefit not only the child with disabilities but also the parents as well as the teachers of the child. How schools communicate and interact with parents affects the extent and quality of parents' home involvement with their children's learning. For example, families and schools are obliged to acquire skills that will enable them to support the transition of a child with disabilities from one grade to the next, from school to the job place or society. Parents also benefit from being involved in their children's education by getting ideas from school on how to help and support their children, and by learning more about their child's rights and how it works.