Creating Partnerships Between Schools and CLD Families

Abstract

Teamwork and partnerships are inextricably related. They are the critical elements necessary for any institution pursuing its vision, achieving its goals, and accomplishing its objectives. For schools, this is especially true, and the makeup of a school's team must include those members of the educational community who are impacted by outcomes resulting from decisions made by the team. While conventional wisdom has the school's principal playing the role of the school team's leader, in fact, the leadership of a school's team is shared by the principal and distributed throughout the educational community, which includes parents. This chapter focuses on the concept of family/school partnerships and the inclusion of parents who are essential members of the leadership team. And, while this applies to parent representatives throughout the school's general population of families, it is critical to ensure that the parents of CLD children are included among the leadership team.