Pneparatign of Special Educators to Work with Parents

Abstract

Legal mandates requiring collaboration between special educators and parents have resulted in a need for preservice teacher training in a variety of skills to facilitate this partnership. Two surveys were developed to detemine the extent of preparation offered by institutions of higher education and to assess the perceived needs of inservice teachers for these skills. Results indicate a majority of special education departments offer a course on working with parents, though only a small number of inservice teachers have taken such a course. Considerable agreement was found between current course content and what teachers believe should be included. Finally, training in working with parents is significantly correlated with teachers' reported level of confidence in their ability to communicate effectively with parents.